210 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



JAN. 3, 1S14, 



MR. SALTONSTALL'S ADDRESS 

 Before Hit Essex County Agricultural Society. 



Gentlemen : — * * On this twenlysixtli anniver- 

 sary of our Society, permit me tn congratulate you 

 on its success and prosperity. The display of ani- 

 mals, of vegetable pnxluctions, and of implements 

 of husbandry, the trial of that great and earliest 

 instrument of agricnilure, and indeed of civiliza- 

 tinn — the plow — and the exhibition of articles of 

 domestic manufacture, have never been excelled 

 on any former occasion, and afford ihe most f^rati- 

 fying evidence of tlie progress of agricultural im- 

 provement. 



Our Society was one of the earliest in the Com- 

 monwealth. At first, it had to contend with great 

 prejudices. Many farmers in this ancient county, 

 were contentedly going on in the old paths in 

 which their fathers had gone before them. From 

 generation to generation, lliey had cultivated the 

 earth in a certain mode, and little improvement, or 

 indeed change, had been made. Their fathers had 

 prospered without the aid of agricultural associa- 

 tions, and wliy should they meet together to exhibit 

 the produce of their farms and to communicate to 

 each other the results of their experience ? Their 

 fathers had learned to cultivate the soil without 

 reading agricultural journals, and why should they 

 resort to books for instruction on this practical sub- 

 ject ? Agriculture was deemed a mere imitative 

 art, not to be improved by scientific researches. 

 These prejudices have passed away. No one now 

 opposes or attempts to cast ridicule on these asso- 

 ciations, which are spreading over our broad land, 

 and whose good effects are seen in improved culti- 

 vation, not only in our own blessed New JCngland, 

 but in the States of the far West, and their light 

 has broken in upon those less favored regions 

 where labor is not held in that honorable estima- 

 tion which it must enjoy, before a community can 

 be truly prosperous. • « » # 



Much good has been done by this Society. Per- 

 haps there has at no time been any striking change 

 in farming in this county. The improvement has 

 not come with observation, "Lo here, or lo there!" 

 — but we see tlie results. Its progress lias been 

 like that of vegetation — you see it not, but it goes 

 on — " first the blade, then the ear, then the full 

 corn in the ear," until it is ripened for the joyful 

 harvest. Many are indebted to the operations of 

 this Society for their own improvements, who are 

 not themselves sensible of it. It is not necessary 

 to be a practical farmar to notice the agricultural 

 improvement around us. It is seen in the richer 

 covering of our fields, in the greater variety and 

 abundance of products, and in the improvement of 

 stock. Many of our farmers have learned that an 

 interior animal requires as much care and expense 

 as a good one, and "that both are thrown away up- 

 on cattle which will neither give milk nor meat." 

 They have learned that corn strengtheneth the 

 heart of the patient and laborious ox, as well as 

 of man. They arc learning the importance of pro- 

 curing improved implements of husbandry. In 

 neatness, too, they are learning that clean cultiva- 

 tion is, like personal neatness, a great attraction. 

 Although there is still much room for improvement, 

 the chosen receptacle of carts, plows and clutter o( 

 ■ 11 sorts, is not so commonly as it once was in 

 front of the house, and across the door path. These 

 are removed to a more suitable place, while before 

 the house, you see a neat enclosure. I rejoice to 

 add, that that sex, whose taste and whose influ- 



ence give a finish and a charm to the rougher 

 works of man, are learning that the most beautiful 

 house is never so beauliful as when sonielhing is 

 left lo imagination, and it is seen through trers 

 and shrubs — o'.ir noble elms, our beautiful moun- 

 tain ashes and firs, our familiar lilacs, which have 

 always found favor in Now England ; roses, and 

 dahlias, those lovely flowers, which mav dispute 

 with the rose, the lofty title of " queen of flowers." 



Still we often look in vain, and on some of our 

 best farms, for the neat grass plot, ornamented 

 with shrubs and flowers and climbing vines. We 

 should learn that these things, which are within 

 the reach of every one, and which in themselves 

 seem but trifles, make the most simple farni-hoiise 

 attractive, and that wliile they improve the taste, 

 they contribute essentially to our enjoyment. As 

 has been beautifully said, "they are the innocent 

 occupation of the young members of the family, the 

 elegant luxury of ihfni all, and they impress even 

 the passing stranger with a sense of the taste and 

 the ease of the farmer." 



* * The cause of agriculture has recently 

 received a stimulus which it never before felt. Its 

 improvement in this country and in Europe, has 

 been so rapid, and its advance and estimation as a 

 science so great, that it would be an instructive 

 labor to trace its progress. * * Nowhere h«3 

 this improvement been greater than in our Father- 

 land, as England may well be called by the I'ar- 

 mers of Essex, many of whom are now cultivating 

 Ihe fields set oR" to their English ancestors in the 

 "division of lots," two centnries ago. Agriculture 

 was introduced into England by the Romans, and 

 strange as it may seem, very little improvement 

 was made in the art for many centuries afterwards. 

 Greater progress has probably been made within 

 the last half century than in the sixteen hundred 

 years succeeding the Roman conquest. Is it not 

 astonishing, that in a state of society so advanced 

 as to produce the acknowledged masterspirits of 

 England in literature, the arts, and in science, the 

 parent art — the art of arts — should have been 

 passed by as unworthy of their attention, and as 

 wholly di-^connected with science ? 



The subject is so closely connected with politi- 

 cal economy, and the condition and resources of 

 nations, that no well informed man can be wholly 

 ignorant of the astonishing progress of agriculture 

 in England, as seen in th« improvement of stock, 

 in the variety and rotation of crops, in the intro- 

 duction of new grains and vegetables, in the knowl- 

 edge and compositicm of manures and their more 

 judicious application, and in their gathering up the 

 fragments, so that nothing shall be lost of every 

 animal and vegetable substance which can give ad- 

 ditional fertility to the soil and increase its pro- 

 duction. 



The improvement in agricultural implements, 

 too, has probably been greater within thirty years, 

 than for centuries before. Within a comparatively 

 recent period, the husbandman held the plow made 

 by his own hand. Indeed, it was expected of the 

 plowman to be able to make his own plow. And 

 now, what a change ! — nearly fifty varieties of 

 plows have been exhibited at a fair of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society. And this is not so wonder- 

 ful as the fact just announced to this meeting, that 

 twentyfivc plows liave bten offered this day for 

 premiums, nt a trial of plows to be had. Our dis- 

 tinguished minister to England, Mr Everett, at the 

 late great festival of that Society, remarked, that 

 "'Till lately, ali the great improvomenta in agri- 



culture seem to have been the prniluct of the 

 fancy of mankind." "The very plow dcscribet 

 Viriri), is to be found in the south of Euroi 

 But, he adds — " In going the round of your im, 

 ment and stock yard, I could not fail to be sir 

 with the fact, that how much cause soever mi 

 have existed in former times, for com|)lainin| 

 the deficiency and want of improvement in the ( 

 striiction of agricultural implements, or in any. 

 er part of agriculture, there was no room now 

 making a similar complaint." 



The result of the spirit of improvement in 

 stock, is wonderful. What would an English 

 mer (or an American one) now think of the 

 the sheep, the swine or the horse of the tim 

 Queen Elizabeth ! He would scarcely know 

 animals ; he certainly would not give them I 

 room, or permit them to mingle with his flocks 

 herds. « • « » 



But successful husbandry depends so much i 

 circumstances peculiar to each nation, that it 

 be asked. What has an American farmer to 1 

 from the experience of other countries.' We 

 swer, much every way. The great cause of i 

 cultural improvement in England has been 

 application of scientific principles to the prat 

 of husbandry; and science is universal. She c 

 leaps all national bounderies. She confinei 

 her favors to the old or the new world, nor 

 tracts within the narrow limits of gcograpl 

 lines, what was meant for mankind. 



But we need not go abroad for evidence of 

 juster estimate of the importance of agricul 

 The spirit of improvement is spreading ovei 

 broad land. It has even penetrated into old 

 ginia — and you know that the first article • 

 Virginian's creed has been, that nothing Virgi 

 is capable of improvement. That eminent i 

 ciilturist, the late James M. Garnett, has lol 

 what the state of farming has been, in the Old 

 minion, and what are its present condition 

 prospects. "Formerly, (he says,) cattle wcrf 

 much neglected, that it was common for multit 

 to be starved to denlh every winter, to supply h 

 enough for shoeing the negroes on every f 

 My grandfather was once near dismissing a | 

 overseer, because cattle enough had not die 

 the farm to furnish leather for that purpose ! 

 a favorite opinion with many, even now, tha 

 kinds of farming stock, except horses, are em 

 with a sort of natural sagacity or instinct, w 

 enables them to choose for themselves, in 

 weather, much better shelter than their owi 

 could provide for them. In the spring you 

 behold n spectacle sad enough to move the pill 

 any person who can feel for brute beasts — 

 half dead with the mange — sheep, which have 

 ed nearly all the trouble of shearing, by drop 

 a large portion of their fleeces in Ihe fields, 

 have prevented an overstock of lanbs by yea 

 them in situations convenient to the politic t 

 of buzzards, which may be seen hovering 

 them, in greedy anticipation of their custoii 

 feasts, — and cattle, (heaven help them ! for 

 will not,) with their backs arched, as much as 

 spines will admit, and all four feet drawn u 

 them, to balance themselves, as it were, 

 stronger wind than common should place the 

 a situation which wo call, being on the lift 

 know not whether you northern farmers unders 

 the meaning of this phrase : — we apply it to c 

 that have fallen down from utter inability to si 

 and of course, are unable to rise without b 



