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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
AN 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 HAMPSHIRE, FRANKLIN, AND HAMPDEN 
 
 AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY ; 
 
 DELIVERED m GREENFIELD, OCT. 53, l83l 
 
 BY HENRY COLMAN. 
 
 PURLlSilED At THE REiJUEST OP THE SOCIETY; 
 
 GREENFIELD, iVIASS. 
 
 PRINTED BY PHELPS AND INGERSOLL* 
 
 1833. 
 
 .6X 521 
 
. Digitized by tine Internet Arbiiive 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 i 
 littp://www.arcliive.org/details/addressbeforeliamOOcolmrich 4 
 
Cb 
 
 TO JOHN LOWELL, ESQ. 
 
 THE ROXBURY FARMER 5 
 
 Whose talents through life have been devoted 
 to objects of public utility and improvement ; and 
 to whose enlightened, indefatigable, liberal, and 
 disinterested exertions, the .^Agriculture of Massa- 
 chusetts is in the deepest measure indebted, this 
 Address is inscribed with sentiments of the high- 
 est respect by its 
 
 AUTHOR. 
 
 Meadowbanks, Deerfield, 
 Oct. 1833. 
 
ADDRES8. 
 
 " The eflforts to extend the dominion of man over nature," 
 says Bacon, the great master of Philosophy " is the most 
 healthy and most noble of all ambitions." This admirable 
 sentiment is in nothing more true than in its application to 
 agriculture. Here man exercises dominion over nature ; ex- 
 erts a power more nearly than any other resembling a creative 
 power ; commands the earth on which he treads to waken her 
 mysterious energies ; spreads fertility over barrenness ; scat- 
 ters the beauties and glories of the vegetable creation, where 
 before all was desolate ; compels the inanimate earth to teem 
 with life ; and to impart sustenance and power, health and 
 happiness to the countless multitudes, who hang upon her 
 breast and are dependent on her bounty. 
 
 Agriculture is the great interest of every community ad- 
 vanced beyond the savage state. I mean no invidious dis- 
 tinction. The interests of the social body are various ; and 
 in proportion to its improved condition its wants are multiplied 
 to an indefinite extent. Many hands and many arts are ne- 
 cessary to erect, support, furnish, light up, adorn the grand 
 superstructure of society, and supply the wants and provide 
 for the entertainment of its innumerable and insatiate guests. 
 The division of labor is one of the most important improve- 
 ments of civilization, and one of the surest evidences of its 
 
 mG8020 
 
advancement. It is essential to the perfection of the arts of 
 life. The humblest occupations are important ; and, if useful 
 and honest, are respectable. He who labors with his mind, 
 equally as he who labors with his hands, is a working man. 
 The hardy ploughman who *' jocund drives his team a'field," 
 and proudly strokes the smooth coats of his cattle, has no 
 reason to envy the pale and emaciated scholar, poring till 
 faint with exhaustion over the half formed progeny of his 
 wearied brain ; with eyes scarce open hunting for metaphors 
 by the expiring rays of his midnight lamp ; and waiting so 
 long with hope deferred for the gushes of inspiration, that 
 when at last the waters are troubled he has not strength 
 enough left to crawl to the fountain. In the crowded hive of 
 human life, they who build the cell, as well as they " who gather 
 the honey to store it well" are mutually useful and essential. 
 But among the various occupations of society, agriculture ob- 
 viously holds a commanding rank. If the prince may proudly 
 say *' I govern all," and the soldier " I fight for all," and the 
 merchant " I pay all ;" the farmer may hold up his head as 
 high as the rest, and with a noble self complacency may say> 
 " I feed all." What would become of the operatives, and of 
 what use would be the curious and exquisite machinery of the 
 largest establishment, if the power-wheel should cease its re- 
 volutions ? Manufactures and commerce, all of science and all 
 of art, all of intellectual as well as physical good, are depend- 
 ant on agriculture. The agricultural products of one year 
 are not more than sufficient for the consumption of the animal 
 creation until the succeeding harvest pours out its golden trea- 
 sures. If the husbandman should remit his labors for a single 
 season the human race must perish. What would philosophy 
 do without bread 1 Without agriculture the thundering wheels 
 and the buzzing spindles of the manufacturer must cease their 
 gyrations. She too loads the buoyant arks of commerce, and 
 bids them speed their flight to the remotest regions of the 
 earth, and return deeply freighted with the treasures of foreign 
 climes. 
 
Agriculture as a profession begins to occupy the rank 
 among us to which it has a just claim. Some of the most 
 distinguished men in our own and other countries, in the pre- 
 sent and past ages, men as eminent for intellectual and moral 
 attainments as for the station which they have occupied in 
 public regard and the part which they have performed in public 
 affairs, have honored the profession and themselves by engaging 
 even in its humblest labors and details ; and have ingenuously 
 confessed that they have found in its calm pursuits an inex- 
 haustible source of interest and recreation, and a more grate- 
 ful pleasure than the brilliant scenes of public life have afford- 
 ed. The elements of true dignity of character are integrity, 
 usefulness, activity, and intelligence. This beautiful valley, 
 watered by the beneficent stream, whose name it bears, and 
 fenced in by those magnificent highlands, which mark its pro- 
 gress to the ocean, presents in its farming population so many 
 examples of this noble combination, that the profession of 
 agriculture here occupies a front rank among the most useful 
 and respectable. 
 
 It is with unfeigned diffidence that I address an assembly 
 of such men on this occasion. Feeling myself, even after 
 years of inquiry and practice in this great art, only a learner, 
 and a comparative stranger in this part of the country, I was 
 honestly averse to this duty. I shall attempt nothing more 
 than to offer such hints, as may stimulate the inquiries of oth- 
 ers ; and should it appear, that I am greatly out of my place, 
 I shall console myself with the reflection, that the responsi- 
 bility of the appointment rests not with him who accepts, but 
 with those who make it. 
 
 The agriculture of the counties under the auspices of this 
 Society is highly respectable ; but I trust I shall not give 
 offence, by saying that it admits of great improvements ; and 
 by referring to some points to which our efforts for improve- 
 ment may be directed. 
 
 The agricultural population here may be divided into three 
 
classes. First those, who, besides cultivating some land, are 
 likewise tradesmen or mechanics ; and with their agricultural 
 unite some mechanical or professional pursuit, to which their 
 farming is only secondary. The returns of husbandry are in 
 general so much slower and smaller than those from their art 
 or trade, that the latter is likely to absorb much of their at- 
 tention to the prejudice of their husbandry. There are emi- 
 nent exceptions to this remark ; and we owe to some of these 
 persons many valuable experiments in agriculture, which 
 their ready capital has furnished them with the means of mak- 
 ing under circumstances of great advantage. 
 
 The second class is composed of those, who, occupying 
 small farms, look for nothing from their farms beyond the bare 
 support of their families ; having other resources, they feel in-* 
 dependent of its returns ; or devoid of ambition, and indolent 
 and improvident, they are content with the most scanty re>* 
 turns. Ignorant of the art of living, they are in general in the 
 midst of the means of abundance destitute of common com- 
 forts ; and are satisfied if they obtain, by a little labor incon- 
 stantly and indifferently applied, the bare necessaries of life. 
 
 The third class comprehends those with whom agriculture is 
 an exclusive profession ; who are willing to labor and are seek- 
 ing the fair rewards of industry. Stimulated by an honest de- 
 sire of profit, they are anxious to extend their cultivation to the 
 farthest point to which it may be carried to advantage. It is 
 to this latter class, who alone, properly speaking, deserve the 
 name of farmers, that my remarks will be directed. 
 
 Farming here consists of three kinds ; first, dairy farming ; 
 second, grazing, embracing sheep husbandry, and the raising 
 of young stock ; and lastly arable farming, including the con- 
 sumption of the produce on the place by the stall-feeding of 
 cattle, sheep, or swine. There are many farms, which to a 
 certain extent combine these pursuits ,' but these objects 
 are distinct, and cannot often to any great extent be ad- 
 vantageously prosecuted together. 
 
9 
 
 T. Of dairy husbandry, I shall say little. The art of making 
 cheese is well understood among us ; and its quality in gen- 
 eral good ; but in regard to butter, great improvement is as de- 
 sirable as it is practicable. Much of that manufactured here 
 is scarcely tolerable. Any person, accustomed to eat the but- 
 ter brought into the Philadelphia market, must have observed 
 its extraordinary superiority in flavor and richness to the arti- 
 cle generally produced among us. What occasions this su- 
 periority ? There is an advantage in the spring houses of the 
 Pennsylvanians, built of stone over some running water, where 
 the milk is always kept, and which is devoted exclusively to 
 dairy purposes. This and the cultivation of white clover in their 
 pastures, the frequent churning, so that the cream is never old, 
 the entire expression of the butter-milk, and the most particu- 
 lar attention to cleanliness in every part of the process, are the 
 probable means of their success. But in these respects there 
 is not a single circumstance in which we mi^ht not equal them ; 
 and since the difference in the prices of butter between that of 
 an exquisite quality and that of an ordinary kind is more than 
 a hundred per cent, our dairy farmers have sufficient induce- 
 ments to endeavor to excel. The premiums bestowed for this 
 purpose under the direction of the Massachusetts Agricultural 
 Society have had a highly beneficial effect ; and have proved 
 that we are capable of producing as good butter as can be 
 made. Some exhibited on the present occasion fully estab- 
 lishes this assertion. I may remark in this connexion that 
 little attention is paid to our pastures. Plaster and ashes are 
 seldom applied to them, though in most cases without a doubt 
 the application would be highly beneficial ; and they are suP. 
 fered without concern to be overrun with brakes, briers, and 
 that increasing pest the Canada thistle. There is reason to 
 believe too that our dairy farmers pay little attention to ascer* 
 tain the comparative quality of the milk of their different cows, 
 which in respect to its yield of cream, and of course the 
 amount of butter which may be made from it, must differ very 
 
 15 
 
10 
 
 greatly ; some yielding milk of the richest quality ; and the 
 milk of others being worthless.* 
 
 II. In respect to sheep husbandry and the raising of young 
 stock many farms from their rough and mountainous charac- 
 ter are adapted solely to these objects. The raising of 
 neat stock, however, beyond the consumption of coarse fodder 
 upon a farm, is not a source of great profit, unless upon land 
 of low price. The stall-feeding of beef animals upon hay 
 and meal is likewise a very doubtful source of gain at the 
 average price of hay and grain among us. Few farmers have 
 exactness enough of calculation or experiment to determine 
 whether it does or does not yield a fair compensation for their 
 labor arid produce ; and the purchasing of cattle for the 
 purpose of stall-feeding, is so mach matter of judgment, 
 skill in trade, or mere accident, the thrift of different animals 
 is so different, the state of the market is so precarious, and by 
 the present mode of management the farmer is liable to so many 
 impositions and frauds on. the part of dishonest dealers and 
 butchers, that the chance of success is by many judicious far- 
 mers considered very small. It were greatly to be wished' 
 that some mode or standard^ could be adopted of selling the 
 animal by live weight on the hoof, to avoid the evils and in- 
 conveniences of the present mode,, by which the seller is pla- 
 ced entirely at the mercy of the buyer with no security against 
 fraud and with scarcely the possibility of redress. 
 
 It is confidently believed that the sheep husbandry, when, 
 judiciously pursued, affords far better prospect of gain. Ttis 
 ascertained, that no husbandry will do more to preserve and 
 improve the condition of a farm ; and those farmers, who have 
 
 * In a former publication, I have stated a fact coming under my own 
 observation, that in an experiment of milk taken at the same lime and 
 placed in the same situation and where the cows were fed in the same 
 manner, the milk of one cow yielded at the rale of one inch and three tenths 
 of an inch of cream upon nine inches of milk, and thai of anolher cow in 
 same yard produced only two tenths — in the quality of the milk of the Iwo 
 cowf for ibe-^r^DSQ of making butter,, the di^iirence then was 13 to 2.. 
 
3^1 
 
 steadily persevered in it, even under all the fluctuations 
 through which the prices of wool have passed, have received a 
 full remuneration for their care and expenditure. The great 
 question of comparative advantage between the fine wooled, 
 the medium quality, the long wooled, or our common native 
 sheep, presents a subject involving such various considerations, 
 that the present time does not admit of its discussion. The 
 introduction of fine wooled sheep into the country has been of 
 very great advantage ; and though to the serious loss of those 
 persons, who as mere speculators, deluded by most extrava- 
 gant calculations of profit, paid enormous prices for their 
 flocks ; yet to the ultimate and great benefit of those more 
 prudent or more fortunate individuals, who came after them, 
 and reaped the advantage of a reaction in the public estimation 
 of the value of these races of fine wooled sheep, which the heavy 
 disappointments of the first purchasers occasioned. Extreme 
 fineness of fleece is obtained only at the expense of a small and 
 tender carcase. It is confidently hoped that by a judicious 
 combination of the merino with sheep of a larger size a race 
 may be gradually formed yielding wool of a sufficient degree of 
 fineness for the common demand combined with a carcase 
 large enough for the market. Such attempts have already 
 been made with every prospect of success. 
 
 III. I pass hastily along to the subject of arable farms. In- 
 deed I can do no more than suggest a few imperfect hints for your 
 consideration, as I fear I may trespass upon the kindness of a 
 portionof my audience, who feel little interest in the humble de- 
 tails of agriculture. Few will deny that the details are proper 
 to this occasion. I need not bespeak the candor of far- 
 mers' wives and farmers' daughters, if indeed the old race of 
 milk maids and working girls be not wholly extinct ; and I 
 may whisper even to the gentlest, the sweetest humming birds 
 and the most gorgeous butterflies of the fair sex, that they 
 may gather honey from the wildest flowers of the most neg- 
 
12 
 
 lected field, I may crave too tliat they would not disdain the 
 husbandman's humble toil, since they are not too etherial to 
 be beyond the need of its fruits ; I may say more, that love is 
 so wayward, perchance some sturdy ploughman may yet be 
 eligible to the highest honors, which they have to bestow ; but 
 let them not be unduly alarmed at an accident of this kind j 
 under his tanned skin, his rough hand and his coarse exterior, 
 there is often found as true a heart and as devoted a duty, as 
 in the the most polished beau that ever emerged from a city 
 bandbox. 
 
 The territory, embraced under the auspices of this society^ 
 comprehends a great variety of soil ; and much of the best arable 
 and meadow land in New England. Nor is there any extraordi- 
 nary discouragement here to cultivation ; labor is not more ex- 
 pensive than in other parts of the country, though it is too high 
 compared with the value of the produce ; vast quantities of 
 bread stuff are imported into the country ; and whatever grain 
 is raised will for the present command a higher price in cash 
 than the same articles on the sea-board. 
 
 There are however some serious obstacles to success. One 
 of the principal is the worn-out character of our lands. They 
 have been so long under cultivation as to become exhausted, 
 and yield small returns to the cultivator. Our crops of Indian 
 corn do not average more than thirty bushels to the acre ; of 
 rye not more than twelve ; of potatoes not more than two hun- 
 dred ; and of hay, excepting on alluvial lands annually inun- 
 dated by the river, not more than one and a half ton. These 
 crops are by no means what they might be. Now whether it 
 is owing to too severe a cropping by the repetition of the same 
 crop on the same land without intermission ; or too scanty ma- 
 nuring ; or to an injudicious cultivation, I shall not presume 
 to decide. In some cases these several causes are combined. 
 
 Liberal manuring is the basis of all successful agriculture ; 
 and it is folly under any circumstances, excepting the virgin 
 lands of the West, where there has been for centuries an ac- 
 cumulation of untouched vegetable matter, to disregard the 
 
13 ^ 
 
 great law of nature, which requires that the soil should be often ^ 
 replenished in order to obtain its products, as much as that d 
 the cow, which is daily milked, should be daily fed. Next to ' ij 
 liberal manuring a judicious rotation of crops should be follow- 
 ed up ; for nature chooses a variety, and scarcely a crop of any ; 
 kind can be cultivated successively, and without intermission i 
 on the same land, without a gradual diminution of the produce. 
 The best advantages may be expected likewise from that great i 
 discovery in agriculture, the renovating influence of clover, I 
 which, being sowed with small grain and well plastered, and 1 
 being afterwards turned under by the plough, will inevitably ' 
 place the land in a course of improvement. It is questionable i 
 with some farmers, whether it is best to plough in the clover ■ 
 the year after its being sown with the stubble of the grain crop • 1 
 but there is good reason to believe that it is better to sufler i 
 the clover to remain one year, and to adopt what is commonly j 
 called the three shift system ; for example, first corn ; then \ 
 small grain with clover, which is to be well plastered ; and " 
 then clover to be mowed or fed ; and this, where the clover can t 
 be advantageously pastured with sheep, will secure the gradual - 
 improvement of the land. — There are other ameliorating crops ; 
 and the ploughing in of green crops in several decisive experi- ^ 
 ments has been signally successful ; but no system can be 
 worse than that sometimes practised, and of which examples J 
 may be seen in the beautiful meadows of Hatfield, which ope- \ 
 rate more effectually to set off by way of contrast other parts ! 
 of their fine farming; I mean the practice of naked fallows 
 with the hopes that exhausted lands may be recruited by mere * 
 rest and weeds. ^ 
 The next obstacle to improvement is the want of manure. ■ 
 This is a serious want. Good crops cannot be obtained with- I 
 out manure, but how to obtain the manure is the difficult ques- I 
 tion. The first step certainly is the consumption of the pro- \ 
 duce upon the place. This is pretty generally done ; bu^^|g| | 
 much of the materials for manure furnished by the crops them- ^^^ -j 
 selves is most improvidently wasted. This is particularly re- ♦c I 
 
14 
 
 markable in regard to the corn crop, where the butts and husks 
 instead of being carried into the barn and yards to be there 
 used as food or converted into manure as litter, are left to per- 
 ish in the field, returning comparatively nothing to the earth ; 
 and though browsed by cattle, yet yielding under these circum- 
 stances nothing deserving consideration. You will pardon me 
 if I speak of such a practice as wasteful and slovenly. Every 
 vegetable product on a farm, which can be used advantage- 
 ously as food, should be so appropriated; and what will not 
 answer as food should be carefully collected for the purpose of 
 littering the styes, stables, and yards. The great rule should 
 be to gather up the fragments that nothing be lost. 
 
 In the next place almost every farm furnishes in some bog- 
 hole or reservoir valuable materials for compost manure, which 
 if carefully conveyed to the styes and yards to be worked 
 over and made to absorb the liquids which are there float- 
 ing, will turn to great advantage. The conveyance of com- 
 mon dirt other than sufficient for this absorbing purpose will 
 not pay the labor of transportation ; for the manure may as 
 well be mixed with it in the field as in the barn yard, and the 
 labor of carting be saved. In some parts of the country, as 
 for example in Bernardston, where the soil is cold and hungry, 
 there are extensive depositories of peat mud, which, where 
 properly managed, and made to undergo a fermentation by the 
 intermixture of horse manure, a process well known to intelli- 
 gent farmers, and by the discovery of which the name of an 
 English nobleman has been immortalised, will yield a valuable 
 manure, precisely suited to the soils among which it is found. 
 
 The agriculture of the country is not yet in a sufficiently 
 advanced state to pay much attention to the saving of liquid 
 manures ; as in the best cultivated countries of Europe, where 
 it is considered as the most useful form of applying all animal 
 manures ; and where every farm is furnished with the means 
 of preserving and of applying this most powerful stimulus to 
 vegetation. Provision for the same purposes will presently be 
 made nmong us, when our farmers feel more sensibly, than 
 
15 
 
 they now do, the importance of availing themselves of every 
 resource of productiveness and profit, within their reach. 
 
 The soiling of animals^ that is the keeping them in yards 
 or stables through the whole year, where, when attainable they 
 are fed upon green food daily gathered for their use, is an 
 abundant source of manure ; and to a certain extent, as in 
 many of our river towns where pasturage is difficult to be pro- 
 cured, might be practised to the great advantage both of the 
 stock and the owner. Few persons, who have made no ex- 
 periments and given no attention to the subject,, have any pro- 
 per idea, to what advantage and extent, the produce of a sin- 
 gle acre properly cultivated may be applied. I shall make no 
 apology for speaking with so much directness on so homely a 
 subject as that, which we have now treated. It is nothing but 
 a siUy affectation of delicacy,, which turns with disdain from 
 any of the wonderful processes of nature however humble 
 The most splendid bouquet, which ever poured out its delicious 
 perfumes on the unsullied bosom of youthful innocence and 
 beauty, is the luxuriant offspring of the manure heap ; and the 
 eultivated, well-disciplined, and devout mind will contemplate 
 with grateful delight that mysterious operation of divine provi- 
 dence, that signal display of an unsearchable wisdom and 
 goodness, by which every thing in nature becomes subservi- 
 ent to some valuable end ; and the most offensive substances 
 are converted into objects and forms of beauty, utility, luxury,, 
 and delicious indulgence. 
 
 The use of mineral manures, such as lime and gypsum,, 
 ought to claim much more attention than it has done. The 
 theory of their operation is still among the numberless secrets 
 of nature, into which human sagacity attempts in vain to pene- 
 trate, and before which man's boasted wisdom stands utterly 
 confounded ;. but their practical, beneficial, and astonishing re- 
 sults are no longer matter of question. Lime, in any quantity 
 in which we might be glad to apply it, is too expensive a ma- 
 nure to be freely used among us ; but no manure can be 
 cheaper than gypsum ; and its effects are very extraordinary. 
 
16 
 
 Its mode of application is still however matter of experiment ; 
 and experiments here are greatly desired. On our allavial 
 lands its effects are said not to be apparent ; on our hills, in 
 sorao cases most strikingly so. An intelligent farmer on the 
 Hoosac river informed me that they had found the use of it on 
 lands, where the growth was maple, beach, &c. of no avail ; 
 but on their pine and oak lands separated from the other 
 only by the river, immediate and valuable. To clover it is 
 applied always with great advantage. Every well-attested fact 
 in regard to it deserves attention, and ought to be fully and 
 exactly communicated to the agricultural public. 
 
 Another means of improving lands, the value of which ex- 
 periment has amply confirmed is the intermixture of soils. 
 What is properly called marl, an unctuous and calcareous clay, 
 which will effervesce on the application of acids, has not been 
 found among us. A valuable deposit of it has been recently 
 discovered in New Jersey, which the farmers are there apply- 
 ing with great advantage. In our primitive region it is per- 
 haps not to be looked for. But we have peat, bog mud, sand, 
 and clay in abundance in different parts of the country ; and 
 the application of clay to a sandy, and of sand to a clayey soil, 
 is of obvious utility ; and often of better and certainly more 
 permanent effects than the most abundant dressing of animal 
 manures. Some of our Deerfield farmers, I am told, have 
 found the application of clay to a certain extent as a top dres- 
 sing on their grass grounds of great advantage ; but I am not 
 sufficiently advised on the subject to speak more fully. An 
 intelligent farmer of Plymouth county ,f whose authority, I know 
 from personal acquaintance, is to be entirely relied on, has 
 practised with great success and to a considerable extent on 
 this principle of the intermixture of soils ; and has rendered his 
 farm, at first quite inferior one of the most productive in the 
 county. He has given the details of his experience to the 
 public in a dissertation, for which he was honored with the 
 
 t The Rev. Morrill AUsn, of Pembroke, Mass. 
 
1* 
 
 premium of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society ; a disser- 
 tation, deserving the attention of every inquisitive farmer. 
 
 The next means of improving your lands is to extend your 
 cultivation. The more produce to be consumed, the more 
 manure to be applied ; and so the enriching and improvement 
 of your land may be kept on in a continually accelerated ratio. 
 I am aware that the proposition to extend your cultivation, with 
 a view to the improvement of your farms, will be received with 
 distrust ; this will excuse rae for dwelling upon it more at large, 
 I will give you my opinion j and shall be happy to be correct- 
 ed by your better judgment. 
 
 I admit that in general it is a good rule in husbandry, to 
 cultivate no more land than ycu can manure well ; and to ma- 
 nure well and tend well all you do cultivate. I would recom- 
 mend it as strongly as any one ; but under peculiar circum- 
 stances there are excepted cases to every rule however rea- 
 sonable. Your farm is run down and impoverished. You 
 wish to restore it ; to wake its dormant energies ; and, if pos- 
 sible, to make it stand upright again. Agricultural improve- 
 ments are always slow. It requires a year to accomplish the 
 most simple experiment ; and often many years to effect any 
 extraordinary alteration. But there must be a beginning, aud 
 the first step in any valuable undertaking is commonly diffi- 
 cult and discouraging. When Ledyard, a lad, animated 
 by the indomitable spirit of adventure, first launched his frail 
 canoe, more than a hundred miles from this spot X)n the waters 
 of the Connecticut, to him an unexplored stream, it required 
 a bold heart to push from the shore into the descending cur- 
 rent ; but as he was borne aloi^g its winding and fertile banks, 
 he was cheered by the consciousness of his onward progress 
 and triumphant adventure ; and continually more and more 
 animated by the hope of farther knowledge, success, and 
 power. This confidence of progress, this hope of ultimate suc- 
 cess, certain to persevering and judicious labor, is the great 
 encouragement, which is to sustain us. 
 
 Let us suppose, then, that you have an impoverished acre of 
 
 C 
 
!8 
 
 land, and at present no manure to apply to it. What is to be 
 done ? Perhaps it will bear rye, the crop which seems to de- 
 mand less of the soil than any other ; and will put up with the 
 meanest fare. At present it gives you comparatively nothing. 
 Sow it then with rye and clover ; plaster it ; gather your rye ; 
 perhaps you will not get back even your seed. Now use the 
 straw carefully for litter, and convert it either by means of 
 your swine or cattle into manure ; — plough in your clover, if 
 there is any of it, after it has gone to seed : apply the manure 
 be it more or less, which you obtained from the straw gathered 
 from this acre, and be careful not to cheat the land of any 
 thing that belongs to it. Sow it again with rye and clover 
 and repeat the same process. The second crop may be ex- 
 pected to be better than the first ; and, though the returns may 
 for some time be small, they will be continually increasing, and 
 will soon be a full return for the labor and expense applied. 
 Your land will be in a course of improvement, and your means 
 of enriching your soil will be increasing in a correspondent 
 proportion. If in addition* to this you can, as I before remark- 
 ed, depasture such clover with sheep ; and enrich such land 
 by the addition of some soil in the neighborhood suited to its 
 improvement, the balance of such husbandry will be in the 
 end greatly to your advantage. This is one process, which 
 may be adopted without any great outlay to the improvement 
 of worn out lands, where manure is not to be obtained ; but 
 there are other modes, and other crops by which it may be 
 effected, which the time does not allow me to particularize. 
 
 There is another ground on which farmers, whose whole 
 profession and business is husbandry, and who are looking to 
 its fair returns as an honest compensation for their labor, 
 should be urged to extend their cultivation. If any portion of 
 your land is absolutely worthless ; and you are satisfied that 
 by no process, which you can apply to it, you can ever obtain 
 an equivalent for the labor employed in its cultivation, then 
 indeed for cultivation let it be abandoned, or appropriated to 
 
19 
 
 any purpose in which it may yield something, and the most 
 that it can be made to yield. 
 
 There is likewise land, which is in permanent meadow ; 
 and which by no cultivation can be made so productive as in 
 its present condition. — Leave this then as it is. It would be 
 very injudicious to disturb it. But on many farms there is 
 some land, which is turned into pasture and affords but a 
 scanty supply to the animals, which are fed upon it ; or which 
 remains in mowing, yielding a small crop of hay, which by 
 cultivation might be made to yield good crops of corn, pota- 
 toes, and grain ; and then be rendered far more productive of 
 grass than in its present state. I believe there is much land 
 in this condition ; and this induces the complaint that our 
 farms are too large for a profitable cultivation. Why should 
 such land remain uncultivated ? Why should you be satisfied 
 with less than half a crop 1 What would you say of the capi- 
 talist, who was bent upon increasing his fortune, who permit- 
 ted any portion of his capital, which he could use without loss, 
 to remain in his coffers unemployed ? What should we say of 
 the manufacturer, who should suffer any portion of his power 
 to run to waste, or of his machinery to be unemployed, or of 
 his raw material to lay by in useless accumulation, when it 
 might all be employed to more or less advantage ? He might 
 by such a process consult his ease, but certainly not the ad- 
 Tancement of his fortune. We can say nothing different of 
 the farmer, who permits any portion of his grounds to remain 
 unemployed ; or who neglects to obtain from them all that 
 they can be made to produce. We believe that there is little 
 land of a kind which may be cultivated without loss, but what 
 may, by judicious and persevering labor, by a process within 
 the power of the farmer, whose means are restricted and hum- 
 ble, be placed in^a course of certain improvement, and afford 
 a fair profit to his exertions. 
 
 The answer commonly given to these suggestions is, that 
 labor is so expensive we cannot afford to cultivate our land. 
 I adir-t that the expense of labor is very high compared with 
 
the value of produce. Yet I cannot but believe, in circum- 
 stances ordinarily favorable, and where the price of land is not 
 exorbitant, the man, who attempts to thrive by the plough, 
 and does himself either " hold or drive," if his management is 
 judicious and persevering, and his habits frugal and temperate, 
 will obtain a fair compensation for his labor and pains. If 
 then the balance of his cultivation is upon the whole in his 
 favor, why should he not extend it as far as it can be extended 
 to advantage ? why should he permit a single acre of his land 
 to remain unproductive, which may be made productive ? if he 
 can plant ten acres to advantage, why not plant twenty ? if he 
 can produce two hundred bushels of corn, why should he not 
 attempt to raise five hundred 1 in short why should he not carry 
 his cultivation to the utmost limits of a profitable return ? Be- 
 yond that certainly we would not advise him to go. Under 
 such circumstances he engages in no dishonorable competition ; 
 his gains are at no other man's expense or loss ; on the con- 
 trary he contributes essentially to the general good, as the in- 
 crease of his produce tends in a certain proportion to lessen 
 its price in the market ; and renders therefore the comforts 
 and supplies of life more accessible to the poorer classes of the 
 community, and certainly not less so to the richer. 
 
 This brings us to the great subject of the proper size of 
 farms. It is often said that an acre of land well manured and 
 cultivated is better than two acres poorly or imperfectly ma- 
 nured and cultivated ; but it is not so good as two acres well 
 manured and cultivated ; nor is it so good as two acres poorly 
 manured and cultivated, if the profit from the two acres is, 
 after all expenses are allowed, greater than the gain from the 
 one acre, though not in an equal proportion. He is the best 
 farmer, as far as agriculture is considered in a pecuniary view, 
 whether he cultivate much or little, who obtains the greatest 
 amount of produce at the least expense. 
 
 A farm is too large, when from its size any part of it is ne- 
 cessarily left unproductive and uncultivated ; or if from its ex- 
 tent its owner or landlord is incapable of its careful superin- 
 
SI 
 
 tendence. But a farm is not too large, when its perfect and 
 exact superintendence, is practicable to its owner ; when every 
 part of it is made as productive as the nature of the case ad- 
 mits ; when upon the whole result it yields a fair remunera- 
 tion ; and no part of it can be withdrawn from cultivation with- 
 out a diminution of its profits. Farms are often too large j 
 too large for the capital, which the owner is able to apply to 
 the management, for a successful agriculture can no more be 
 prosecuted than a successful manufacture of any kind can be 
 prosecuted vvithout a considerable floating capital j and they 
 are often too large for the superintendence of a single individ- 
 ual, for the management can seldom be divided or any part of 
 it neglected without loss and injury ; but it is to be remember- 
 ed that large farms are always cultivated at a much less pro- 
 portional expense than small ones. The expenses of outfit 
 in regard to utensils, team and its appendages, and a great vsfc- 
 riety of necessaries, is by no means .double on a farm of lai^c 
 size to what it would be on a farm of half the extent. Many 
 advantages are found on a large farm from the division of labor, 
 which is practicable among a number of hands, and from the 
 convenience of having a imraber of laborers at command, when 
 any pressing emergency occurs ; and from the opportunity of 
 constant use of all the brute labor to advantage on a large farm, 
 which is not possible on a small farm ; though it may be that 
 the same amount of team must be supported. The larger the 
 farm, if well managed, the greater the profit ; and in the kind 
 of farming of which we are treating, the amount of profit ob- 
 tained, after the amount of debit and credit is fairly adjusted, 
 must be the test of its excellence. 
 
 Another means of success, to which the attention of the 
 farmer must be particularly directed, is that of the saving of 
 labor. Though he should be averse from withholding labor, 
 wherever it can be profitably applied, yet it should be a great 
 study with him how to apply it to the most advantage. His 
 profession under the best circumstances will require much hard 
 toil ; and he cannot look to avail himself of those facilities and 
 
22 
 
 aids, which the mechanic and the manufacturer find in the 
 invention of the most curious machinery, and the application 
 of water and steam power to their various arts. Yet the farmer 
 is not without advantage from the improvements of science 
 and mechanical ingenuity. An immense gain has been effect- 
 ed in the great machine the plough ; and in regard to the fa- 
 cility of holding, the ease of draught, and the manner of exe- 
 cuting the work, the modern cast iron plough of the most im- 
 proved construction has an extraordinary advantage over the 
 clumsy and cumbrous machine of former times. The revolv- 
 ing horse-rake is a machine of great utility ; by which on 
 smooth land a man and boy and horse will easily perform the 
 work of six men. — A threshing machine, whose operation has 
 been completely tested, has lately been introduced here, which 
 promises to be of great utility. It is worked by a single horse, 
 and is without dilRculty transported from place to place. It 
 performs its work in a perfect manner and has been known to 
 thresh two bushels of grain in five minutes. Two men, a boy, 
 and a horse, will easily thresh one hundred bushels in a day ; 
 and the actual saving of grain, from the more effectual manner 
 in which it performs its work over what can be done by a ftail, 
 is very great. A roller of an improved construction is exhibit- 
 ed on this occasion ; and deserves the attention of farmers as 
 an instrument next in value to a harrow or a plough, and al- 
 most as indispensable to good cultivation. This is literally 
 the age of invention. Improved machines for shelling corn, 
 for cutting fodder, for grinding corn in the cob, &c. are fast 
 coming into use, and promise great advantages. We may 
 hope that other inventions may present themselves to ingenious 
 and inquisitive minds, by which the severe toil of the husband- 
 man may be lightened and abridged.* 
 
 *• A mowing mnchine moved by horse power, and producing a great 
 saving ofmanunl labor, has been for two or three years in successful opera- 
 tion ia Pennsylvania, and ihe western parts of Nevir York ; and from the 
 testimony of one of the largest farmers in the United States, upon whose 
 farm it has been two years in use, is highly successful. We cannot ima- 
 gine what human skill and enterprize may jet effect. Professor Rafinesque, 
 
23 
 
 Another great object of the farmer should be to restrict 
 the expenses of his farming establishment ; to cut off all un-» 
 necessary expeiiditures ; and to apply his produce, as far as it 
 is consumed on the farm, in the most frugal manner. The 
 cooking of much of the food of his domestic animals increases 
 its nutritive powers ; and causes it to spend to much more ad- 
 vantage. The cutting of fodder for his horses and neat cattle 
 is of great utility, and will effect a saving, as the most exact 
 experiments have shown, of more than one quarter. The pre- 
 ference of ox labor over horse labor deserves his particular at- 
 tention. The keeping of a horse is a great expense separate 
 from the accidents to which he is exposed ; and in most res- 
 pects the patient ox has greatly the advantage over him, espe- 
 cially as the former is an improving and the latter always a 
 deteriorating capital. 
 
 The crops to which the farmer may to most advantage devote 
 his cultivation will deserve his particular consideration. In- 
 dian corn, of which I have not a doubt the crops in this part 
 of the country may be easily doubled, is a most valuable pro- 
 duct. I congratulate the farmers upon the favorable prospects, 
 which now present themselves in regard to the cultivation of 
 wheat. The two last years have presented extraordinary en- 
 couragements, and by proper management, and especially by 
 early sowing, success in this cultivation becomes highly proba- 
 ble. 
 
 The establishment of extensive manufactories, and the in- 
 troduction of power-looms and spinning-jennies, has nearly de- 
 stroyed the usual household manufactures, and put our other 
 Jennies out of employment. Our ears are seldom greeted 
 now a days in the farmer's cottage with the flying of the shut- 
 tle, or the deep base of the spinning wheel. We confess that 
 we have looked upon their departure with a strong feeling of 
 
 of Philadelphia, a gentleman of distinguished scientific attainments, adver- 
 tises, for farmers, his " steam ploughs, by which six furrows are ploughed 
 at once; and he promises in one day to perform the work of a week in the 
 best manner." Of their construction or operation I have no idea. 
 
24 
 
 regret ; and deem it no small abatement of the advantages, 
 which the establishment of extensive manufactures has obvi- 
 ously yielded to the country, that it removes the daughter from 
 the shelter and security of the paternal roof, and places her in 
 a situation, which certainly furnishes no means of qualifying her 
 for the proper department of woman ; to preside over our do- 
 mestic establishments ; to perform her part in the joint labors 
 of the household ; and to know how and when and where to 
 use, prepare, and to apply to the best advantage within doors, 
 the products of man's labor without doors. Many occupations 
 of female industry, strictly domestic however, of a healthy and 
 agreeable nature, are constantly presenting themselves, so that 
 there is little danger that the race of industrious women, and 
 accomplished wives, at least among the country girls, will soon 
 be extinct ; and the silk culture, fast gaining ground among 
 us, promises to furnish an unexhausted resource and a profit- 
 able employment of female labor. 
 
 IV. A variety of important topics press themselves on this 
 occasion upon our attention ; but I forbear, having already 
 trespassed too far upon the candor of my respected audience. 
 
 Agriculture is a great subject. The first of all the arts, it 
 may derive aid from them all. The foundation of human sub- 
 sistence, comfort, and enjoyment, the origin of all wealthy and 
 the basis of commerce and manufactures, it deserves the pro- 
 found attention of enlightened and philanthropic minds. That 
 attention it has often and will continue to receive. Agricul- 
 ture is already greatly in debt to science. Ignorance and pre- 
 judice may deny the obligations ; but all the great improve- 
 ments, which have ever been made in agriculture, have been 
 effected by the inquiries and experiments of men of enlighten- 
 ed and active minds, of wealth and public spirit. Their ex- 
 periments have been made often at a serious expense to them- 
 selves, but at a proportionate gain to others. They have oflen 
 been wholly unsuccessful ; but in an art so entirely practical 
 as agriculture, it is as important to know what cannot, as to de- 
 
25 
 
 tcnnine wliat can be done. There is no prejudice more con- 
 temptible and senseless than that which prevails against what 
 is called book farming, and professes to disdain all instruction, 
 which comes in a printed form. If by book farming be meant 
 that a man undertakes to cultivate his farm by mere theory 
 without any experimental knowledge or observation, I only 
 say that no such instances have come within my knowledge ; 
 but if it be meant only that an intelligent man avails himself 
 of the history of the agriculture of other men and other coun- 
 tries, as far as it is applicable to his own condition, and of all 
 the aids which science or art, chemistry, botany, zoology, 
 anatomy, entomology, natural history, natural philosophy and 
 mechanics can afford in relation to the subject ; and of the 
 actual and exact experiments of other men faithfully made 
 and fully detailed, I am not able to see how he could pursue 
 a wiser course, for his own interest and success, the general, 
 improvement of the art, and the benefit of society. 
 
 It is to be hoped that the intellectual improvement of the 
 agricultural classes will keep pace with that of other classes 
 in our favored community. In that impetuous struggle for 
 advancement in knowledge, which is every where hurrying the 
 working classes forward, may the farmers neither hold back, 
 nor get out of the traces, nor lag behind. Their opportunities 
 for improvement are great. Books are universally accessible. 
 Small associations or circles for mutual improvement are highly 
 useful as well as agreeable ; and the long evenings of winter, 
 instead of being worse than wasted in the senseless gossip and 
 idle talk of the shop or tavern, afford most favorable oppor- 
 tunities for useful reading, for the instruction of our families ; 
 and the enjoyment of the innocent and delightful recreations 
 of domestic life. 
 
 The respectable farmer occupies a most important and res- 
 ponsible moral station in the community. Coming in contact 
 with a numerous class of young men, whose manners and mo- 
 rals have been too often coarse, vulgar, intemperate, and dis- 
 reputable, it becomes his duty, and he should deem it a great 
 
 D 
 
26 
 
 privilege, to exhibit such an example of sobriety, decorum^ 
 civil manners, and blameless conversation, as can hardly fail 
 to command their respect and to win their esteem. Profane- 
 ness, indecencv, and intemperance, which have been but the 
 too common vices of this class of men, he should resolutely ex- 
 pel from his territory ; and above all things not countenance 
 them by a disgraceful example. The farming interest is fast 
 experiencing the most important benefits of the utter disuse of 
 ardent spirit, the complete exorcism of this worst of evil spirits 
 from their premises. Many a thrifty farm and many a beau- 
 tiful cottage, the abode of industry, contentment, and compe- 
 tence, has been washed away by the bitter stream of New 
 England rum ; and it has gradually undermined the tenement,, 
 until at last the whole inmates have fallen in a common ruin, 
 and have floated downwards on a current which never stops, 
 into the dark ocean of infamy and unutterable wretchedness. 
 
 Agriculture can never be looked to in this part of the coun- 
 try as a source of wealth. Yet it may be made to yield an 
 ample competence ; and sufficient to satisfy the reasonable de- 
 sires of a well disciplined mind, which has just views of human 
 life, and is neither cankered by vice nor intoxicated by ambi- 
 tion. His gains, the fruits of honest industry, made at no 
 man's expense, and prejudicing no man's interest, may be en- 
 joyed with the full satisfaction of his own heart and conscience. 
 His occupation presents no hazards to his own or his children's 
 virtue. He has at his command all the means of subsistence 
 and comfort. His abode is the calm abode of peace, industry, 
 frugality, and contentment. His table is spread with the sub- 
 stantial fruits of his own labor. His clothing is gathered irom 
 the flocks which he himself feeds ; and woven by the industri- 
 ous hands of the wife and children whom he loves, and who 
 love to share his labor, he wears it with an honorable and en- 
 viable pride. When honor and integrity, kindness and piety 
 shed their combined influence over such a habitation, however 
 lowly, humble, secluded, weather-beaten or moss-covered, it 
 
27 
 
 presents an example of substantial independence and domestic 
 comfort, which the proudest monarchs of the earth may envy. 
 
 The farmer of all others should be a man of religion. If 
 pious gratitude and confidence find no place in his bosom, his 
 mind must be debased by selfishness, and his heart as hard as 
 the stones of his fields. " Even the ox knoweth his owner 
 and the ass his master's crib." How can he then, receiving 
 so immediately as he does from the hand of God the exuberant 
 bounties of his providence, be unmindful of the source of all 
 his power and all his blessings ! 
 
 In the wonderful operations of nature constantly going on 
 around him, he is compelled to remark the wise and ever active 
 providence which sustains and directs all things. In the part 
 which he is called to perform in these extraordinary and mi- 
 raculous processes, he is most forcibly reminded of his own 
 dependance. In the abundant fruits, which crown his labors, 
 and the ample and rich provision every where made for the 
 support and enjoyment of all the animated creation, he cannot 
 but adore the infinite goodness of the Author and mysterious 
 Preserver of nature. In every department of the wide 
 field in which God requires or permits him to toil or to par- 
 take ; as the humble co-operator in the labors of the great Hus- 
 bandman or the fiivored recipient of his unrestricted bounty ; 
 he has constant occasion to regard Him as the great object of 
 his reverence, confidence, and love ; of his humble and de- 
 voted obedience ; of his fervent and filial gratitude ; and to 
 bow down before Him as " all in all." 
 
US 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 COMPOSED FOR THE OCCASION, BY J. DEANE, M. D. 
 
 O Thou whose goodness fills all space, 
 Hear us in Heaven thy dwelling place, 
 While now with gratitude we raise 
 Our humble song of feeble praise. 
 
 Thou mak'st tHe changing year roll round 
 In seasons with abundance crowned; 
 The smiling spring, the summer's glow, 
 Give life and warmth to ail below 
 
 To Thee from whom all mercies spring, 
 
 Creation's fairest works we bring; 
 
 We dedicate them in thy name 
 
 To Mercy's source from whence they came. 
 
 We bring the harvest of the soil, 
 That crowns the year and pays our toil, 
 The fruits that Autumn's bounteous hand 
 Hath scattered o'er our happy land. 
 
 We bring the works that art and mind 
 Impart to aid and bless mankind ; 
 What genius, skill and art bestow 
 To Nature's Architect we owe. 
 
 Great God, still open wide the door 
 That swells our treasure and our store; 
 And at the final harvest day 
 To Thy fair garnerb speed our way. 
 
Gaylord Bros. 
 
 Makers 
 Syracuse, N. Y. . 
 
 PAT.JAH. 21. 1908 
 
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