NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JVhV 10, 1839. 



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From the first report made by Mr Colman, there 

 is ample testimony to warrant the assertion that 

 Massachusetts is capable of yielding more than 

 triple the amount of agricultural products which 

 have hitlicrto been obtained. There is not a coun- 

 ty which the commissioner has visited, that has 

 not presented examples of tillage, and experiments 

 in all the branches of New England culture, which 

 fully illustrate the immense advantages that are 

 derivable from a skilful application of science to 

 the practical arts of husbandry. This verified and 

 consequently most useful of all kinds of krowledge, 

 but which has been confined within very limited 

 and far separated circles, will hereafter be as uni- 

 versally possessed, through the medium of the re- 

 ports on each county, as that which has been col- 

 lected and published on every other subject con- 

 nected with human industry ; and the whole, when 

 completed, in the lucid, exact, and satisfactory man- 

 ner in which the first has been presented, wijl, al- 

 lowing for the extent of territory surveyed, foitn the 

 most accurate and valuable agricultural cyclopedia 

 which has appeared in any country. It will in- 

 clude the actual operations of each individual, who 

 has best perfected that portion of rural economy 

 to which his attention had been most exclusively 

 directed, from the nature of the soil, and geograph- 

 ical position as respects a market. 



Hitherto all the publications which have appear- 

 ed on agriculture, have been principally compila- 

 tions from the various treatises that have been 

 written on that all-important subject, since the pe- 

 riod of the illustrious Columella ; and, however la- 

 borious may have been the authors, and ingenious- 

 ly faithful in design, or desirous of producing a 

 work which might the most perfectly subserve the 

 purposes of the region of country for which it was 

 intended, it is notorious to every experienced and 

 well instructed farmer and gardener, that they 

 have invariably failed to accomplish what had been 

 so confiden'tiy anticipated ; and it is evident, to 

 even the most superficial 6"t>sen.'er, that there is no 

 other mode of concentrating in a really useful form 

 the requisite information, for the general guidance 

 of the uninstructed as well a.s expe-ienced culti- 

 vators of the earth, and of enabling them to partic- 

 ipate in the advantages which have been derived 

 from the most approved methods cf conducting the 

 multifarious labors of a farm, than that which has 

 fortunately been undertaken by the goverument of 

 Massachusetts, and which, from what has already 

 been done, we have tlie fullest confidence will be 

 thoroughly executed. Each of the most skilful 

 and enlightened experimentalists, whose results 

 will be given in the reports of. the Agricultural 

 Commissioner, must have consulted the most cele- 

 brated authors, and to some extent taken them as 

 guides, for directing them in their diversified ope- 

 rations ; and the benefits obtained will be at the 

 command of every citizen. 



The agricultural survey is but the continuation 

 and completion of a system, which has been project- 

 ed for obtaining accurate information, as to the 

 physical geography, topography, natural history, 

 and general statistics of the commonwealth. Mas- 

 aachusetts has been the first of all the States in 

 the Union, to cause a correct map to be construct- 

 ed, based on the triangtlation of its whole area, 

 which involves astronomical observations for estab- 



include a whole nation. Happily, however, for the 

 navigation of the United States, the same operation 

 is in progress, under the direction of the national 

 government, for forming complete hydrographical 

 charts of the coast from Passamaquoddy to the Sa- 

 bine. 



Connected with these important labors, a geo- 

 logical survey was undertaken, which has been 

 most ably completed by Professor Hitchcock ; and 

 the other departments of natural history, including 

 the animal and vegetable realms, have been direct- 

 ed to be explored, and the duty has been confided 

 to several scientific gentlemen, from whom may be 

 expected full and interesting accounts of the quad- 

 rupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, insects, and plants 

 which are peculiar to the State. 



These works will be honorable monuments of the 

 enlightened and expanded views of the legislature, 

 reflect lasting honor upon the chief magistrates un- 

 der whose direction they have been so successfully 

 prosecuted, and entitle the enlightened and merito- 

 rious gentlemen who have participated in the very 

 responsible labors, to the respect and gratitude of 

 the present and all future generations. 



We have indulged so far in the general remarks 

 which the very interesting subject of agriculture 

 has suggested, that there is left only suflicient 

 space to commend to the real friends of the country 

 the instructive address which the Agricultural Com- 

 missioner delivered before the assembled yeomanry 

 of several of the interior counties, during the last 

 autumn. It is an impressive appeal to the farmers, 

 urging them strenuously to endeavor to render 

 their condition as prosperous and happy as their 

 pursuits are respectable and important, by renewed 

 efforts in the acquisition of intelligence, and to il- 

 lustrate, by example, how independent arid deserv- 

 ing of the highest consideration are those, who 

 zealously emulate the hardy virtues and rural in- 

 dustry of their adventurous Anglo-Saxon ancestors. 



STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED 

 STATES. 



That the Agriculture of the United States does 

 not, to use a commercial phrase, rank with that of 

 the most favored nations, is perhaps generally ad- 

 mitted ; that it might with proper care be made to 

 do so, does not admit of controversy ; and it may 

 be well to inquire into some of the causes that lead 

 to this state of things. With one of the most fer- 

 tile countries, by nature, on the globe, we do not in 

 the amount of' products ^qual that of some coun- 

 tries much less favored, but which by superior skill 

 in cultivation- have attained a fertility unknown 

 among us. As examples of this, we may name 

 England, Belgium, and part of Germany ; in which 

 the average per acre of the crops is much greater 

 than in the United States, if we except, perhaps, 

 some few of the best cultivated districts. 



In order to determine what should be, it is some- 

 times useful to ascertain what actually is. Esti- 

 mates have been made at different times of the to- 

 tal of agricultural products in this country. Such 

 esti.'flates have no pretensions to exactness ; they 

 are only approximations to the precise quantity ; 

 still, as similar estimates are made in other coun- 

 tries, they may afford the means of comparison, as 

 showing the proportion of production to the popula- 

 tion. The vear 1838 was. on the whole, a favora- 



one hundred millions, and oats at One hundred and] 

 fifty millions of bushels ; we should not probably 

 be far from the truth. Barley does not rank high ' 

 in amount as a cultivated crop, though the quantity 

 produced is annually increasing. The wheat is 

 principally grown in the country north of the Poto-- 

 mac and Ohio, and south of the great lakes. The' 

 corn is produced chiefly in the south, and in the' 

 valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi. Oats are cul- 

 tivated in all sections unless the extreme south ; 

 and are everywhere the principal food of horses, 

 while they are given to cattle, sheep, and swice to 

 a considerable extent. The average crop of wheat 

 on the whole, cannot be estimated per acre at more 

 than eighteen bushels ; corn, thirtyfive bushels ; 

 oat5 the same ; and barley about twenty bushels. 

 This rate will of course vary greatly in dififerent 

 sections. In the States north of the Ohio, the av- 

 erage of corn would perliaps equal or exceed fil"ty 

 bushels to the acre, while in the States south of 

 the Potomac, it has been estimated as low as fif- 

 teen bushels per acre. The difference in the oth- 

 er crops in the several sections of our country 

 would be less, but still it is considerable. 



That these average productions might be greatly 

 increased, does not admit of a question ; that the 

 interests of agriculture demand that such should be 

 the case, is equally clear. By attention to the se- 

 lection of sseds and the preparation of the soil, an 

 addition of ten per cent, to these averages might be 

 readily made ; experience shows that such is the 

 fact; and multitudes of individual instances might 

 be adduced to prove that such has already been 

 done by skilful and intelligent farmers. 



The causes which, in our opinion, have tended 

 more than any others to depress agriculture, and 

 prevent its receiving the attention it demands, as 

 weL as to reduce the profits which should reward 

 the laborer are the following. First, a want of re- 

 spect in the agricultural interest for their own pro- 

 fession. There is a feeling in certain portions of 

 the community, principally those who have done 

 nothing to increase the productive capital of the 

 country themselves, and who may be termed the 

 drones of the social compact, that personal labor is 

 disgraceful, and that the cultivator of the soil is 

 little better than a slave. Strange as it may seem, 

 this feeling may be said to be promoted and per- 

 petuated by the conduct of farmers themselves. 

 There are too many men among us ; men who have 

 good farms and who might employ their sons upon 

 them, with the certainty that honorable competence 

 would be the result; who prefer to see them be- 

 come poor miserable retailers of tape and sugar 

 candy, or second or third rate lawyers, men fit for 

 nothing only to promote litigation, and sow the 

 seeds ■'of strife, and bring into contempt the high 

 principles of right which the law is intended to 

 embody, rather than honest, high-minded, intelli- 

 gent cultivators of tlie soil. For this evil, and it is 

 a serious, one, the remedy is with the farmer. His 

 sons should be well educated, but they should be 

 taught to feel, what in fact is the case, that in the 

 actual dignity and usefulness of their profession, 

 the farmer has few equals and no superior. 



The second cause of the depressed state of agri- 

 culture in the United States, is tlie inattention of 

 farmers in selecting the best breeds of animals for 

 their yards, and the best seeds for planting. In 



