THE CULTIVATOR. 
gtMmgg 
10 
ceeding three hundred and twenty-two millions of pounds, and the 
estimated value falling but a fraction short of thirty-two millions of 
dollars. In addition to this, the home manufacture of the raw ma¬ 
terial now gives employment to half a million of our population, while 
the goods fabricated from it constitute a material source of our inter¬ 
nal commerce. Who can pretend to say what will be the great sta¬ 
ples of our country forty years hence 1 Almost every discovery in 
ecience calls into existence a new art, and almost every new art fur¬ 
nishes a new demand for some product of the soil. It is the pro¬ 
vince of wisdom to keep pace with the knowledge of the times, that 
it may profit by its constant improvements. There is already an in¬ 
creasing demand for products of the soil, which we have the ability 
to supply, but which we continue to import from Europe. Madder, 
woad and weld are essential to our manufactures, and the quantity 
Which is consumed, draws no inconsiderable amount annually from 
our country. Our soil and climate are adapted to their culture, and 
with a little enterprise and experience we may soon be able to sup¬ 
ply the home demand. The madder now imported is computed to 
cost more than two millions of dollars per annum. 
The turnip culture will yet become, as it has proved in Britain, 
the basis of a great improvement in our husbandry. Turnips are at 
the same time an ameliorating and a cleansing crop, and are admi¬ 
rably fitted to precede barley or wheat. But their chief value con¬ 
sists in the abundant product, and the adaptation of the crop to the 
wants of all descriptions of farm stock, at the time when succulent 
food is most wanted, and when it can be but scantily supplied from 
other crops. The Swedish variety has a decided preference. On 
lands adapted to their culture, 600 bushels, or twenty tons of roots 
from the acre may be stated as a moderate average crop. The 
greatest objection to their culture is the labor and expense of secur¬ 
ing them for winter use ; but this is far greater in imagination than 
in reality. On this I can speak from personal experience. A neigh¬ 
bor raised last year from five acres of land, three thousand bushels, 
which he has fed during the winter, and upon which he is now fat¬ 
tening more than one hundred wethers, besides oxen. 
The raising of mulberry trees and the production of silk is another 
branch of rural labor yet new among us, which bids fair to become a 
source of individual and national wealth, and which this society can en¬ 
lighten and promote. The experiments already made have shown, that 
while the business abstracts very little labor from the ordinary em¬ 
ployments of the farm, it is susceptible of yielding a handsome in¬ 
come to the farmer. The early attention of this Society in distri¬ 
buting seeds of the mulberry, has done much towards introducing 
and extending this branch of labor. It is computed that that seed 
may have produced half a million of trees, and that this number may 
have been doubled by individual efforts in that time. A new species 
of the mulberry, (morus multicaulis,) has been introduced from the 
Phillippine Islands, through France, by M. Perrottet, which promis¬ 
es new advantages in the production of silk. The tree is as thrifty 
and as hardy and as easily propagated as the white mulberry, while 
the leaves being much larger, are far more easily gathered, and are 
said to be better adapted to the production of fine silk than the other 
species of this tree. The Asiatic mulberry was introduced into 
France in 1824, and in 1860, it bore seeds abundantly. I would beg 
leave to suggest that the corresponding secretary be instructed to 
procure seed of the morus multicaulis, with a view of its being dis¬ 
tributed by this society. 
The demand for silk fabrics is already great in the United States, 
and is likely to increase in a lar greater ratio than our population. 
The importation of silks in 1832, amounted to ten million dollars. 
As an article of export, the raw material will be in demand for the 
European, and the manufactured fabrics for the South American 
market. France imports raw silk to the value of 30,000,000 francs, 
and in Great Britain, the annual importation of the article exceeds 
120,000,000 dollars. Hence there is little danger of the market be¬ 
coming overstocked. 
The contrast in the profits of good and bad farming is worthy of a 
moment's notice, as few take the trouble to scan it with care. I 
have already alluded to the bad management of our hop crop. Had 
all the hops which were brought to this market the last year been 
equal in quality to the best, and such they probably might have been 
with better knowledge and more care m their management—some 
twenty or thirty thousand dollars might have been put in the pockets 
of the growers, which they failed to obtain. Let us examine what 
the difference is m the corn crop. I estimate the cost of cultivating and 
harvesting an acre of corn at fifteen dollars, and that a farmer will 
ordinarily plant four acres. His expense then will be sixty dollars. 
If the crop yields him thirty bushels an acre—and more falls short 
than goes over this quantity—and he sells the product at fifty cents 
the bushel, he will be remunerated for his labor, but get not a cent 
of profit. Now, if instead of thirty , the acre was made to produce, by 
good management, eighty bushels, the four acres, at the assumed price , 
would pay for the labor and afford him a nett profit besides, of one hun - 
dred and thirty dollars. Here then would be a difference, in one 
year, in the profits of four acres, of $130, all resulting from good and 
bad management. I beg leave here, as affording to my hands a 
happy illustration of the contrast I would exhibit, the practice of an 
individual who stands deservedly high as a practical farmer,* and as 
a gentleman of respectability and veracity. I will first show what 
his land did produce ; and then what it does produce. “The land 
I now till, (he observes,) at first, would not produce, on an average, 
more than fifteen or twenty bushels of corn, ten or fifteen bushels of 
wheat, barley, or rye, and from half a ton to one ton of hay.” By 
good management, economizing manures, and a proper rotation of 
crops, he adds, “ some of my fields now yield from eighty to one hun¬ 
dred bushels of corn, thirty-five to forty bushels of wheat, fifty to 
sixty of barley, and from two and a half, to three and a half tons of 
hay per acre, and with less labor (except in harvest) than when I did 
not raise more than one-third or one quarter as much per acre as I do 
now.” The same intelligence and industry, that have trebled or 
quadrupled the profits of this farm, will produce like results when¬ 
ever they are diffused and brought into exercise. 
I have thus adverted, gentlemen, to those defects in our husband¬ 
ry, to which I proposed at this time to call your attention, and have 
endeavored to show their magnitude, and the importance of apply¬ 
ing efficient remedies. I will now call your attention to some of the 
available means of placing our agriculture on a more respectable 
and productive basis. The means which I shall particularly com¬ 
mend to your notice, may be embraced under the following heads : 
1. A school, to illustrate the principles of science upon which the 
labors of agriculture are based, and to teach the best models of prac¬ 
tice. 
2. A more general diffusion of useful knowledge, in a cheap form, 
accessible to the humblest condition in life. 
3. Agricultural associations ; and, 
4. The bestowments of pecuniary rewards, as stimulants to enter¬ 
prise and industry. 
I need not stop to dwell upon the advantages which learning af¬ 
fords to agricultural labor. Science may be defined a study ot the 
immutable laws of the Creator which erovern and regulate mind and 
matter. The study of these laws, and their application to the wants 
and comforts of life, have for ages constituted one of the highest and 
most useful employments of man ; and have contributed, more than 
any other human effort, to refine and elevate us above the grosser 
and degraded condition of savage life. The concentrated benefits 
of these labors are now proffered to our hands. The pleasures and 
the benefits which they impart, are held out as noble rewards to men¬ 
tal labor, in the same spirit that the blessings of health and compe¬ 
tence are promised to him who “ earns his bread by the sweat of the 
brow.” Labor, mental or bodily, is the inseparable attendant of ra¬ 
tional enjoyment. And is that knowledge to be contemned, which 
has done so much good to the world, and which has countless bless¬ 
ings yet in store for the human family ? “ In a theological view,” says 
a late eminent writer,! “science is nothing else than a rational in¬ 
quiry into the arrangements and operations of the Almighty, in or¬ 
der to trace the perfections therein displayed. And what, continues 
our author, are the truths which science has discovered ? They may 
be regarded as so many rays of celestial light descending from the 
Great Source of Intelligence to illuminate the humap mind in the 
knowledge of the Divine character and government, and to stimu¬ 
late it to a still more vigorous exertion in similar investigations, just 
as the truths of revelation are so many emanations from the ‘Father 
of Lights,’ to enlighten the darkness, and to counteract the disor¬ 
ders of the moral world.” 
Our state may be compared to a great family, the members of 
which are employed in diversified pursuits, all designed and calcu¬ 
lated to promote the common weal—having a common as well as in¬ 
dividual object, and all united by reciprocal ties. In tnis light it is 
considered as respects crime and want. One is punished, and the 
* Earl Stimson, of Galway. 
t Dick on tho Improvement of Society by the Diffusion of Knowledge. 
