AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



9 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STRP^T^A ,„^ 



[ luAivivci &i Killer, (Agbiculturajl Wahehouse.) 



xvin.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 22, 1840. 



N. E. FARMER. 



FIRST AGRICULTURAL MEETING. 



e gave in our last number a portion of Mr 

 ster's speech «t the first agricultural meeting, 

 the evening previous to our paper's going to 

 , Ojj the subject of English Husbandry in com- 

 5n with that of Massachusetts. We are not 

 iar with reporting speeches. We practise a 

 imperfect short hand. Our notes are few; 

 ve mainly rely upon our recollection to give 

 ading sentiments uttered in cases where we 

 pt a report. We are happy in believing that 

 laders will in tliis case deem even our imper- 

 eports better than none; though they fall very 

 ort of doing justice to the speakers, 

 the hurry of writing off the speech from our 

 some errors occurred, which it is desirable to 

 ;t The southern parts of England are not 

 , as there stated, but a thin light loam resting 

 :halk. Beans and peas are not green crops, 

 larked, but white and exhausting crops', be- 

 they are allowed to perfect thoir°seed. That 

 one bushel of oats was raised ten bushels of 

 i could be produced, should have been stated 

 form of a supposition and not as an ascer- 

 fact. The case of the person alluded to as 

 imployed through the winter in digging tur- 

 fiouldhave included also his slicing them and 

 J them to the sheep; and this is the winter 

 tic n of hundreds in England, 

 give these corrections in justice to Mr W. 

 i have also the pleasure to say that Mr Web- 

 our request, has engaged, as soon as his lei- 

 ill permit, after he reaches Washington, to 

 ut and enlarge his speech on this occasion, 

 ! then propose to issue it in a pamphlet form ; 

 ; hope at the same time to be able to add a 

 i corrected report of the instructive remarks 

 essor Silliman on the sam^ occasion, of which 

 V give an imperfect abstract. We know 

 ill be received with great interest and plea- 

 ' the agricultural public. » h. c. 



Webster proceeded in his remarks to state 

 ; agricultural subject which now moststrong- 

 ossed the public attention was that of the 

 ? of lands. The draining to which he par- 

 y alluded was what is called tile draining, 

 if England, as he had stated, was ba.sed upo°n 

 y and retentive subsoil. Wetness is preju- 

 nj destructive to the crop. Marginal drains 

 13 on the outside of the fields, do not always 

 i the desired results. These tile dra ins have 

 I most important improvementa. The tile 



made of clay, bekodlike bricks ; about one 

 length, four inches in width, three fourths 

 ich in thickness, and stands from six to eight 

 in height, being hemispherical, or like the 

 a cylinder with its sides elongated. It re- 

 ! the Dutch tiles sometimes seen on the roofs 

 Id houses in Albany and New York. A 



sunk eighteen to twenty inches in depth, 



and these drains are multiplied over a field at a 

 distance of seven yards apart, and vast estates have 

 been drained in this way. The ditch being sunk 

 and the bottom made smooth, these tiles are laid 

 down with the hollow side on tJie bottom, the ends 

 pinced near each other, and some straw put over 

 th.' joints to prevent the admission of dirt. These 

 are not so e.xpensive a mode of draining as might 

 be supposed ; but so important and useful are they 

 considered, that even a large expense is soon me't 

 by the immediate benefits resulting from them. It 

 has added every where at least twenty per cent, to 

 the amount of the wheat crop. A beautiful c.'ca-m- 

 ple came under his own observation not lono- before 

 he left England. On a part of a field, whi'ch h.ad 

 been thus drained, the wheat presented a most lux- 

 uriant growth; while on a part of the same field, 

 which had not undergone this operation, the wheat, 

 sowed at the same time, was feeble and just show- 

 ing itself in straggling parcels above ground. It 

 seems a singular fact that the advantages of this 

 thorough draining are as perceptible in dry as in 

 wet weather. A ffreat evil in clay soils is that 

 they become in dry weather hard and baked, and 

 impermeable to the roots of the plants. The wa- 

 ter, by this thorough system of draining being re- 

 moved quickly from such soils, they areless subject 

 to become hardened by the sun; and remain po- 

 rous and friable. 



There was another improvement which he witnes- 

 sed, and which he considered as the most remar- 

 iwble and beautiful agricultural improvement which 

 •haa ever cou.e under his observation. This was 

 an instance of irrigation. Irrigation is much prac- 

 ticed in Wiltshire in the south of Eno-land. He 

 had repeatedly heard of water-meadows; but he 

 had not been able to form a very satisfactory notion 

 of what was intended by that designation. At the 

 Duke of Portland's estate he had an opportunity of 

 witnessing this extraordinary agricultural improve- 

 ment in a remarkable form. This was in the north 

 of England at a place called Sherwood forest. By 

 a forest in this case you are to understand an ex- 

 tent of country with a thin arid soil, covered with 

 heath and ling, resembling brakes, with here and 

 there a few oaks scattered upon it Ten years 

 since this land was not valued at a rent of one 

 shilling per acre. It produced nothing. A brook 

 ran near it. This brook passed through a village 

 and gathered some of the refuse matter from the 

 houses. It was conducted by a carrier or canal, 

 similar to tlie water-way of a factory or the feeder 

 of a canal, along the edge of this tract of land pro- 

 posed to be irrigated, and suffered to ooze or pass 

 out in small quantities over the land. Successive 

 embankments or barriers were erected to receive 

 and convey the water, and in this way the whole 

 field was irrigated. The water was never permit- 

 ted to flood the land but was let out in small quan- 

 tities, and the field was watered in March, May, 

 July and October. No manure was ever put upon 

 this land ; and when Mr V/ebster was there in No- 

 vember, they were then taking off the third crop oT 

 hay cut that season ; and which certainly was not 

 less than two tons to the acre. After this cr.ip was 



[NO. »9. 



gathered, sheep were to be turned in upon it, which 

 were e.xpected to lamb at Christmas, so that the 

 lambs might be ready for the market in March, 

 when they would command a high price. There 

 can be no doubt that the sediment deposited by the 

 waters, which they had collected in their transit 

 through the village, contributed much to the extra- 

 ordinary fertility and productiveness of the land ; 

 but there can be as little doubt that pure water it 

 self is an element of immense value in agrioulture, 

 and that it contains essentially and abundantly the 

 food c|f plants. 



With respect tn implements of husbandry, M 

 Webster was of opinion that the English had n(» 

 advantage over us. Their wagons andg^ts were 

 not better; their ploughs he considereJT inferior; 

 their threshing machines inferior to those in use 

 among us. The drill cultivation was a remarkable 

 featuri? in English husbandry, and executed with 

 great neatness and precision. The young wheal 

 fields appeared like rows of onions. Some" of the 

 drill machines were constructed so as to drop small 

 portions of compo:>c manure with the seed at the 

 time of sowing. In this matter he remarked upon 

 our deficiency. Their ground is finely prepared. 

 He saw a field in turnips, where the seed which 

 was carefully soal<ed and prepared, was sowed on 

 Friday, and the rows of plants were distinctly seen 

 on Monday all over the field. This rapid germina- 

 tion, where it can be effected, has great advantages. 

 There were various other matters in English "ag- 

 riculture upon which he would gladly remark, 

 though at thf rsfcuf taxing too severely the indul- 

 gence of the meeting. There were crops cultiva- 

 ted among them of which we had none. The En- 

 glish bean, a small brown bean, was much liked, 

 and produced about forty bushels to the acre. It 

 constituted an excellent feed for their horses.* 



The Beas ( Vir.ia Faba.)-" The bean is a valuable 

 field plant, a^ affonling fuo(] for live stock and in part 

 for man. The varieii«a of ihe bimn are two, g.ird.'n and 

 field beims, ihe white and the grey beans. The best 

 soils fur beans are clay and strong loams. On such 

 soils they generally succeed wlieat'or oats, but some- 

 limes also clorer leys. Turnip soils or sands are by no 

 means properfbr them. The rdimale most favornble to 

 the liciin is one neither very dry nor very moist; the 

 first brings on the fly ; and the last prevents the setting 

 of the hloasoms. The flour of beans is more Hutritire 

 than that of oats, as it appears in the fattening of swine." 

 Dr Darwin thinks thern a cheaper provender for horses 

 than that of oats ; but beirig otan oily nauire, more dif. 

 fioiilt of digestion than .lais, and he would therefore 

 liesitate in givihg them the preference for this object," 



The bean is considered as an exhausting crop; but 

 on account of the clean cultivation which is given lo it 

 it often favornhly precedes wheat. Our own experi- 

 ments in Iho cultivation of ibo Knolisb field benn, which 

 we iried two or three years, resulted in disappoinlmeni, 

 Bj ihey were in every instance desiroved by a little 

 black fly. This is the j'reat enemy wuh which ihoy 

 have to contend abroad. Forty bushels to tlie acre must 

 be regardi^d as a large yield. From twenty to thirty- 

 five is more common. 



The cultivation of the white beans among us Is pur- 

 sued to a very small extent and in a very slovenly and 

 negligent manner. Land that is under a curse and con- 

 sidered fit for nothing else, is usually selected for a crop 

 of white beans ; and a farmer would as soon think of 

 dressing his children in peacocks' feathers, as of giving 



