210 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



DEC. IS, 1839. 



AND HORTICULTURAL RF.GISTER. 



Boston, Wednesday, December IS, 1839. 



AGRICULTURAL MEETINGS. 



The pleasure which was afforded by tliese meetings 

 the last winter, during the session of the Legislature, 

 the information which they elicited and dispensed, and 

 the increasing interest which seemed to be taken in them, 

 as the close of the session approached, all serve to re- 

 commend a renewal of them the ensuing session. The 

 Commissioner therefore desii;ns immediately after the 

 commencement of the session, to make applicalion for 

 the use of the Hall one eveninj; in the week, which lie 

 cannot doubt will he readily ginnled for this purpose; 

 and he hopes the farmers in the Legislature will come 

 prepared to second these efforts. Success must depend 

 on them. He hopes likewise that those of them who 

 have valuable or unusual products of any kind of which 

 t-amples may be easily transported, will bring such sam- 

 ples for exhibition. 



Variou.s questions will eome up for consideration ; and 

 among othets, several gentlemen have suggested for in- 

 quiry the expediency of holding annually a Stale Agri- 

 cultural Convention, during the session of the Legisla- 

 ture. We shall expri^ss no opinion on this maitcr far- 

 ther than to say, that it is deserving of much attenlion ; 

 and we shall take an early opportunity to offer it for the 

 consideration of the meeting. 



It will be refreshing and pleasant to turn aside once a 

 week from the turmoil and vexation of party politics, 

 and topics which seldoiu fail to produce angry ,xnd re- 

 sentful conclusion, and pass aii evening in inqui- 

 ries and conversation upon topics which have no tenden- 

 cy to engender strife, and whose great object is to make 

 the condition of mankind mo/e comfortable, prosperous, 

 improved and happy. H. C. 



SCIENCE IMPORTANT TO THE FARMER. 

 VVe have received from our valuable correspondent 

 W. B., in the absence of Mr Colman, the following com- 

 munication, containing not merely remaiks, but an es- 

 say on the importance of education to the farmer. The 

 article presents many truths clothed in anoriginal, beau- 

 tiful, and sometimes highly poetical manner. VVewould 

 call tlie attention ofour readers, eipecially the farmers, 

 to its perusal, requesting them to reflect upon lis con- 

 tents. We feel confident that every farmer who loves 

 his noble calling, will unite with us in thanking W. B. 

 and requesting liirn to continue his remarks, J. B. 



Mr Colmah— We have just returned from hslening to 

 a sermon on education, a subject which very properly 

 conies within the province of the divine as well as the 

 civilian and pliilanthiopisf, inasmuch a> knowledge 

 throws a charm around the beauties of religion, and fits 

 men for higher and purer joys in the future, as il renders 

 them more useful and happier in the present world. VVe 

 must confess that we were astonished and somewhat 

 disgusted, by some sentiments advanced, such as that il 

 is no disparagement to farmers if they cannot solve a 

 problem in Euclid,— that their time need not be spent in 

 reading Latin and Greek, and that natural science need 

 not claim his attention. The ideas communicated were 

 strong and full, that if the farmer knew enough to trudge 

 Ihiough life in his profession, and the mechanic to man- 

 ufacture his wares, their cup of knowledge wasfull!! 

 and this from the lips of one who justly discovers all 

 zeal in the education of his own family. 



Now we have no idea that the lime has come in our 

 American Israel, when mankind are to bo divided off in- 

 to castes, unless merit and demerit draw the line, and 

 that knowledge is to be circumscribed in lis operations, 

 shedding its beauties with sunbeam brilliancy on one 

 pan of community, and shining through a cloud darkly, 

 ifshining at all,on the other. It cannni he wiiAe yet 

 the dying groans of pilgrims are upon our ears, and the 

 blood which was spilt in the revolution is still fresh be- 

 fore our eyes. If so, we may soon see our temples-pros- 

 trate, through the influence of error, and all the glad 

 prospects of a coining future, which our wise men so 

 gladly hail, crumbled to the dust. 



Man was created in the image of his God. He was 

 sent to earth an innocent, intelligent being, and a far- 

 mer. When the Creator had looked upon the lasi and 

 noblest specimen uf his handy work and "pronounced 

 it good,'' he gave liiin special injunciion to " dress the 

 earth and keep it," and he gave him dominion over the 

 fowl of the air and over the fish of the sea, " and brought 

 unto him the fowls and beasts of the field, and he named 

 them," probably according to their ranks and orders; 

 yet as his was then the only language of earth, it is not 

 probable that he gave them names in all languages as 

 we do, for the benefit of all nations. Yet the naming of 

 them then, was probably as scientific an operation as the 

 dividing of them into classes, orders, Ac is now. Hence 

 we can firm no other conclusion, tWan that Adam was 

 a farmer, and a scientific one. But like some modern 

 farmers, he ventured u|>on an uncertain speculation, 

 which resulted in most disastrous consequences, involv- 

 ing himself and " his heirs and assigns'' in difficulties 

 beyond their power ofextricalion. His patrimony which 

 was amply sufficient to have afforded all of his posteri- 

 ty a homestead where each of them might have pursued I 

 his heaven-appointed calling, was forfeited, consequent- 1 

 ly new professions must be created for the benefit of his 

 sons, and as the earth was doomed to send up thorns 

 and thistles, mingled with its more valuable productions, 

 many of them soon learned to avoid its cultivation. 



Agriculture, then, was" man's employment in the days 

 of his innocence. All other professions came in conse- 

 quence of his apostacy. Death was decreed as his inevi- 

 table doom, and sickness and pnin became its sure pre- 

 cursor. The physician was appointed to offer remedies 

 for the evils to which he had justly become an heir. Sin 

 had sown tares and thorns and thistles in his heart, and 

 the divine was sent as a messenger of mercy, to pluck 

 them out, and point his dejected soul to light and hap- 

 piness on high. Through man's perversion, laws must 

 be enacted to restrain his wayward steps, and litigation 

 gave rise to those who professedly would see justice se- 

 cure the rights of all. Other professions were origina- 

 ted, as circumstances required, and others yet will contin- 

 ue to burst into existence, as man advances in a social 

 and refined stale. All professions, therefore, are suc- 

 ceeding and subservient to thitofthe farmer. He might 

 pursue his calling, though in a most imperfect manner, 

 ;(;((/iOu( their aid ; but were his art annihilated, theirs 



hail and fleecy snow, in their appointed seasons, affect 

 his interest. A knowledge ofthem must, therefore, con- 

 tribute essentially to his success. 



It is a well known fact that the sun is the great regu- 

 lator of seasons ; that through his influence spring sends 

 forth its lovely enamelling*, and that summer and au- 

 tumn load the earth with their ricli harvest; that incon- 

 sequence of his absent journeyings, winter exercises his 

 tyrant sway, and binds the earth, the river and the little 

 rivalet in felters of frost, which, as they loosen their 

 hold, break the soil and loosen it to receive the warm 

 influences of returning sunbeams, and to allow the grass 

 and tender herb to shoot their sustaining roots abroad. 

 Sunshine also regulates the atmosphere, and prepares it 

 to receive the exhaling vapor until it congregates 

 clouds and descends in soft showers upon the thirsty 

 earth. Does not science, and would it not more effec- 

 tually, if better understood, tell us how and why these 

 operations arc performed, and enabling us to some ex- 

 tent to guard against the future, in less matters than 

 months and seasons, by watching his appearance ? 



The lime has been, when great dependence was plac- 

 ed upon the age of the moon in regulating the affairs of 

 husbandry, most''of which have been denounced as the 

 errors of a dark age. We have no idea of taking the 

 grains into the moon to sow, or of driving hogs or beeves 

 there for slaughter. 'T would be a very inconvenient 

 process. Nor do we believe that the moon in any of her 

 phases, would, without concurring causes, produce seed- 

 lime or harvest, or cause a single spire of grass to spring 

 Up in ihe midst of desolation. Yet vie do believe thai 

 (perhaps in connection with other causes) it has its in- 

 fluence upon the atmosphere as well as upon the ocean, 

 and that its influence extends to some degree to plants 

 and animals, and that by watching its phases and place 

 in the heaven.s, evils of sad nature to the farmer may be 

 avoideil, and benefits achieved. This may be called 

 the work of observation, but science aids us in determin. 

 ing beforehanri, what observation can only confirm. 



The atmosphere has a direct influence upon agricultu- 

 ral operations, for in its bosom the storm is gathered and 

 the whirlwind chained, and ere they are loosed, there 

 are signs in the sky which sound their approach, and by 

 the science of aerology we are often led to anticipate 

 coming events at hast fir the day and the morrow, 

 which may offer ruuch " of weal or wo" to his labors 



must follow in the train, and man would become a fugi- ! anil interest. 



five and a vagabond on the earth — a savage, barbarous I Old ocean, too, though restricted to bounds which it 

 being. | cannot pass, often in the midit of a calm announces the 



But it is needless for us to dwell upon the antiquity ! '^°'"'"S ^'O''"'' of i'"'«''s ''^ P«^-^'''er>>us breath, and "sends 

 or necessity of agriculture. We would rather, by sim- I blasting and mildew over the land." Though its 

 pie detail, give convincing proof, that in order to its per- ! ^^"'^^^ ™"*' necessarily bo most felt in its vicinity, they 

 feet success, its operator should possess an eminent quan- i °'''-'^" '^'"^"'^ ihemselves into the interior. That its good 



tity of common sense and a thorough scienlific education 

 For our last assertion, we are aware we have exposed 

 ourselves to a nest of hornets about our ears. But what 

 then ? We may as well be stung to death as to bo tram- 

 pled down; and notwithstanding the argument of "old 

 men, and men of renown," that our fathers have plant- 

 ed and sown successfully and have filled their barns and 

 storehouses abundantly, without this ado about newspa- 

 per and book farming, we Would still with the brow of 

 an Atlas reiterate it, and we wish we could make the 

 nations hear and believe our sentiments, — farmers should 

 be men of extensive professional reading, of sound prac- 

 tice, (not simply theorists,) of scientific education, from 

 tlie fact that their profession involves a greiitcr ainoiiot 

 of science than any other. .Ill nrrtiire, the rolling sun 

 and changing moon, the air, the ocean and the earth 

 operates in subservience to his success, or in their varied 

 movement, counteract his designs. The frost and the 

 storms, the gentle rains and roaring floods, the rattling 



effects may be appreciated and its bad ones shunned, a 

 knowledge of *' its laws, manners and customs" raay 

 very properly be investigated. 



The earth and all that is therein and what dwells 

 upon it, and grows out of it, must necessarily, as it is 

 the great field of his operations, present a field, urging 

 his investigation. .And here several distinct sciences de- 

 mand his attenlion, in proportion as he would have suc- 

 cess crown his efforts. A knowledge of them as also 

 of those which have been named, may indeed be thought 

 unnecessary, since multitudrs have gone before him with- 

 out so mui-h as inquiring into them, and this with much 

 apparent success. But :t does not appear what the far- 

 mers of other ages would have been, had they been men 

 of sound practical science. This, however, we do know, 

 that wherever ignorance and intelligence plough and 

 sow side by side, nature dispenses moie liberal lewards 

 on tho latter. Yours, truly, W. B. 



Mount Osceola, Dec. C, 1839. 



