194 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



DEC. 4, 1839. 



and horticultural register. 



Boston, Wednesday, December 4, 1839. 



The suhjoined^agreeable and piquant letter is from an 

 esteemed correspondent, whom we talta leave to siiy, we 

 shall hold to his word. He cannot let us hear from him 

 too often. II. C. 



Mb Coljian— Dear Sir— Whilst abroad I remarked 

 one trait in the rural population of Europe, which 1 wish 

 were to be equally remarked of our own Countrymen — 

 the little attention they pay to lain whilst engaged in 

 their agricultural labors. In a book in your library it is 

 remarked by the author ihat his farm servants lost but 

 thirteen days in two years from wet weather. 1 never 

 could remark that tliey paid any more regard to rain 

 than young ducks would. It is true that there it sel- 

 dom falls in torrents as it does here — rain there descend- 

 ing in mists, or what we term " drizzle." And yetyou 

 will seldom see .\merican laborers continue in the iield 

 even when the weather is as moist as that- The dis- 

 tant appeariince of a shower drives them under a cover. 

 In England they brave the greiitest storm, and plough 

 in the face of a Northeaster that makes all rattle again. 

 I have some considerable acquaintance with the man- 

 ners and customs of the English peasantry, having spent 

 a long lime amongst them, and being fond of mixing 

 with them — with being both " among them and of them.'' 

 They are a jovial set of fellows — Jack tars without salt 

 water; as lively as the lads of the sea, and enjoying the 

 alehouse as well as Jack does the forecastle. After a 

 day of hard toil they congregate in the village tap-rooms 

 like Shylock's merchants on the Rialto ; pipes are called 

 for, and there is the music of empty flagons, and the 

 amatory strains of the rustic beaux resoanding through 

 the villa->'e. Jovial fellows they are, upon whom labor 

 sits as light as thistle down. 



I have compared the American with the English la- 

 borer and am cimvinced that whilst the former will do 

 in any day in which he labors the whole day, one-quar- 

 ter part more than the latter, the latter actually does 

 twice as much work in a year. The incessant plodding 

 which wains riches — the unwearied liibor which removes 

 mountains— the continual dropping which wears away 

 a stone, belong to the English laborer in a greater de- 

 gree than to the laborer of any other nation with which 

 I am acquainted except the Dutch. It iS absolutely as- 

 touishin" to see the rapidity with which en hundred 

 acres of grain disappear before a few apparent sluggards 

 enga"ed in harvesting it. Bui from sunrise till sunset 

 they are continually moving — ;:s regular as clock-work, 

 and with as few intervals of rest. 



One of the habits of the English peasantry most de- 

 servin" of commendation, is that of ornamenting their 

 gardens and collage grounds with flowers and shrubi 

 I obs«rved it in every part of England, though I think 

 that Ihe peasants of South Devon possessed this simple 

 yet elegant art in the greatest perfeciion. The honey- 

 suckle and woodbine creep over the grey thatch of their 

 cottages in a manner that enchants him who has an eye 

 for the quiet beauty of rural scenes. It was in one of 

 those Teen lanes that 1 saw what will be ever present 

 to the mind's eye whilst memory lives to supply it with 

 incidents. A smiling cottage with a laurel hedge and a 

 low border of hax wilhin, a few raspberry bushe.», la- 

 burnum creeping over this pretty abode of love and hap- 

 piness, and on a little plat of grass in front, three or four 

 sweet cherubs with yellow ringlets, romping with the 

 beloved old house dog. I was, my dear sir, occasional- 



ly a visiter at the houses of greater folks, but I enjoyed 

 with more true pleasure, I remember with greater satis- 

 faclion, the hour's slroll,the twenty minutes' chat of a 

 September in Devonshire and a piimmer in Surry. 



He who would return to his native land well pleased 

 with Englishmen jjenerally, should visit most in the 

 middle classes, and study more particularly the manners 

 of the better class of pnasantry. In high life, as it is 

 called, manners are more artificial, and since to be what 

 a poor man cannot afl^ord to be, is a distinguishing sign 

 of fashion and exclusiveism, high Ion takes up those vi- 

 ses which the poor man dare not adopt. Hence there 

 is less domestic virtue in the upper classes than in the 

 lower. On the continent it is somewhat diS'erent — the 

 peasantry being more gross, rude, illiterate, and vicious 

 than the circle of nobility and talent. 



I shall, if you please, trouble you with some further 

 European reminiscences, by and by — 



When the falling stars are shooting 



And the answer'd owls are hooting, 



And the silent leaves are still 



In the shadow of the hill, 



Jind the ox is at his rack, 



Jlvd the hoy is safely back 



With old Dobbin from the mill ! 



In plain prose, when long winter evenings arrive I shall 

 take up my pen again. Yours, I. A. J. 



P. S. — The first four lines of the poetry are Byron's; 

 the other three my own. I think mine are the best. — 

 That last line is " supernumarily fine," as they say in 

 Kentucky. 



AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 

 Agriculture in Europe is now receiving an attention 

 which it has never received in any preceding time. The 

 long continuance of peace among the great nations, who 

 for so many years, we had almost said centuries, had 

 lime to think of little else than conquest and military 

 glory, has been in the highest measure favorable to the 

 cultivation of the common and practical arts of life, and 

 of agriculture in an especial manner, as the great art in- 

 volving and demanding the aid of all others. Imple- 

 ments of husbandry have been substituted for weapons 

 of war; and fields that have been watered by the blood 

 and whitened with the bones of slaughtered thousands, 

 are now seen glistening and waving with golden har- 

 vests. 



In England, great as the improvements were before 

 that time, yet within the last fifteen years it is confi- 

 dently stated, that by an improved cultivation, the agri- 

 cultural products have increased at least twentyfive per 

 cent, in many parts of lhat country; that is to say, the 

 amount of crop on the same extent of land is greatly in- 

 creased, and the expenses of cultivation either not in- 

 rreased or diminished ; or, to stale in a form perhaps 

 more intelligible, the profits of agriculture are advanc- 

 ed one-quarter by improved cultivation. 



The same results are appearing in France. In Eng- 

 land the introduction of the turnip husbandry produced 

 the most extraordinary results ; and of a permanent 

 character. It enabled the farmers to keep much mora 

 stock than could be kept on dry hay and straw, and to 

 keep a superior stock and in much belter condition. It. 

 enabled them to enrich their lands very greatly by feed- 

 ing ofFthe turnips on the ground on which they were 

 grown, and served to increase their manure heaps at the 

 barn, when the turnips were fed to the cattle in the 

 yard. The careful cultivation which good crops of this 

 root demanded, made a fine preparation for whe.it or 

 oats or barley ; and thus every thing went forward by a 

 joint and reciprocal operation. In many of the counties 

 of England the turnip cultivation has been the founda- 

 tion of their improved husbandry ; has changed the 



whole aspect of things; more than trebled or quadru- 

 pled in many cases the value of estates, as appears by 

 their increased rental, and by the grain and wool, and 

 beef and mutton which it has enabled the farmers to 

 produce, it has proved the source of immense wealth. 



What the turnip husbandry has done for England the 

 sugar beet cullivalion is now doing for France; with 

 this superior advantage, that the sugar oblaisied must bs 

 considered as, to a degree, an extra profit. The leaves 

 and the pumniice afford a large amount of feed for slock ; 

 the cultivation which the plant requires, prepares in a 

 capital manner, the ground for other cro|i3 ; and the in- 

 crease of live stock on the faim wheie plenty of feed ia- 

 produned in order to keep them, carries every thing else 

 forward in a rapid ratio. The sugar obtained from the 

 root afl'ordsa most ample profit, were there nothing else 

 obtained from the cultivation. 



The agricultural publications now going on in France, 

 of which we have received several of a most valuable 

 character, indicate an extraordinary attention to this« 

 great subject and a high degree of improvement. 



In reference to the manufacture of sugar from beet, 

 we learn that «o far as cheapness of operation and a- 

 mount obtained per centage, the business was never 

 more prosperous. The improvements v/hicli have ta- 

 ken place within a few years, are very great. The beet 

 is now operated upon by rasping or grating as soon as 

 taken from the field ; and this often early in September. 

 Itisthen leeched, if the expression be proper, by cold 

 water. This carries down all the saccharine matter, 

 leaving behind all the mucilage, which has given to the 

 sugar an unpleasant taste ; and to get rid of which has 

 long been a great desideratum. The saccharine matter 

 is then subjected to a process of purification, crystalli- 

 zation and refinement, which enables them to obtain at 

 least eight per cent, of sugar and at so moderate a rale 

 that they can afford to pay the government excise of 

 seven cents peif pound and leave a handsome profit to 

 the farmer and manufacturer. From all lhat can be 

 learnt, there is little doubt that the improvements ara 

 such that it can soon be made an article of profitable 

 household manufacture. This is a great desideratum 

 and a point which we confidently believed at one time 

 had been gained by our respected friend at Stoneham • 

 but in the absence of all advices from him, we are grat- 

 ified with this intelligence from abroad, which we have 

 received from an authentic source, and have only to con- 

 gratulate ourselves that in spite of all delays and hin- 

 drances the world will go round. This intelligence is 

 highly gratifying. Europe now is only half a month's 

 journey, aijd a quickened enterprise and public spirit 

 diffuse intelligence almost with the rapidity of light- 



H. C. 



The Cdltivator's Almanac and Cabinet of Agricultu- 

 ral Knowledge for the year 1840. By Wm. Buck- 

 minster. 



This is beyond question, for the purpose intended, 

 the best Almanac that has ever come under our notice. 

 The Farmer's Almanac, so called, which, for tlie want 

 of a better publication of the kind, has been so many 

 years patronised among us, is a very inferior publication 

 and always abounding in miserable trash of a low de- 

 scription intermixed with some useful matter. What 

 go under the name of the Comic Almanacs are in gen- 

 eral infamous for their vulgarity, indecency and balder- 

 dash ; and il is surprising lhat respectable people will 

 sell them, and still more that decent people will buy 

 them or permit them to be brought into their premises. 



The (pullivalor's Almanac is, so far as we have seen, 

 unexceptionable as a useful fiimily almanac. It containu 

 the usual astronomical calculations, the accuracy of which 



