156 



THE NEW GENESEE FARMER, 



Vol. 3. 



From Caiman's Srcinil Report, 

 Shakers' Establishmciics. 



In a survey of the Agricullure of Berkshire, il 

 would be inexcusable to paas over these establish 

 ments. 



1. The Family at Tyringhara consista ordinarily 

 of one hundred members. The farm is understood 

 to contain more than one thousand ncreo, principally 

 situated on the side of a high hill, and running down 

 into the valley, where it is crossed by the small stream 

 called Hop brook, which empties into the Housatonic 

 river at South Lee. The view from this eminence, 

 as the prospect extends towards the northwest, em- 

 bracing the village of Lenox, " set upon a hill," with 

 the whole intervening valley of a diversified aspect 

 and luxuriant soil, the little manufacturing bee-hive 

 of South Lee, and the many rich summits every where 

 scattered in the background of the picture, their tops 

 and sides fringed with the chesnut and the rock maple; 

 and the noble pile of Saddle-Mountain lying in the 

 distant perspective like a contemplative giant in his 

 repose, is among the most beautiful of those enchant- 

 ing views, which are constantly opening upon the 

 traveller, in this picturesque region. 



The principal object of their farming, at Tyring, 

 hnm, is the raising of stock ; neat cattle especially. 

 Their dairy is well managed; and they have a gar- 

 den of four or five acres, devoted to the raising of 

 garden seeds and medicinal herbs, under skilful and 

 successful cultivation. Their annual sales have some- 

 times amounted to $3,100 ; and they allow to their 

 agents twenty-five per cent, commission on sales, and 

 lake back what is unsold. They produce some wheat, 

 corn, and oats ; and they are now effecting with great 

 labor and admirable skill, the redemption of extensive 

 alluvial meadows on Hopbrook, by draining, rooting 

 out the stumps, and cultivating the soil, which will 

 bring these lands under a course of most productive 

 improvement. 



Of the religion of this peculiar people, it is not for 

 me in this place to speak. A religion which holds 

 the severest restraint over appetites and passions ever 

 liable by their excesses to lead men astray, which en- 

 courages industry, frugality, mutual love and kind- 

 ness, and that which is certainly not lowest in the scale 

 of virtues, the most exemplary neatness and order in 

 every thing, is so far entitled to respect and commen- 

 dation. Under whatever aspect we view it, we have 

 at least occasion to congratulate ourselves, that we live 

 under a government tolerant to every honest differ 

 enceof worship and opinion ; and to remember, that 

 the same p'inciple, which secures freedom to our- 

 elves, should guarantee to others a like boon. 



2. The establishment ol the brethren at Fittsfield 

 and Hancock, consists of about seven hundred acres, 

 lying together ; and is possessed by three large fami- 

 lies, containing upwards of three hundred individ- 

 uals. They are united for all the general purposes of 

 their society ; but in their financial concerns are as 

 families separate fiom each other. The land is not 

 of the best description, being low, cold and wet ; and 

 their attention is mainly directed to the cultiyation of 

 grass and garden seeds, and the keeping of cows and 

 sheep. Their first purpose is for their own supply. 

 They raise the best they can, and they eat the best 

 they raise ; and though from their temperate and care- 

 ful habits their thrift is remarkable, yet the accumu- 

 lation of property is evidently not a principal object 

 with them. They have various mechanical contri- 

 •vances by which their labor is abridged or lightened. 

 They have made the best use of the water power 

 which their place furnishes, and husband it with care 

 eod economy. They haffe an extensive saw-mi!l cur- 

 ficd by water, and all their fuel is cut in the some 

 way. A aimpia arraEgemeat which il may appear 



trifling to mention, impressed me by its shrewdness 

 and good judgment. Ordinarily, fire wood is piled 

 horizontally, and when exposed to the weather, be- 

 comes water-soaked and mouldy. Their billets of 

 wood being sawed were stacked up in convenient 

 piles, the sticks being placed upright on the end, so 

 that any water which fell upon the pile was imme- 

 diately drained olT. After being sawed they were 

 neatly put up under cover, 



I have already referred to their magnificent barn, 

 built of stone of a circular form, three stories in 

 height, ninety-six feet diameter, and capable, as well 

 as may be calculated, of containing from three to four 

 hundred tons of hay. The carts enter in the second 

 story ; the floor or drive-way is continued round by 

 the wall for the whole of the circle, so that the cart 

 passes round the entire distance, and when the hay is 

 dischorged, goes out at the same door at which it en- 

 tered. All the hay is deposited in the centre. Sev- 

 eral loaded wagons may stand in the floor, and be 

 sheltered and unloaded at the same time. 



The roof is a beautiful and curious specimen of 

 carpentry ; and appears to be most securely support- 

 ed. In the centre of the floor, there rises to the apex 

 of the roof a single colttmn as large ls an admiral's 

 mast, around which a hollow frame of slats is fixed, 

 and which serves as a ventilator or chimney to dis- 

 charge the steam of the hay. It is open at the top, 

 and protected by a small cupola against the rain. At 

 the same time the hoy is raised from the ground, 

 obout a foot by an open floor of slats, so that there is, 

 while the hay is new, a constant circulation of air up 

 this chimney ; and one of the friends informed me, 

 that the steam passing from the hay in this mode was 

 oltentimes so dense, that, to use his own expression, 

 " you could wash your hands in it." The arrange- 

 ments for the cattle are in the lower etory, where 

 every animal has its place and number, and where 

 every cow is designated by a label on the post as in 

 milk or otherwise. In this circular form, there is of 

 course a considerable loss of room ; yet the method 

 of feeding is easy ; the place is kept clean ; the whole 

 arrangements are convenient ; and the kindly treated 

 animals standing around this huge mass of hay, have 

 at least the pleasure of seeing the good things in store 

 for them. These friends have singular advantages, 

 in the amount of labor which they are able at any 

 time to command and apply to any object which they 

 have in view ; and their establishment presents a 

 beautiful illustration of the advantages of well direct- 

 ed industry, neatness, and order. The great rule of 

 domestic economy " a place for every thing, and every 

 thing in its place," is no where more strikingly ex- 

 emplified ; and though they make no pretensions to 

 the fine arts, and have little of what is called taste, 

 yet all their arrangements, and the products of their 

 labor, exhibit the proofs of tuoroiighncES, permanency, 

 utility, and substantial comfort. 



Their dairy is exquisitely neat in every part of il. 

 Their piggery is the exclusive concern of a single in- 

 dividual ; and illustrates theutiliiy in a large concern 

 of B division (if labor ond of individual responsibility. 

 They have attempted an improvement of their neat 

 slock, by the introduction of some of the improved 

 breeds, and the young stock which they were raising 

 from this cross, promised extremely well, though no 

 opportiinity had been had to (est their qualities for milk. 

 Their land is considered in a great measure unfavora- 

 ble to the production of grain : and a large portion of 

 their bread stuff therefore is purchased. They hove 

 likewise occosionally hired extensive tracts of meadow 

 on the Mohawk river in the state of New\ork, which 

 they have cultivated by colonies, in order to obtain 

 brush for the manufacture ol brooms, a branch of bu- 

 siness which heretofore they have carried on to a con- 



siderable extent. They keep a large fliick of sheep ; 

 and all their woollen fabrics are manufactured among 

 themselves. They likewise are very extensively en- 

 gaged in the raising of garden seeds, which are put 

 up in a very neat manner, as is well known, and dis- 

 tributed over the country. 



A three story brick building or college, erected for 

 one of their families, is most remarkable for its neat- 

 ness and the excellence of the materials and work- 

 manship. What by the " world's people,' is called 

 taste, that is a study of symmetry and beauly in the 

 forms of objects, is studiously abjured by this remarka- 

 ble community. Yet in the perfection of finish, 

 which they bestow upon every production of their 

 mechanical industry, they show that native perception 

 of fitness, order, and harmony, which constitute the 

 elements of the most cultivated and refined tEste. 

 The same amount of expense and labor, of which 

 they are never sparing, already devoted to the con- 

 struction of their buildings and the arrangement of 

 their grounds, had they indulged themselves even in 

 a slight degree in tasteful ornament and embellish- 

 ment, without impairing at all the convenience, utility 

 or permanence of their works, might have rendered 

 them extremely beautiful. In so doing they would 

 have found in them a new and prolific source of pleas- 

 ure, may I not add also of improvement. I know 

 their candor will pardon these suggestions which have 

 no unkind origin ; and which have their foundation 

 in the universal beauty of the natural world, as seen 

 every where and always even in the perishable crys- 

 tals of the frost, and the fading tints of the sky, in the 

 plumage of the birds, in the unrivalled splendors of 

 the vegetable world ; in a word in every production 

 of the divine power and goodness from an atom float- 

 ing in the sunbeam to a planet, wheeling its course in 

 the glittering arches of the skies. 



^ From Cohnan's Second Report. 



Compost and Iiiquiil Mauares. 



Manures are the very sinews of agriculture ; its 

 food ; its life-blood. To this matter the attention of 

 most farmers cannot be too strongly directed. 



It is generally conceded that all animal manures 

 have most efficacy when applied in the gieeuest state. 

 They are then most active ; and their chemical effects 

 upon the soil are immediate and powerful. In a di- 

 rect application to the soil, however, they cannot be 

 very thoroughly intermixed ; and on this account, 

 without question, they are less efficacious than they 

 would be, if uniformly distributed and thoroughly in- 

 corporated with the earth. To effect this object in 

 the best manner, it is desirable to form them in com- 

 post heaps, with other substances ; mud, scrapings of 

 yards, scrapings of roads, sods or decayed vegetable 

 matters of every description ; and even simple loain 

 or mould, or any substance which will act as a reten- 

 tive absorbent. Thus compounded the liquids of the 

 manure will be retained and the escape of the valuable 

 gaseous effluvia prevented ; and by being thoroughly 

 and equally intermixed and diffused, the whole mass 

 becomes a valuable and efficacious manure. The 

 amount of manure in this way is greatly increased ; 

 and it is believed, that one part of green animal ma- 

 nure combined in this way with two parts of mould, 

 swamp mud, decoiuposed peat, and even some por- 

 tion of clay, will prove quite as serviceable as if the 

 whole mass were animal manure applied in a raw and 

 unmixed state. Some intelligent £u»ier8 maintain 

 that the proportion of animal maijjp^r dung requi- 

 site to impregnate a large mass in compost is much 

 less than I have allowed. This con be always favor- 

 ably done in a well constructed barn-yard. The bot- 

 tom of a barn-yard ought always to be kept well cov- 

 ered with loam or mud, or other matters to absorb the 

 liquids of the yard. But il may often he done to ad- 



