AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



^ 



PUHMSHED BY JOSEPH BRECK ^ CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (.V<=„.cuLTunAL W::;^;;;;;^^ 



voii, xvm.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 4, J830. 



two. 9. 



N. E. FARMER 



MR. WEBSTER'S SPEECH. 



We give in the Farmer of this week the speech 

 of our distinguished senator, Mr Webster, at the 

 triennial National Agricultural Convention of Eng- 

 land. It is sensible, condensed, and strictly ap- 

 proi)riate. The report of it is undoubtedly imper- 

 fect ; but it is characteristic of this eminent man 

 that he uses language always with great precision, 

 and employs no needless circumlocutions or repe- 

 titions ; that what he says is always intelligible to 

 the most common and uneducated mind; tliat he 

 says what he evidently designed to say ; and that 

 which is always worth saying and worth iiearing. 



The compliment wiiich he pay.s to British Agri- 

 culture is particularly^ worthy of remark. "Tjio 

 agriculture of England was instructive to all the 

 world ; as a science it was here better under- 

 stood ; ss an art it was here better practi.sed ; and 

 as a great interest it was here as highly esteemeij 

 as in any other part of the globe." 



We presume this compliment is well deserved. 

 Yet we believe it should be in a measure qualified 

 In productiveness of cultivation, that is to say in 

 getting the greatest amount of product from 'the 

 smallest quantity of land, we suppose that the Fleii- 

 sh are preeminent above all other people. In sc:- 

 >ntific agriculture, in the application of chemi." I 

 fcicnce to Uie cultivation of the earth, and in exper- 

 ments upon various manures, wo suppose the French 

 ire far in advance of England. In devotion to ag- 

 ■iculture as a means of subsistence, and in the 

 imount of population sustained by agriculture, and 

 jerliaps in the amount of labor bestowed upon the 

 loil, and in the frugal and exact saving and use of 

 nanures, we presume the Chinese surprss all othtn- 

 lations on the globe. In the improveucnt of live 

 lock, in the breed of horses, cattle, sheep, and 

 WHie, we suppose; no country can come in compe- 

 ition with Great Britain. And especially in the 

 •Btimation in which this great interest is held and 

 herished in this intelligent, cultivated and mighty 

 mpire, she stands far iu advance of al others,°and 

 ■ives a most instructive lesson to the vorld. The 

 .xl^aordinary fact, however, that France has, with- 

 n a comparatively short, period, increased her an- 

 malous product of beet sugar, underthe orotec- 



I wo confess our feaj-s that we shall fall short of, 

 are stronger than our hopes that we shall reach it. 

 Our cane-sugar, cotton, and tobacco crops are to 

 be sure, enormous, and admit of no competition in 

 countries whose northern latitudes forbid their cul- 

 tivation, with the exception of the latter crop, to- 

 bacco, which of a certain and superior description, 

 is now cultivated with great success and profit in 

 Upper Canada. But in regard to the products com- 

 mon to lis and the northern nations of' Europe, the 

 cereal grains in particular, we may well be asham- 

 ed of ourselves, while with a soil and climate offer- 

 ing every advantage for their most successful cul- 

 tivation, we can acquiesce in the degrading neces- 

 sity of importing wheat, oat.s, rye, potatoes, and 

 even hay from Europe. 



We are very tar, however, from desiring to be 

 brought under a system (.f tariff protection in re- 

 gard to our agricultural products like that which 

 prevails in England. 'I he agriculture of England 

 ■is burdened with governmental impositions and bui- 

 dens, which have most injuriously affected its pro.s- 

 perity, and rendered the price of bread enonnous, 

 and crowded their alms-houses with paupers and 

 I their prisons with wretched convicts. The corn 

 laws are now agitating the whole kingdom to its 

 centre ; and the singular anomaly is presented in 

 the richest and most fertile part of the British king- 

 dom, of a people dri\en to desperation by poverty 

 and starvation. The farmers of this country should 

 ask little else of government than to be let alone. 

 With no taxes which deserve to be named, with a 

 climate eminent for its salubrity, with a soil which 

 never refuses an ample return to skill, industry, 

 temperance, and frugality, with a ready market for 

 every production of agricultural labor, with the 

 ample experience of other and the most improved 

 countries to instruct them, and with intelligence 

 and general education sufficient to enable them to 

 avail themselves of every lesson, facility, and ad- 

 vantage for agricultural imprnveraent and success, 

 if they do not excel, if they (we speak'particularly 

 of the northprn and middle States,) still' submit to 

 buy their bread, and, through extravagance of ev- 

 ery description, will go on to involve themselves in 

 a debt to other countries, wiiich must presently be- 

 come irredeemable, why t'len there is room for noth- 

 ing but shame; the curse of heaven wHl brino- its- 



he hoped might often be seen again. Among these 

 foreigners was one gentleman of a most distinguish- 

 ed character from the United States of America 



[cheers] — that great country, whose people we 

 were obliged legally to call foreigners, but who 

 were still our brethren in blood. [Loud cheers.] 

 It was most gratifying to him that such a man 

 had been prese.nt at that meeting, that he might 

 know what the fjrmers of England really were, and 

 be able to report to his fellow citizens the manner 

 in which they were united, from every class, in 

 promoting their pe.iceful and most important ob- 

 jects. He gave, " The health of Mr Webster, and 

 other distinguished strangers." The toast was re- 

 ceived with much applause. 



^ Mr Webster said the notice which the noble 

 Earl at the head of the table had been kind enough 

 to take of him. and the friendly sentiments which 

 he had seen fit to express towards the country to 

 which he belonged, demanded his most cordial ac- 

 knowledgments. He should therefore begin by 

 saying how gratified he had been in having it in 

 his power to pass one day among the proprietors, 

 the cultivators, the farmers of old England ; [cheers] 

 — that England of which he had been readino- and 

 conversing all his life, and now for once had the 

 pleasure of visiting. [Loud cheers.] 



He would say, in the next place, if he could say, 

 how mr-'-; he had been pleased and gratified with 

 the exhibition of one product, or branch of product, 

 of that agriculture for which England was so just- 

 ly distinguished. When persons connected with 

 some pursuit, of whatever description, assembled in 

 such numbers, he could not but look on them with 

 respect and regard ; but he confessed at once that 

 [ he was more than ordinarily moved on all such oc- 

 casions, when he saw before him a great assemblage 

 of those whose interests, whose hopes, whose objects 

 and pursuits were connected on either continent with 

 the cultivation of the soil. [Loud cheers.] 



Whatever else might tend to enrich and beau- 

 tify society, that which feeds and clothes comforta- 

 bly the great mass of mankind should always, he 

 contended, be regarded as the great foundation of 

 national interest. Ho need not say that the agri- 

 culture of England was instructive to all the world; 

 as 1 science it was here better understood ; as an 

 art it was here better practised ; and as a ffreat in- 



