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Agricultural Department.

AGRICULTURE-THE

PRESERVATIVE ART OF ALL ARTS.

ORIGINAL.

FROM every section of our another; and by communing toextensive and extending country, gether, the result of each other's the most cheering intelligence is experiments may be communidaily received of the rapid pro-cated to all. gress of agricultural improve- We have obtained the address ment. The great men of our Re- delivered before the "Hampshire, public, after sustaining the highest Hampden, and Franklin Agriculposts of honour within the gift of tural Society," by the Hon. Nothe people, return again, like AH WEBSTER, Vice-President of Cincinnatus, to the plough. Mr. the Society. Although this genJefferson is proud of the title of tleman must have spent much of "Farmer of Monticello," and his time in literary pursuits, his Mr. Madison is President of the address shews that he is not only Agricultural Society of Virginia. theoretically, but practically acThrough the New-England States, quainted with Agriculture. We the whole population, from the do not know how we can better man of wealth and science, to gratify our agricultural patrons, the day-labourer, are ardently than by presenting them with this engaged in advancing the great valuable production. It furnishes and important pursuit of Agricul- an outline for that, which is so ture. We might give a long much needed in New-England, catalogue of eminent names; but" A system of Agriculture." In it would too much swell the page. Suffice it to say, as the spring is opening upon us, the attention of the Farmer is directed to the Earth, the prolific mother of all our enjoyments. Agricultural Societies are formed, or are forming, in every section of the country. The utility of such associations is too obvious to be descanted upon. "In the multitude of counsel," there is not only "safety," but there is profit. The experience of one is different from that of Vol. I.

perusing it, the farmer will be instructed by the practical knowledge which it imparts, and the scholar will be gratified by the elegant and classical style in which it is conveyed.

We have in our possession the Address of Mr. Madison, to the Agricultural Society of Virginia; but as it is less calculated for the soil and climate of Connecticut than Mr. Webster's, we prefer publishing the latter.

7

SELECTED.

An ADDRESS delivered before the

tion of the food of a well peopled country, and no part of the food of domestic animals.

and

Agriculture then is essential to the supHampshire, Franklin and Hamp-port of a dense population. It supplies den Agricultural Society, at their food for men and their domestic animalsannual meeting in Northampton, and the materials of manufactures; Oct. 14th, 1818-By the Hon. the surplus, beyond the necessary conNOAH WEBSTER, Vice-President sumption of a country, furnishes the means of commerce, and becomes a of the Society. source of wealth. Hence, the more productive the earth is rendered by cultivation, the more inhabitants and domestic animals may be subsisted on a given extent of territory; and the greater is the wealth and strength of a nation.

IN the history of the Creation, we are informed, that "God made every plant of the field, before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew; for Jehovah God had not caused it to rain on Nor is the cultivation of the earth less the earth, and there was not a man to till favourable to the health and longevity of the ground; but after man was created, the human species. As a general remark, God planted a garden in Eden, and there it may be affirmed, that the labours of the he placed the man, "to dress it and to keep husbandman are better adapted, than any it." From these passages of sacred his-other labour or employment, to give tory, we learn that, antecedent to the apostacy, and by divine appointment, Agriculture was assigned to man as his proper occupation.

strength and firmness to all parts of the human body, by calling into action and keeping in motion, the various limbs and muscles, without an undue pressure on In conformity with the divine purpose, any particular part; thus promoting equalin this destination of man, the upper stra-ly the circulation of the blood and the vatum of the earth, was, by the Creator, fit-rious secretions essential to health. Exted for the production of plants. The soil, cess of labour will, in this, as in every othwhich covers the greatest part of the globe, er occupation, impair health, and shorten though diversified in its constituent materials, its qualities, depth and consistence, is generally composed of very fine particles, which render it permeable by water, and capable of containing the greatest quantity of it; at the same time, though so friable, as to be easily pulverized by instruments of husbandry, and so loose as to be pervious to the roots of plants; it is sufficiently compact to sustain herbs, shrubs, and even trees, in an erect posi

tion.

As the cultivation of the earth was the first business assigned to man, so, of all his temporal concerns, it is the most important and necessary; for the productions of the earth furnish almost all the materials of food and clothing. Observations on the savage life will inform us, how small a population, the spontaneous produce of the earth will support. Even the rude natives of America, few and scattered as they are, depend on tillage for a part of their means of subsistence; and the wild animals, which supply no small portion of their food and clothing, derive their hourishment from the productions of the earth. The produce of seas, rivers and lakes, whatever may be the amount, must always constitute a small comparative por

life, or render it uncomfortable; but in general, the greatest portion of sound health, and the most robust men, the strength and defence of a nation, are found among the cultivators of the earth.

Equally well adapted is the business of the farmer, to enlarge and invigorate the intellectual faculties; and to generate a spirit of independence favourable to civil and political liberty. This is particularly the fact in a country where the cultivators are proprietors of the soil. Immense is the difference in the exertion and improvement of the mental faculties, between those who labour for themselves, and those who labour for others. The very ownership of property tends to expand the mind, and give it a tone of firmness and independence; while the prospect of increasing the value of property, and enjoying the fruits of labour, calls into action more vigorous exertion, more enterprise, and more invention. At the same time, the possession of the title to land attaches a man to the country in which he is a freeholder, and binds him to the government and laws by which his person and his property are protected.

Nor ought we to forget, in this enumeration of the advantages of agriculture, that

this employment is peculiarly suited to -and thousands of others, which, from the preservation of morals in a communi- our ignorance of their uses, are destined ty. The sequestered situation of the hus-"to waste their sweetness on the desert bandman, occupied daily on his farm, re- air"-Who can view this rich profusion of mote from scenes of vice and dissipation, all that can charm the eye, and delight secures him in a great degree, from the the mind of man, without admiring the contagion of evil examples, and from ma- goodness of the Benevolent Author? Hard ny temptations to vice, which large asso- and insensible must be the heart, that is ciations of people present, to seduce men not softened by gratitude for all the blesfrom their duty. And if the agricultural sings lavished on the human race, and state of society does not exhibit more po- humbled by regret that man should ever sitive virtue and excellence, than any forget his glorious Benefactor. other, it supplies fewer instances of attroNotwithstanding agriculture is confescious crimes, and deep depravity. Nor sedly the first and most important occuis it less true, that this state of society, pation in society, it is among the last presents peculiar advantages and power- which have engaged the attention of sciful inducements to the cultivation of pi-entific men. Princes have been employed ous affections. The farmer, after all his in extending their power and dominions; industry and good management, must de- nobles and men of distinction have been pend entirely on divine Providence for a occupied in the pursuit of pleasure, or of harvest. He must feel, every day and military skill and glory; while the culevery hour, that, by his own power and ture of the earth has been left to the care skill, he can no more produce a blade of and toils of the humble peasant, to merce. grass or a single corn, than he can create naries and slaves. To this neglect are a world; and this consciousness of his de- chiefly to be ascribed the frequent famines pendence on the Supreme Being, cannot which afflicted the nations of Europe, anfail to generate, in a mind not absolutely terior to the last century. But within the brutish, a spirit of humility and submission last seventy or eighty years, men of science to his Maker-a spirit of unceasing rever- and property have been engaged in agrience, piety and gratitude. When the cultural improvements; particularly in husbandman considers further, that his Great Britain; and the effect of their exlabours are continually liable to be frus-ertions has been to increase the value of trated, by excessive rains, floods, and lands, and to furnish subsistence and augdrought; by untimely frost, blasting and mented wealth to a more numerous popumildew; by destructive storms and de-lation. vouring insects; calamities which, by no

In this country, improvements in agrihuman efforts, can be averted or control-culture are of still later origin; and I well led; with what face can he deny the remember the time when no farmer thought Providence, or spurn the government of of restoring fertility to an impoverished his Maker? How can he fail to acknow-soil, by the aid of the grasses. The revoledge his own imbecility and dependence, lution first disengaged the minds of our and place all his trust on that Being who countrymen from the shackles of custom, alone can crown his labours with success. and gave a spring to industry and enterBut the ingenuous mind is not to be influ- prise. The first effect of the independence enced solely by the dread of calamities. of the United States, was visible in the It will find, in the works of nature and extension of commerce-but it soon apProvidence, irresistible motives to admire peared in every branch of industry. The the power, wisdom, and the benevolence removal of the restrictions of the British of the Supreme Being. Who can examine laws of trade, opened a wide field for the wonderful laws of the vegetable econo-commercial enterprise, which, by finding my; the curious and infinitely diversified new markets for the productions of the structure of plants; without being led to earth, presented to the farmer new induce"Look through nature up to Nature's ments to supply the demand. The wars, God," and to form exalted views of divine which arose out of the revolution in France, power and wisdom? Who can cast his threw into the power of our merchants, an eyes on spacious fields robed with verdure, uncommonly lucrative commerce, that and adorned with flowers-some, present-absorbed a large amount of capital. This ing the promise of a rich harvest of fruits-capital, was in a few years greatly augothers, expanding their beauties to de-mented. A large portion of this capital, light the eye and regale the senses of man, has, by the event of general peace, been or to supply insects with nectareous food liberated from commercial employment,

The

and may now be devoted to agriculture harrowing and rolling, as a smooth comand manufactures. And fortunately there pact surface retards evaporation—that on appears to be an increasing disposition in the contrary, a moist heavy soil should be capitalists to turn their property into thrown into narrow lands or ridges, for these channels. Of this fact, the recent the purpose of casting off the water, and formation of numerous societies for these exposing to the rays of the sun, a greater objects, and the attention of men of extent of surface. Nothing can be more wealth and distinction, to agricultural pur- [injurious, than to drag down to a smooth suits, are honourable and cheering testimo-surface, a wet, cold, argillaceous soil; esnies. As the Society which I have the hon-pecially for a crop of American corn or our to address, was not the last, in its in-potatoes. For these crops, the land should stitution, it may be presumed it will not be left in the furrow, as loose and uneven be the most languid in the prosecution of as possible. The more smooth the surits objects. face, the longer the land retains water, The great design of this, and of similar the less pervious is it to the heat of the institutions, is, to ascertain the best mode sun, and the more compact does it become of tilling the earth; that mode which by the weight of falling rains. In our clishall enable the farmer to obtain the great-mate, land, in the spring, is usually too est quantity of produce, upon a given ex-wet and cold for the rapid growth of corn; tent of land, with the least expence and and as a general fact, our crops suffer labour. This end is to be accomplish-more from an excess, than from a defied partly by science; but chiefly by ex- ciency, of water. In preparing land for periments. A perfect knowledge of the maize, therefore, the judicious farmer will nature of soils, and the fitness of each to leave his land in furrow, or in ridges; as produce a particular species of grain, in this form, it warms sooner, is more easiwould aid the scientific farmer in his prac-ly tilled, and the harrow, at hoeing, will tice. But a chemical analysis of soils is perform double the work in pulverizing the beyond the reach of most husbandmen; and if it were not, the knowledge derived from it would be a less safe ground of practice, than experiment; as the effect of soil would be liable to be varied by the situation of the land, by the seasons and other extraneous causes. Experience and observation will furnish the farmer with the facts most necessary to guide him in his rural economy. He will find that wheat, rye and maize, or American corn, on wet, cold, heavy land, will frustrate his hopes; that oats and barley will bear more moisture than the grains just mentioned; but that land of this kind is best fitted for mowing and grazing. He will also find that the warmest lands, on plains and moderate elevations, are best fitted for tillage, and the colder lands on mountains, are most properly appropriated to the feeding of cattle. He will find that although wa-hoeing. ter is essential to the growth of plants, being the principal instrument of conveying to them nutrition, yet that a superabundance of that fluid, no less than a deficiency, is injurious. He will observe that soils pos- Three of the most interesting sess different capacities for retaining water ---that sand and silicious soils are too loose objects in the natural world are--and that clay is too compact when dry, first, a lovely woman, with an inand too adhesive when wet; and he will fant in her arms--second, a field adapt his mode of tillage to the modifica- filled with standing sheaves of tion of these qualities. Experience will teach him that a soil of loose texture wheat-and third, a pasture cov should be laid as smooth as possible, by ered with sheep and lambs.

earth and covering weeds. Even sward
land, according to my experience, should
be managed in the same manner.
sod, well turned over by the plough, should
not be broken or disturbed till the first,
and generally not till the second hoeing.
The decomposition of the vegetable mat-
ter will keep the land sufficiently light and
mellow, and the process of decomposition
is rather retarded, than accelerated, by an
earlier use of the harrow or plough. In-
deed dragging or cross ploughing too early,
turns back a part of the sod, rendering
the land more grassy and difficult to till;
and often, it disturbs the worms which lie
harmless, feeding on the grass beneath,
and compels them to seek the tender corn
for food. I have known several fields of
corn nearly ruined by breaking the turf
and disturbing the worms, at the first

(To be continued.)

Department of Manufacture.

"MANUFACTURES-THE ARTS OF ELEGANCE, AND THE ARTS OF use.

reference to national advantage, to be a

WE had intended, in this num- whose baleful infection is, not for a season, ber of our Magazine, to have but perennial. continued the insertion of selec-rection, have, from long habit of a particuSome minds, deserving of a better ditions from "Hamilton's Report on lar mode of dealing, associated the idea of Manufactures;" but at the re-commerce with that of a ship from abroad, loaded with stuffs of foreign manufacture. quest of one of our patrons, whose And they cannot see how another branch views entirely correspond with of industry can bear any competition. our own, we present our readers Yet a little attention to the progress of with extracts from the "Address man's civilization will show, that without of the American Society for the encouragement of Domestic Manufactures." We are very sensible that long dissertations upon agriculture and manufacture may not please the desultory reader, who seeks rather for amusement than instruction. But any one who can peruse the following extracts without deriving them both, we think must read with inattention.

manufacturer is a law of man's nature. Witness his attitude, his structure, those limbs which are not destined to support his body, but supple, flexible with motion and articulation, suited to every operation that the will of the most improved intelligence can exact. And if he cannot asraiment, or habitation, without manufacsure his own preservation, nor procure food, turing implements for defence, or for the chase; nor fell a tree in the forest, or turn tured the plough and the axe, then a furrow in the field, till he has manufacwe may say with Franklin, whose wisdom spoke in similes-in any one of whose sallies there is concentrated more profound thought than in volumes of common place, "that man is a tool-making animal," or, in words less lively or emphatic, that he is by nature a manufacturer.

This country stands distinguished on the earth. In vain should we look to other histories for maxims of light; there are none that bear comparison; and analogies are barren of instruction, when there is no parity in the objects to be compar- But we cannot help regretting, that not ed. The fictions and fables of antiquity only the objects of our commerce, but are realized in the short annals of our our moral and political opinions, have been country. Like the young Hercules, it too long of foreign manufacture. And we strangled in its cradle the destroying ser- think they treat us unfairly; for the opinpents, and would prove equal to every la- ions they force upon our credulity are such bour. But foreign manufactures, like the as they never use themselves. They are garment poisoned by the Hydra's blood, manufactured for exportation, not for home threatens our dissolution; our funeral pile consumption. If we adopt them they will is lighted; but a mighty hand will inter-profit willingly, but, in return, smile at our pose, and rescue us from death to immor- credulity. tality. And if it be asked who has that power we say it is The People! Yes! in vain should our legislature ordain quarantine to those who come from foreign regions, before they print their steps upon our shores; in vain forbid the entry of infected goods within our wholesome precincts, unless they guard against those importations which poison by contagion;

In a word, all the arguments used by the partisans of foreign manufactures, are resolved into one point; shall we manufacture for ourselves, or shall Britain manufacture for us? This is the question; and now, having stated it fairly, we shall meet it boldly, and argue it candidly.

On the part of the adversary, the follow

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