410 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



jrVNE 10, 1840. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



Boston, Wednesday, June 10, 1840. 



AGRICULTURK IN MASSACHUSETTS 

 In a former nuinher we made some hasty remarks on 

 this subject; and these remarks we shall continue in 

 this case, not intending at this time In discuss the sub- 

 ject fully or elaborately. This duty we reserve fo 

 another occasion and place. But a i'^-.w cursory liini 

 may be of use if they keep the subject more and more 

 before the public mind ; and induce the intelligent and 

 reflecting to look at it in its various important relations. 

 There are no natural and inherent incapacities in 

 Massachusetts, which forbid her agriculture becoming 

 a profitable and commanding interest. Every one ad 

 mils her extraordinary success in c.omrnerco and man 

 ufactures and the mechanic arts. Her commercial ma 

 rine is the second in the union ; and indeed a large part 

 of the commerce of New York is ownfiil and navigated 

 by New England men and equipped an( sustained by 

 New England capital. In manufacturei! and tlic im- 

 provement of th" mech.inic arts, she is in the ffar of 

 no State in the Union ; and taking into the account ibv 

 amount of her population and territory, siie may chal- 

 lenge a competition perhaps with any of the older coun- 

 tries of Europe. Her fisheries, her commercial profits, 

 the increased value which her manufacturing industry 

 gives to the raw material about which it is emplt^yed, 

 add essentially to her wealth ; and with an inflexible 

 determination to maintain a sound currency and a 

 healthy and safe system of credit, there is no reason 

 why she should not become one of the richest, and con- 

 tinue, as we believe she now is, one of the most pros- 

 .perous conmiunities in the world. 



The extent of her agricultural interest has not yet by 

 any accurate examination been ascertained. It is much 

 to be regretted that this has not been done; or at least 

 that measures have not been put in a train to accoiTiplisli 

 it. The approaching valuation of the Stale, wliicii takes 

 place once in ten years, and which in course is to be 

 taken the present season, will do- somevhing towards .'t ; 

 but these returns can be conrsidered only as an imperfei 't 

 approach to exactness, because there iz a natural cflfovt 

 on the part of those who make liieni, to make ihein as 

 low as possible. This was formerly the practice with 

 a view to avoid the payment of the State tax; .Tiid 

 though no State lax has been levied for several years, 

 yet men siii! act under the same influence, and make 

 the smallest returns they vib'Tiscieiitiously can, where 

 conscience has any thing to dif'W'ith i', lest tliey sliould 

 be rated loo high In ll.e valuatltfS and assessed accord- 

 ingly in the taxes of their ■-/.vn tovvti 



It is believed, however, that could anjvu.,ug like the 

 same fullness and exactness be exerted in obtaining sta- 

 tistical returns of the agricultural products of the State 

 as have been exerlBd in obiaining the returns of her com- 

 mercial enterprise and her manufacturing industry, the 

 results would be highly gratifying, and much transcend 

 the calculations or opinions generally entertainer 

 on the other hand it must be admitted, that not 

 part of our soil is cultivated which is capablp of profita- 

 ble cultivation ; that of that which is cultivated by im- 

 proved husbandry the products might be almost quadru- 

 pled- that we have no agricultural products (or export; 

 that our imports of agricultural products are very large ■ 

 that 

 our ow 

 toes, bay 



Yet 

 sixth 



no capital is employed in agriculture, in the way '.n 

 which it is employed in trade or commerce. We do not 

 like to make these confessions ; and yet we must make 

 them. VVe believe that if Massachusetts were walled in 

 by a barrier as impassable as the walls of China, she is 

 perfectly capable to support in comfprt and luxury from 

 the products of her own soil, a population four times as 

 large as she now has. We believe it would be for the 

 interest, happiness and morals of her people, if she weie 

 driven to the stern necessity of doing it But calcula- 

 tions of any such issue or condition would be perfectly 

 idle, while so many other resources or occasions f.ir the 

 application of labor and capital present themselves, af- 

 frding the opportunity of an immediate and apparently 

 a much more liberal return. 



The island of Nantucki't, r'gardnd as it commonly i», 

 as a mire sand bank in the midst of the ocean, to be 

 beaten by waves and swept over by tile cold winds, can 

 scarcely be said to have admitted a plough into its soil ; 

 and yet there cannot be a doubt that its agricultural ca- 

 pacities, if properly brought out, are sufficient to main- 

 tain, without any foreign dependance whatever, a popu- 

 lation thiee times as great as it now iias ; bui what can 

 be expected while oil retains its present prices, and from 

 men trained to think no pursuit man'y or spirited but 

 the pursuit of whales over the whole Pacific ; and whom 

 you might as well expect to keep quiet when they hear 

 tile blowing of a spermaceti, as to keep a race horse 

 [Still when he is brought out upon the ground where he 

 has' won many a -plate. 



What we have said of Nantucket is true of other parts 

 of the Slate; and the general rush of our young men 

 into professional pursuits, or the pursuits of trade and 

 commerce, in our cities, seems almost fatal to the iiopes 

 of any wreat advancement of our agriculture. Yet facts 

 upon facts, observation, and experience have satisfied 

 us, that in an assiduous, skilful and well conducted ag- 

 riculture, even in Massachusetts, the chances of obtain- 

 ing a comfortable livelihood and an honorable compe- 

 tence, are as favorable as in any pursuit to which the 

 attention can be directed. 



We have already alluded to one great hindrance to 

 ag icultural success in Massachusetts, and that is the 

 fact that no capital, properly speaking, is ever applied 

 to it. With the exception of the small amounts used by 

 our Connecticut river (ariners, which they generally 

 boirow for six months, for the purchase of stock in the 

 fall to be stall-fed and turned ot^' in the spring, we hard- 

 ly know a case in which a farmer thinks of employing 

 a ny capital iu agricultural operations and improvements, 

 be yond what his own scanty means supply. The idea 

 f b orrowing money with a view of cultivating twenty 

 icre; ' of his farm instead of five, and thus quadrupling 

 his pr iducts without quadrupling the expense by which 

 they ar,^ produced ; or in order to redeem a bog-meadow 

 which n ow yields him no valuable return, but which tiy 

 a judicioi >s system of diaining, might be rendered emi- 

 nently productive, is -an enterprise which would hard- 

 ly occur to him — whichofien he has not the courage to 

 undertake, or which if he should undertake, his neigh- 

 bor would be lou'l iu condemning his tashness in thus 

 involvin" himself in debt. To expect success in agri- 

 culture without a judicious «xpenililure of labor and 

 capital, is as idle as to expect success iu trade, or com- 

 merce, or manufactures, or any other conditions. 



H. C. 



LABOR-SAVING MACHINES. 

 We have recently seen a field of six acres of corn 



do not supply, excepting to a very small extent, planted in two thirds of a day with perfect exactness, 



bread hutte'r cheese, beef, pork, mutton, pota- by a machine drawn by a pair of mules driven by a boy, 



ay oats' corn and rye ; and that in truth little or I and the machine held by a man ; and at the same time 



by the same machine the same field was manured with 

 twentyfive bushels of poudrette, evenly dropped in the 

 drill. The calculation was to make the drills four feet 

 apart ; and to plant the corn 18 inches in the drill, 

 3 kernels in a hill, with the intention of removing one 

 and leaving two to be matured. 'I'he machine was adapt- 

 ed to tho planting and sowing every other variety of 

 seed, even to the smallest, and with like exactnes.-. The 

 machine worked well ; though we think it m.ght have 

 been made less cumbrous than it was ; but it is not our 

 intention at this time to describe it or compare it wiih 

 others. The boy, if the mules had been well broken, 

 might have been dispensed with, and the whole perform- 

 ed by one man ; and this, upon the old system of plant- 

 ing, furrowing, tilting, maiiurin'.: in the hill from a hod, 

 dropping, and covering, would liave been equal !o the 

 labor of eight inen. The machine could be built for 

 ten dollars cost Now what an immense saving of la- 

 bor has been effected by this arrangement ! yet men will 

 tell us, with as much braggadocio and self complacency 

 as their v.aistcoats will contain without bursting the but- 

 tons off, that ZArywant none of these new-fangled nn- 

 lions; they choosr; to go on in ike old-fashioned way^ as 

 though the old-fashioned way was of course to be al- 

 ways the best way. Now the old-fashioned way was to 

 wcai undressed goat skins, sewed together with strings 

 of birch bark or pinned with thorns; to set on the bare 

 ground; to bake your dough in the ashes; to dip up 

 your porridge in a wooden bowl or a broken gourd, and 

 to eat it wiih a clam-shell. Why cannot we go back to 

 these blessed limesof our great grandfathers, who were 

 no doubt so much happier and so much wiser, and so 

 much better than we are. Alas ! for the sad degenera- 

 cy of modern times; and the unhappy discovery, (no 

 doubt tho effect of some demoniacal agency,) of balanc- 

 ing a meal-bag upon a horse's back, without putting the 

 meal in one end and a stone in the other ! H. C. 



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 



We acknowledge the receipt of a package of the seed 

 of the Contee or Indian Bread Root, from H. L. Ells- 

 worth, Esq , of the patent office, Washington. The 

 Bread Root is used for food by the Florida Indians : — 

 Whether it will endure our climate or be of any use to 

 us, remains to be proved. The seeds in question were 

 handed to the President of the Mass. Hort. Society, and 

 by him distributed among the members, who will do 

 their best to ascertain the merits of the plant. 



We have received a miniature map of l!ic Stale of 

 Maine, just published by Nath'l Dearborn, 53 Washing. 

 Ion street — one of the neatest and prettiest things of the 

 kind we have ever seen. There are more towns laid 

 down on it than on any other map of the State ever pub- 

 lished. The boundaries designated by ihe treaty of 

 1783, and the lines of division given by ihe king of the 

 Netherlands and that claimed by Gn r.l Britain, are al- 

 so accurately laid down. 



We have been favored b)' a friend, with a specimen 

 of refined maple sugar, manufactured by Mr Hosmer, of 

 St. Johnsbury, Vt. It is vtiy white and clear and equal 

 to (he best Havana sugar. J. B. 



Jtlaasnehuaetts Hnrtienltitro^l ^E!^aciely. 



EXHIBITIO:* OF FLOW£!.--€. 



Saturday, June 6/A, 1640. 



Messrs E. Wight, of Dedharn,and K; Weston, jr. and 

 F. Parker, of Bo^lon, presented a hirge collection of 

 native flowers. 



Bouquets, by Messrs Carter, Bowdilch, Hovey. R. 

 Howe and S. Walker. 



Cut flowers from Jno. A. Kenrick, Newton; Scotch 

 Lyburnam, (fine) several specimens of Azalias, roses, 

 and other flowers, 



