884 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 19 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker 
TIMES 1IUILDING , NEW YORK. 
* * 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
* * 
ELBERT S. CARMAN, Editor In Chief. 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD, Managing Editor. 
Copyrighted 1891. 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1891. 
“Our ancestors,” says Cato, the Censor, “regarded 
it as a grand point in husbandry not to have too much 
land in one farm ; for they considered that more profit 
came from holding little and tilling it well.” 
* * 
Is the longer retention, after fall frosts, of the 
leaves of certain kinds of small fruits—blackberries 
and raspberries, for example—an evidence of hardi¬ 
ness ? Is there any known relationship of this kind 
between varieties of large fruits, peaches, pears and 
apples, for instance ? 
* * 
The first work on agriculture that appeared in Eng¬ 
land was the “ Hoke of Ilusbandrie,” published in 1524, 
by Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, ‘ ‘ a farmer of 40 years’ 
standing,” as he tells us. Like many farmers to-day 
who have little faith in “Chemicals and Clover,” he 
believed that “ a housebande cannot thryve by his corne 
without cattell; nor by his cattell without corne.” 
“ Shepe, in myne opinion,” he adds, “ is the most profit- 
ablest cattell that man can have.” Like the ancient 
Romans, the old man evidently believed in the great 
virtues of the “golden hoof.” 
* * 
The first systematic English book in which there are 
any traces of a rotation of crops is Blythe’s “ Improver 
Improved,” published in 1(549, with a third edition, 
considerably enlarged, in 1662. He advised the inter¬ 
posing of clover and turnips between culmiferous or 
straw-bearing crops. Almost all the manures now 
used seem to have been well known in his day. He 
also speaks of an implement which plowed, sowed and 
harrowed at the same time. From him we learn that, 
shortly before, the city of London had petitioned Par¬ 
liament against the “two anuisances” likely to come 
into great use, to wit, coals from New Castle, and 
hops, special stress being laid on the offensive nature 
of the latter “ in regard that they spoyle the taste of 
drink and endanger the people.” 
* * 
To Arthur Young (1741-1820) the world is perhaps 
more indebted for the spread of agricultural knowledge 
than to any other man. His numerous and extensive 
journeys in search of agricultural information, his 
intelligent researches and his popular writings inter¬ 
ested the learned not only of England but of Conti¬ 
nental Europe in agricultural pursuits. His experi¬ 
ments as to the real causes of fertility (1783-1786) laid 
the foundation of much valuable subsequent researches 
and foreshadowed or anticipated many later important 
discoveries. He was the first to discover that nitro¬ 
genous manures increased the power of plants to avail 
themselves of mineral manures, and that exposing the 
bare earth to the sun’s rays was injurious—a discovery 
still unknown to or ignored by the advocates of sum¬ 
mer-fallowing. * * 
Within the memory of many gray-headed men fight¬ 
ing, drunkenness and cock-fighting were considered, if 
not gentlemanly, at least not deserving of very serious 
censure. Public men were elected and reelected to 
high public offices, who were confessedly immoral, boast¬ 
ing of their black characters rather than trying to hide 
them. In to-day’s politics such men would be driven 
out of public life, unless they found a foothold in the 
slums of some great city where vote-selling is a busi¬ 
ness. In old times it was the farmer who held closest 
to the old, honest and conservative ways of his fathers, 
and yet was the first to take up great moral questions 
where truth and justice conflicted with “ ‘ business. ” The 
great cities have generally shown an inclination to 
dodge a moral issue when its support meant a loss of 
trade. This is no less true of society at the present 
time. * * 
Three hundred years ago the “ cornerers” of produce 
would have met deserved punishment in England. By 
a statute of 1552 it was declared “ that any person that 
shall buy merchandise, victuals, etc., coming to market 
or make any bargain for buying the same, before they 
shall be on the market ready to be sold, or shall make 
any motion for enhancing the price or dissuade any 
person from coming to market, or forbear to bring any 
of the things to market, etc., shall be deemed a fore- 
staller. Any person who buys and sells again in the 
same market or within four miles thereof shall be a 
regrater. Any person buying corn in the field or any 
other corn with intent to sell again shall be reputed an 
unlawful ingrosser.” It was also declared unlawful for 
anybody to sell cattle within five weeks after he had 
bought them. Severe penalties were provided for all 
the offences of which these law-breakers were guilty. 
* * 
The first work on agriculture published in this coun¬ 
try was a series of valuable essays on field husbandry 
begun in 1742, by Jared Eliot, a Connecticut clergyman. 
Owing to the character of the climate, Indian hostili¬ 
ties, the difficulty of procuring new seeds, implements, 
etc., and the dislike of all innovations, but little prog¬ 
ress was made in American farming until after the 
Revolution. The South Carolina Agricultural Society 
was established in 1784 ; the Massachusetts Society in 
1792, and the Philadelphia Society in 1798. Their in¬ 
fluence, however, was mainly local. It was not until 
years afterwards that the “reading habit” began to 
become common among the people, and the annual 
publications of their transactions found few readers. 
All farm practices were merely traditional, and “ book 
farming” was generally despised with a heartiness 
that would delight the most prejudiced, old-fogy, stick- 
in-the-rut, backwoods farmer of to-day. 
* * 
Jethro Tull’s “Horse-hoeing Husbandry,” pub¬ 
lished in 1731, exhibits the first decided advance 
on the principles and practices of his predecess¬ 
ors. After skillful and persevering researches on 
the growth of plants, he arrived at the conclusion 
that their food consisted of minute particles of 
earth taken up by their rootlets. It followed, there¬ 
fore, that the more thoroughly the soil in which they 
grew was pulverized the more abundant and available 
would be the “ pasture ” (as he called it) to which their 
fibers would have access. To effect this object, he 
adopted a new system of culture by drilling and fre¬ 
quent cultivation, chiefly with the horse-hoe. Though 
wrong in his theory, Tull was right in his practice. 
The best farmers of to-day believe in frequent and 
thorough pulverization of the soil, not because the 
plant is supposed to live on minute particles of earth, 
but to admit air and moisture freely to the soil and 
roots and to convert the top layer into a mulch to pre¬ 
vent evaporation. # # 
Although Liebig, in 1840, was the first to direct 
public attention to the vast stores of fertility, hitherto 
unused, in animal and mineral phosphates, phosphate 
of lime and other artificial manures, and thus the first 
to lead to their extensive use, Sir Humphry Davy, in 
his “ Elements of Agricultural Chemistry,” published 
in 1813, was the first to apply the science of chemistry 
to the improvement of agriculture. He showed, as early 
as 1807, how plants, soils and manures could be ana- 
.yzed, and how the manures needed by the different 
sorts of plants could be selected. He experimented 
largely with the carbonates, muriates, sulphates and 
nitrates as fertilizers. As far back as 1805, before it 
was generally known in Europe or elsewhere, he 
experimented quite extensively with guano, and 
strongly recommended it, as well as bone, for the 
enrichment of the 3oil. Although some of the results 
obtained by him were imperfect and others erroneous, 
agriculture owes him a debt of gratitude alike for the 
value of his own actual discoveries, and for being the 
first scientific man to call the attention of the learned 
world to the vast possibilities and importance of agri¬ 
cultural science. # * 
Christopher Columbus was not a farmer. He 
was a town-bred man who had struggled for years 
against poverty and disappointment. Personally he 
was a man of high character and exalted ambition, 
with wonderful visions of the “new world” he thought 
he had found. He knew, however, that nothing but 
gold would satisfy his royal patrons. He therefore 
spent all his energies in searching for islands where 
gold could be found. This spirit followed all the early 
Spanish settlers. They were gold hunters—not home 
seekers. The gold they sent back to Spain gave that 
nation for a time the highest place among European 
powers, but permanent agricultural progress was im¬ 
possible until the English came—seeking homes. The 
English in Massachusetts, Virginia and Georgia and 
the Dutch in New York were farmers—not gold 
hunters. 
Europe at that time viewed America simply as an 
outlet for her adventurous spirits—the fierce, bold 
men who loved adventure and chafed under any re¬ 
straint of law and order, inmates of English prisons 
whose only crime was an inability to pay their debts, 
younger sons of noble families, shut out by the land 
laws from inheriting a fair division of real estate, and, 
last and best of all, the true, brave hearts whose con¬ 
ceptions of freedom and of religion were walled in by 
the cruel oppression of that day. All these classes rushed 
to America as the promised land in which they might 
find what the old country denied them. 
We feel sure that all historians will agree that Amer¬ 
ican agriculture of to-day owes most to the foundation 
so firmly laid by the class last mentioned—the Puritans. 
They were brothers 
“ In that great majesty of soul 
That knows not color, tongue or clime! 
That still hath spurned the base control 
Of tyrants for all time.” 
The New Englander was the best farmer because he 
paid most attention to the boy crop and girl crop, and 
though the agriculture of New England itself is now 
at a lower ebb, we must remember that the power and 
wealth of the country west of the Alleghanies are 
largely due to the fact that the people trace back to 
the New England hill-sides, where thrift, enterprise, 
loyalty and love of liberty had been for generations, 
bred into the people. 
* * 
Farmers have practiced rotation of crops for cen 
turies, without knowing why they did it, except 
that the crops “were better.” Some strange ideas 
were held regarding the way plants fed and grew. For 
example, Tull wrote in 1731, “ some plants are of a bet¬ 
ter constitution, and have a quicker digestion, like cor¬ 
morants or pigeons, devouring more greedily and a 
greater quantity of food than those of a colder tem¬ 
perature, of equal bulk, whose sap, having a more lan¬ 
guid motion, sends off fewer recrements, and therefore 
a less supply of food is required in their room.” For 
these reasons he argued that a plant of ‘ ‘ cold tempera¬ 
ture” should follow a “cormorant.” Tull never 
dreamed of the science of farming with “ Chemicals 
and Clover,” and yet, in a crude way, he had found 
the fundamental truth of the rotation that is making 
fertilizer farming pay. In that rotation corn (maize) 
is the “ cormorant.” It takes the sod and the stable 
manure, uses part for its growth and works over the 
rest for the potatoes, wheat and grass. Corn is a plant 
with a “ hot constitution ” and does devour its coarse 
food “ greedily.” The potatoes are more active than 
the corn. They have all the fertilizer, while the 
“colder” wheat and grass follow and eat the “leav¬ 
ings.” What a fertilizer farmer Tull would have 
made could he have lived in 1891 ! 
* * 
BREVITIES. 
In the good old Colony times; the Indian men would say, 
Men folks for war, work for the squaw, 
In time of peace let’s play. 
Habits are slow to change; wouldn't you think it strange 
If we can’t find just the same mind 
In the men folks to-day ? 
Now war Is a thing of the past, and yet modern men folks still say, 
Poor woman, so tender, needs man to defend her 
And till th e fight comes let us play. 
His work Is with his jaw, while the poor modem squaw, 
Works like a slave—he is the brave 
Claiming the fame and pay. 
Imagine Dr. Beal walking half a mile with “ lire ! ” 
Do you wish you had been born In the l(>th century ? 
WE had to go to China to breed tameness Into our fowlB. 
“ WE have much to be thankful for.” Let’s be worthy of it. 
“THE farmer may praise large estates,” says Virgil, “but let him 
cultivate a small one.” 
Columbus first saw a cigar smoked In Cuba. He thought it was a 
“ Devil’s plant.” Was his first impression wrong ? 
“ Hops, reformation, bays and beer 
Came Into England all in one year.” 
Viewed In the light of his chances and education, the American In¬ 
dian was not a worse farmer than hundreds of this generation’s white 
men. 
NEVER forget that a clam shell in the hands of an Industrious squaw 
produced a better crop than the best tool In the hands of a lazy white 
man. 
C. L. Allen: “ The changing of the name of a plant is a crime and he 
who practices it is a criminal, because lie takes for himself that which be¬ 
longs to another.” 
When clover first came to England farmers said of It: “ Gentlemen 
may sow it, but we must take care to pay our rent.” Where do you Und 
a better rent payer than clover ? 
The Indian cut down trees fast enough to suit him with the shoulder 
blade of a moose. The ax and saw came Into use simply because we 
are more In a hurry than he was. 
The breeding of Galloway and Angus cattle for their hide value Is 
certainly something our ancestors never dared to dream of. There 
were too many wild hides in their day. 
From Thomas Tusser’s agricultural doggerel, “Five Hundred Points 
of Good Husbandry,” published in 1550, we learn that carrots, cabbages 
and turnips had only just been introduced as kitchen vegetables. 
On his second voyage from Spain In 1493, Columbus carried cattle, 
horses, sheep, swine and poultry with which to stock his “new world.” 
On this voyage he found Indians with domesticated geese, which they 
had tamed from the wild flocks. 
IN 1840 Daniel Webster wrote, “many valuable treatises are nothing 
but a sealed book, from the use of technical words and phrases. I say 
this without disrespect to the Intelligence or learning of farmers In 
general, since it Is certainly my own case.” 
The first bull brought to New England was pure white. The famous 
“ red cattle ” of the Yankees were descended from Devons. Many of 
the colonists who came to join the Pilgrims sailed from southwest 
England and brought the cattle of that neighborhood. The Dutch 
brought their own cattle to New York. 
The English established turnpike roads In 1083, and under George II. 
it was sung, 
* * * “ No cit nor clown 
Can gratis see the city or the town.” 
Yet on a public turnpike Young found “ ruts four feet in depth.” 
In the early days of English Immigration, almost every family, that 
could do so, brought a coop of chickens with them. The English im¬ 
migrant of to-day, on starting for Australia or New Zealand, often 
takes his chickens along, thinking, doubtless, that he cannot get them 
In the “ new country.” This is no worse than the New England family 
who took five dozen flat irons to Illinois, in the early days, to sell to 
the settlers. 
Over 100 years ago the cheese of Suffolk was famous; it was “ so hard 
that pigs grunt at it, dogs bark at it, but none dare bite it.” The poet 
Bloomfield sang that it 
“ Mocks the weak effort of the bending blade 
Or in the hog-trough rests in perfect spite, 
Too big to swallow and too hard to bite.” 
