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ANNUAL ADDRESS
Before the Agricultural Societies of Blair and
Cambria Counties, Delivered at their Pub
lic Exhibitions in October, 1859,
BY GEO. TAYLOR.
MR. PRESIDENT, AND FELLOW - CITIZENS :
For several years past. Agricultural Fairs,—
county, state, and national,—have been held
annually throughout this country ; and the
interest which they excite, is evidently upon
the increase. This is an argument in their
favor. It shows, at least, a growing interest
in the subject. There are still some who
doubt their utility; who, trying them by the
test by which they accustom themselves to
judge of every public and private enterprise,
"wit/ it P ? " —are disposed to write them
down as unprofitable. Ido not at all agree
with those who take this narrow view of the
subject. If they served no other end than to
afford a short season of relaxation from the
toil of gathering in the fruits of the field, and
of scattering the seed, and starting the germ
of a future harvest ;—if they served only to
afford needful rest to muscles, taxed with the
unabated labor of a year, and to give to the
mind temporary relief from one unbroken
and unvaried train of anxious business
thought ;—if this were merely a " harvest
home," or a " feast of the harvest," in which,
forgetting their toil, and leaving care behind,
the people of this county had come up hither
to meet and greet one another in social broth
erhood and friendship, and rejoice together
in the common blessings of a kind and boun
tiful Providence,—it would, it seems to me,
amply repay us all for any apparent sacrifice
exacted.
But far beyond this are the aims and mer
its of these public exhibitions. Their ten
dency is to excite and cherish a deep and abi
ding interest in the great ento , pi.e which
your society has been organized to promote ;
and to elevate to a standard of just apprecia
tion, in his own, and in geli - -al public esti
mation, the calling and the toil of the hus
bandman and the mechanic. The aim, aN
well as the tendency, moreover, is to instruct
both. We cannot come here, fellow-citizens,
and engage with one another in an inter
change of views, and compare, in their results
here exhibited, our several experiments, with
out each and all of us learning some lesson
of practical wisdom. There is no one here,
I venture to affirm, who will not go home
ready to acknowledge that he has learned
something ;—or that he has been stimulated.
by what he has here heard and seen, to the
purpose of making at least one advance step
in some department of his calling. This sen
timent, I am persuaded, is now, in this great
day of the " Fair," so deeply impressed upon
the minds of all present, that no further vin
dication of these public exhibitions is requi
site.
The most powerful incentive to the accom
plishment of everything sought in the organ
ization and efforts of agricultural societies, is
a true appreciation of the interests concerned,
considered relatively with all the other inter
ests of society at large; the most .serious ob
stacle to be encountered and overcome, is the
tendency, as a people progress in wealth and
refinement, to undervalue these, disparage
labor, and strip it of its merited worth and
dignity. The result of a false sentiment hero,
is to encourage and foster a purpose on the
part of those engaged in industrial pursuits,
and more especially of their children, to re
main in them no longer than they shall find
themselves able to engage in something more
easy and honorable ; or until they can enter
upon some imagined field of employment,
where intellect and intelligence will have
freer scope, and find their merited reward.—
This false sentiment and its fruits, strange as
it may seem, are to be found in this country,
and amongst us.
LABORERS were not long since spoken of,
by a distinguished member of the United
States Senate. as " the MUD-SILLs of society."
The sentiment of the figure, in its tone and
drapery, was to disparage labor. That was
unwise, and, if so intended, unworthy. And
yet that is all, perhaps, that is exceptiona
ble in the designation. The senator's words,
without the adjective, are true. Those who
toil in the field and in the work-shop, in our
mines ani manufactories, and in every other
scene of active industry, sustain to the social
structure the place which the 'sill' does in the
framework of a ouilding,—they support and
uphold it. Without them, it would fall,—
and fall to the low point at which civiliza
tion starts ! No proposition is susceptible
of more satisfactory demonstration, than that
we owe everything of wealth and greatness
of which, as a nation, we justly boast, to the
instrumentality of toiling heads and hands,—
or, in other• words, to the PRODUCTIVE INDUS
TRY of the country. Our national greatness
is its handiwork ; our national wealth, its
treasured garnerings.
Since the declaration made to the progeni
tor of our race, after his expulsion from Eden,
" in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread," the NECESSITY of labor has been an
organic law of human society ; and an or
dained and indispensable CONDITION of human
prosperity, health and happiness. Fur nearly
six thousand years, no race or society of the
progeny of Adam have been able to attain
or exist in a State of civilization, without its
instrumentality. , Barbarians alone, (if we
except those in civilized communities, whom
it has pampered into forgetfulness of their
origin, and into that pride which can thought
lessly disparage it,) have lived and passed
away without it ; and they have lived and
passed away without leaving behind them
history or monument. From the beginning,
labor has been, and is, found necessary even,
or at least largely conducive, to the perfect
health of the physical, mental, and moral
man. The physical forces of the man of toil
are increased by his labor ; while the body
that has not the exercise of some useful em
ployment, becomes enervated and feeble,—
The best native intellect is dwarfed by in
activity. The animal passions, like rank
weeds in a fertile but untilled soil, take pos
session of the drone and idler, predominate
over his moral affections, and lie becomes de-
$1 50
WILLIAM LEWIS,
VOL. XV.
based and brutalized. We see, daily, the
penalty of the all-pervading organic law, in
enfeebled bodies, dwarfed intellects, and in
living illustrations of the quaint but true
saying, that "an idle man's brain is the
devil's workshop."
If we view this necessity as an organic
Lim - , adapted to our present condition, we
see in it the characteristic which Infinite wis
dom and goodness have impressed upon ev
ery law given by God to his creature man,—
that, while it may not be violated with im
punity, obedience tends to promote " our
own true and substantial happiness." Hence
it is the channel through which He conveys
to us, as nations and individuals, every tem
poral benefit and blessing.
He has given us, my friends, "goodly
land,"—a land which, from its extent and
varied climate, and the richness and variety
of soil upon its surface, is, in its capacity to
produce food for man, unsurpassed by any
other upon the globe; but then we must TILL
it. We must plow, and sow, and reap. It
will not yield its fruits without the care and
toil of the husbandman. He has embowelled
beneath the vegetating surface, the richest
stores of mineral wealth ; but we must MINE
them. We must dig them out; and they
must uniorgo necessary changes at the hand
of the mechanic and artizan, in a hundred
departments of labor, before they answer the
thousand uses for which they are valuable to
man. He has planted in our forests the lofty
oak and the stately pine, vieing with the
" cedars of Lebanon ;" but the muscular aria
of the woodsman must FELL them ;—and the
hand of labor must form and fashion them,
in conjunction with what labor has wrought
out from our minerals, into their compotent
parts of our houses and barns, and furniture,
and cars, and carriages, and implements, and
machinery, and things innumerable, to min
ister to the wants, and gratify the refined
tastes of civilized man ;—must fashion them
into the mighty ships and towering masts
that carry our canvass into every sea, and
hear cur stripes and stars around the world.
And so of almost everything. These are but
illustrations. Why, even a piece of coin,
made out of the precious metals, and esteemed
value itself, and the standard and measure
of value, only answers its purpose after it
has been dug up by the band of the miner,
has passed through the crucible of the refiner,
and has the impress and signet, "the image
and superscription" of the artizan upon it.
The richest gifts of God are only to be en
joyed through our labor ; and He honors us
by making us co-workers with himself. Let
us not then forget that man is only fulfilling
his destiny ; that he can only do it in the
dignity of true manhood ; that he is only ob
serving the laws of life, and health, and
happiness, when he is laboring, in some way,
for himself and others. Let us never lose
sight of the great truth, that we are indebted I
as a people, under God, for every thing en
t3ring into national wealth, and greatness,
and power, that distinguishes us from the
tribes of wandering Arabs, or of our own
aborigines, to His blessing upon productive
industry.
The great interests of a nation are classed,
(admitting, it is true, of a more minute clas
sification,) into three general divisions: ag
ricultural, manufacturing, and commercial.
Those employed in the first two only, are
producers ; the other, the commercial, though
vastly more assuming and arrogant, and,
like a spoiled child, hard to keep out of mis
chief, is entirely secondary and dependent.
Those engaged in it are idle, until the com
modities and fabrics in which they trade, are
furnished by the labor of the producing
classes. They "buy and sell, and get gain,"
upon the products of labor. Their wealth,
when successful, is but an amassment of the
fruits of the producer's toil.
Of the two producing interests, agriculture
holds the first place in importance ; for, while
they, together, furnish the materials for trade
and commerce, it feeds and sustains the life
of all. The calling of the husbandman is en
titled to precedence and pre-eminence, not
merely because it was the primitive employ
ment of man, but because it supplies the
veins and arteries of all—those who labor,
and those who live upon the labor of others,
or, if you please, who " live by their wits,"
—with their life-blood. Let some dire ca
lamity, fix immovably the plow in the fur
row ; let the toiling arm of the husbandman
become paralyzed, and the earth refuse to
yield her increase, and what would soon be
the result? What would become of vaunt
ing commerce and its proud marts? Earth's
cities would soon be left
" Without sound or tread,
And ships be drifting with the dead,
To shrres where all were dumb :"
The stillness and desolation of death would
overspread the earth.
- While, however, AGRICULTURE holds this
front place and rank, and may, in a sense
readily perceived and understood, claim pre
eminence over ail other pursuits of men, there
is an equally palpable, and an acknowledged
relationship and dependence, amongst all the
branches of PRODUCTIVE INDUSTRY. Man,
while he cannot subsist at all without the la
bor of the husbandman, "cannot live," in
civilized society, and in the enjoyment of its
varied conveniences and blessings, "by bread
alone." The agriculturist, while he feeds,
and nourishes, and sustains them, is indebted
fur the very implements of his toil, for the
temple in which he worships his God, and
acknowledges the rich bounty of his Creator
—fur the dwelling that shelters him, and the
numerous conveniences and comforts with
which it is stored, as well as for the raiments
he wears,—to the manufacturer, the mechan
ic, and the artizan. And then, he is depen
dent upon them for a market for his surplus
produce. There is, in truth, a relationship
and dependence among the branches of pro
ductive labor and industry which find an apt
comparison and illustration in the fellowship
and dependence of the members of the hu
man body. " The eye Cannot say to the hand,
I have no need of thee; nor again the head
to the feet, I have no need of you."
There is a propriety, then, Mr. President
and Members of the Agricultural Society, in
taking into fellowship with you, and inviting
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hither by your premium list, and every other
encouragement you can offer, all whose praise
worthy and honorable avocation it is, to rao-
DUCE, by the labor of their hands and intel
lect, ANYTHING VALUABLE. And it is matter
of gratulation, that, with the stock, and the
produce of the field, the orchard, and the
garden, here exhibited by your farmers, your
manufactories and workshops have been laid
under contribution, and have added to this
exhibition and display, the varied productions
of your manufacturers' energy and enterprise,
and the numerous specimens of the industry
and skill of your mechanics ;—all highly
creditable to the various departments of in
dustry represented.
But it is my purpose to speak to-day more
particularly upon the subject of AGRICULTURE.
After what I have deemed it proper to say of
this theme already, as a great and leading
branch of the productive labor of the coun
try, in order to hold it up in the view of those
engaged in it, and of all others, as worthy of
all honor and encouragement, I bespeak your
patient attention to a few practical observa
tions. I enter upon this part of my subject
with diffidence. The theme is so extensive,
branching out into so many distinct parts or
topics, any one of which could not be intelli
gibly discussed within the limits of an ad
dress, or all of them within the limits of a
volume, that, when compelled to make a se
lection, I am at a loss to know what particu
lar subject would be likely to prove of most
practical interest to my auditors, or what re
marks, if any, I could make, would be most
likely to prove instructive. And then again,
I see around me many intelligent and expe
rienced farmers, of whom, in respect to knowl
edge and experience upon the subject, it may
seem presumptuous in me to aspire to be the
peer; and at whose feet it would seem to be
more fitting, perhaps, I should sit and learn.
Nevertheless, gentlemen, since I am before
you, I must strive to contribute my part,
though it be but a mite, to the exercises of
the occasion, intended for our mutual benefit,
instruction and advancement.
I. It is quite apparent, my friAds, that
agriculture, though it has been practised
since the creation of man, has not kept steady
pace with other arts ; but, in this country,
at least, is far behind many other branches
of active industry. Our farmers, as a class,
—I except, of course, many to be found in
every part of the country,—have pursued',
their calling as a means of subsistence, cul
tivating their lands as their fathers had done,
without troubling themselves to inquire wheth
er other modes of culture might produce more
remunerative results. They have not gener
ally courted, but,"eri the contrary, have been
ready to spurn, the proffered aid of science.
When told, for instance,—what lies at the
very foundation of their business,—that sci
entific analysis demonstrates that certain con
stituents of soil, in ascertained proportions,
adapt it to the growth of particular crops ;
that in most soils some of these qualities are
wanting, or rot found in the requisite pro
portions, and may be supplied by the appli
cation of manures, or by modes of treatment
adapted to different kinds of soil, and must
be thus supplied or regulated, to secure a
completely successful result, many are found,
even in this day of light and knowledge,
ready to set this down as "BOOK-FARMING,"
and, closing their eyes against the light of
scientific truth, tested and proved by experi
ence, are content to grope on in the dark, as
they had done before * . This is a radical er
ror. It is an error in practice, it is true, with
many, who, so -far as theory goes, are suffi
ciently informed upon the subject, but who
still act against or without the light of their
own knowledge. Many have never given
themselves the trouble of inquiring whether
these things be so. Few, in this region at
least, whether informed or not, regulate their
practical operations, in this respect, upon cm--
reet theory. All, however, must, sooner or
later, rise above this error, or find themselves
lagging behind their age. They must learn,
if they do not already know, that their labor
in order to secure not only the best, but prof
itable results, must be intelligently, as well
as industriously, prosecuted. There is, my
friends, no calling in the proper and profita
ble prosecution of which it is more requisite
that the MIND should co-operate with the
hands ; to read, think, reflect and reason, as
well as toil. The qualities of the particular
kind of soil which it is his business to culti
vate,—what it lacks or needs to adapt it to
the production, in the greatest quantity and
perfection, of the crops which he proposes to
raise,—what is, therefore, necessary to be
done at the outset, to adapt the one to the
other,—what is needful to supply or preserve
the constituent elements of good soil, or bring
it back to fertility if it has been exhausted
by culture;—in other words, the subject of
MANURES, their several kinds, qualities, (es
pecially with reference to his own wants,)
and the proper time and mode of application ;
the subject of TILLAGE, or the proper mode of
preparing the soil for the seed or plant, in
cluding SUBSOILING and DRAINAGE ; all these
are elementary subjects of inquiry with
which it is almost as essential every farmer
should be familiar, as that the physician
should understand the disease of his patient,
and the qualities of the medicines in his jars.
But time will not admit of entering into a
discussion of these subjects in detail. To do
so, with the hope of rendering the discussion
profitable, would quite exceed the limits of
an address on an occasion like the present,
and exhaust your patience. I can only find
time to dwell upon them sufficiently to indi
cate their importance, and, if possible, to ex
cite inquiry. I must refer you for details to
sources of information happily abundant, and
available to all. These important topics have
been treated of by men of science and expe
rience, for the benefit and instruction of oth
ers; and these discussions, in a plain and
practical form, are within the easy reach of
every one who desires to learn. You need
go no further than to the library of your so
ciety for the requisite information. In its
volumes, and in the periodical issues of the
press, you have, in addition, the recorded ex
periments of others. Let me also, therefore,
urge upon the attention of every one present
the importance of taking some good periodi-
....
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HUNTINGDON, PA., JANUARY 18, 1860.
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-PERSEVERE.--
cal, devoted to agriculture and kindred sub
jects. I have in my hand a number of the
"AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST," published in
the city of New York, by Orange Judd, which
I can most heartily recommend. It contains
about thirty pages, the volume nearly 'bur
hundred pages, always of highly interesting
matter. For the small pittance of one dollar
per annum, it \vi 11 come into your hands and
into your houses every month, full of season
able and valuable information and instruction
upon every subject relating to your business.
If you would take it one year, you would not
be without it ; and your children,—for they
will find in it their " department,"—will be
as much interested and instructed by its pa
ges, and anticipate its monthly visits as ea
gerly, as you. If I could persuade every
farmer here who does not already do so, to
take this, or some other good agricultural
paper, I would feel that I had rendered val
uable service to the good cause in this county.
11. There is another great error, my friends,
which enters into our SYSTEM of farming. and
which, it must be acknowledged, is commit
ted along with others, by our best informed
and most intelligent farmers. We aim at too
much. We farm too much. Our farms are
too large. The result is, they are not half
tilled ;—by our very best farmers, they are
not half tilled.
The average yield of our best agricultural
districts, it is well known, is little over one
half; and in some scarcely one-jourth, of the
capacity of a well-tilled acre. Compared
with the cultivation, and its results, of an oc
casional small lot of ground here, and of en
tire farms (lots, also, to be sure, compared
with our farms) in some European countries,
this is found to be true. We have got into
the habit of thinking that a farm, to be worthy
the attention of any TARMER, must contain
two, three, or four hundred acres ; and that
he farms it to little purpo,se, unless he puts
out annually, forty, fifty, seventy-five, or a
hundred acres of wheat and rye, and of other
crops in proportion. Whatever his limit is,
he has his crop to put out, —7i is NUMBER of
ACRES. He skims the surface of a furrow less
than six inches deep, perhaps, and so hur
riedly, in order to get over it, that if his plow
strikes a stone and is jostled out, he has not
time to stop and adjust it, so as to break up
all the ground even to that depth, which he
undertakes to cultivate. Many, indeed, do it
better ; but this, it is well known, is the prac
tice of a majority of our farmers. Why,—es
pecially when it is remembered that the roots
of wheat, if they have the opportunity, will
penetrate the earth two feet, and of common
red clover three feet, and that the moisture
'which a few inches of soil is capable of re
taining will evaporate and dry out by the
slightest drought,—why, even if the soil itself
were possessed of every requisite of fertility,
—war should we wonder at the low average
yield of our fields?
The whole might doubtless be made yield
equally with any single acre ; or with the
same quantity of land in Europe, or anywhere
else, under like treatment. But, to effect
this result, a soil of sufficient depth must be
provided, by deep plowing and subsoiling,
thorough stirring, and the judicious applica
tion of the necessary fertilizing agents.—
This is not practicable when so much, is at
tempted ; nor, unfortunately, is it readily
thought necessary. Our farmers are not read
ily impressed with the necessity, or even the
economy, of cultivation involving, apparent
ly, in the first instance at least, so much la
bor and expense upon a few acres compara
tively, when they have so much land to cul
tivate. They do not readily appreciate the
advantage of raising upon one acre what they
now raise upon three or four, when they have
the three or four acres, and when the labor
and cost of putting in a thorough state of cul
tivation, and of properly tilling the one acre,
seem to be so considerable. But this labor
and expense, it should be remembered, would
only be so much proportionately greater in
the first instance. Make and ferilize the soil
the requisite depth,—remove the impediments
to thorough tillage,—and the one acre is al
most as easily cultivated afterwards, so far as
cultivation goes, as any other acre in the
field ; while the yield would doubtless be
double; at least ; in many instances, fourfold.
Perhaps a comn/de reformation upon this
subject will never be effected in this country.
while land is so abundant. The time will
come when necessity will work it. It is not,
I believe, a visionary fancy of the future of
this great country, to suppose that it will some
day contain, and its soil be required to sup
port, many-fold its present population. The
time will come when thorough tillage will be
a necessity; when it will be requisite that,
"Every rood. maintain its man."
Before that time, I do not doubt, the same
stern logic will induce those who follow us,
not many generations, if so long hence, in
tilling our fields here, to reclaim the hundreds
of acres now occupied by inside fences ; and
to find another investment for the hundreds
of thousands of dollars, now invested in that
article. And, since this might be done even
now, at no greater expense than that of herd
ing or confining cattle, which would be great
ly lessened, if it would not be entirely de
frayed, by the increased capacity of a given
number of acres of grass to feed them, and
the increased amount of manure secured, it
is by no means clear that it would not be
good economy to introduce, before it may be
come necessary, that reformation also. This,
however, by the way. But it is unquestion
ably a dictate of economy, to introduce at
once a thorough system of tillage. No farmer,
whatever land he may have, should disturb
the surface of one acre more than he can farm
well. lie should remove everything in the
way of his implements, plow deep and sub
need be, drain,--and thoroughly ma
nure, one field after another, until he has in
a good state of cultivation a sufficient quanti
ty of land for his purpose, which would be
found greatly less than he now " farms," as
it is called. The balance of it, if he is un
willing that it should -.lay waste, he would
find it profitable to sell, or have it cultivated
in a proper manner by his sons, instead of
lusting, as the custom is, after more land fur
them.
This is well illustrated by the oft-told story
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of a man, whose entire estate consisted of a
vineyard, and his family of two daughters.—
On the marriage of one of the daughters, he
gave her one-third of the vineyard ; but he
found that its yield was not diminished with
its size. Afterwards the other daughter mar
ried, and he gave her another third. He
was surprised to find that the one-third which
he retained, still produced as much as the
whole vineyard had before yielded him. The
secret was, that the whole of his labor and
attention, previously distributed over the
whole, were needful to the fraction, and were
afterwards confined to it, with the result of a
three-fold increase. And, I have no doubt,
many a farmer in this country might furnish
a similar marriage outfit to each of three or
four daughters, and make himself no poorer.
There are few, if any, here present, I am well
persuaded, who would not find it to their in
terest, to confine their attention to a thorough
cultivation of such portion of their land, as
they are ahle to cultivate well. And those
who undertake it, will take one important
step forward with the progress of the age.
111. There is another error of our farmers,
which, though not an equal, yet to some ex
tent, is not less general; and which, it seems
to me, nothing more than that the attention
should be directed to it, and thought and re
flection upon it excited, is wanted to correct.
I mean the habitual disregard or neglect of
what is tasteful and ornamental in the ar
rangement and care taken of our farms, and
the fences and buildings upon them.
" I went by the field of the slothful, and
by the vineyard of the man void of under
standing,"• says Solomon in the Proverbs,
" and, 10, it was all grown over with thorns,
and nettles had covered the face thereof, and
the store wall thereof was broken down."—
This is a graphic and true description of the
aspect presented by many a farm in Penn
sylvania, whose owner or occupant is not a
sluggard, or, in many respects, " void of un
derstanding," but an industrious, and, as to
most things, a thrifty man. His error is in
not cultivating, and consequently not being
able to appreciate, or at any rate neglecting,
what is demanded by good taste, or a taste
for the refined and beautiful, not less worthy
of gratification, certainly, than the mere ani
mal appetites.
Subject to some creditable exceptions, it is
true, in every neighborhood, our farmers, in
general, allow themselves to fall into sloven
ly habits, and their farms to present a neg
lected and dilapidated appearance. This is
more likely to lie found the case of farms oc
cupied by tenants ; but it is true, also, of
many cultivated by their owners. Many a
comparatively well cultivated field,—l say
comparatively, for few can be said to be well
cultivated,—is surrounded by a fence barely
sufficient to protect the current crop, sharing
the ground it occupies with a venerable
growth of briers and thorns. Meadows which
in proper condition, would be lovely lawns,
contrasting delightfully with the cultivated
uplands, are not 'infrequently seen surroun
ded by an unsightly border, consisting of a
dilapidated worm fence, partially hid by a
rank growth of briers and brambles, and
splotched over with bunches of bushes which
the mowers have mowed round for years.—
The fields are inconvenient and ill-shaped.—
The orchard, if there is one, has here and
there through it, a dead tree, which it seems
to be the calculation, should remain until,
under nature's slow, but sure process, it
moulders down into the earth ; while others
again, unthrifty for want of care, are de
-1 formed by dead limbs and branches. Imple
ments are lying around where they were last
used, to rot by the careless exposure, The
barn, stabling and out-buildings, and oven
the house and garden, (unless, as it is some
times happily the case, the better taste and
care of a tidy and industrious house-wife,
have saved these latter from the general neg
lect and dilapidation,) you find in strict cor
respondence with the surroundings. This is
not fancy, hut a faithful general description
of many a farm in this and every other coun
ty in Pennsylvania. What a contrast be
tween this and one tastefully arranged into
fields, the fences in good order and the fence
rows clean—the meadow, one green, smooth
sward—the orchard pruned and thrifty—the
barn and sheds, and tool house, and out
buildings, white washed and neat—the gar
den neatly fenced and tastefully cultivated—
the house painted white and enclosed, and
surrounded with fruit-trees, and shrubs, and
vines, and flowers. What sight more beau
tiful and enchanting! We cannot pass with
out admiring and regarding it as the very
abode of health, and peace, and purity, and
happiness. " Here," we are ready to say,
" is a spot of this earth which has been re
deemed from the curse." " Here, if any
where, is a very counterpart of Eden I"
Now, this difference costs nothing more
than a little care and labor, amounting only
to pleasant recreation, and a positive and ele
vating, gratification of the cultivated taste
which prompts it. And yet can it be doubted
that a little systematic attention to this sub
ject—clearing out - fields, and meadows, and
fence rows, white-Washing fences, barns, and
out-buildings, pruning fruit-trees, and plant :
in; occasionally a fruit tree, or shrub, or
flower, and fixing and arranging generally
with a view to ornament—would completely
renovate and transform the appearance of '
many a farm ? There are few, indeed, which
such care and attention would not visibly
improve. And why should not this be done?
Would it not contribute largely to real corn-
fort and happiness ? Do we live for no high
er
gratification than to eat and drink ?
But it adds to the value of a farm. A
Pennsylvania senator, from one of the eas
tern counties, was heard complain that the
assessors valued his farm . fire dollars an acre
more than the farms of his neighbors, while
he declared the only difference was.that his
fences were white-washed ! And the judg
ment of a purchaser, or one desiring to pos
sess himself of a home, would be more likely
to be thus influenced than the Bucks county
assessors. Who, if he wished to purchase,
would not make a difference between a farm
which judicious care and good taste had dec
orated with attractions, and one which neg
lect had suffered to become unsightly? What
renders anything more sought and saleable,
enhances its value. Modern experience still
proves the market standard of Hudibras
4, What is worth in anything,
But so much money as 'twill bring?"
Yes,—be assured that these ornaments,
strewed over your farm by a refined and cul
tivated taste, while they minister to your
comfort and happiness, and the comfort and
happiness of your family,—while they beau
tify your home and your neighborhood,—
should your farm he put into the market by
yourself, or those who come after you, will
prove a " SAVINGS BANK,' in which will be
found every penny of their cost, with com
pound interest.
IV. The general neglect of our farmers to
plant and cultivate fruit trees and orchards,
has been, and still is, as I conceive. a great
error; and one in relation to which, even at
the risk of being tedious, I must be indulged
in a few observations.
NO, 30,
I need not dwell upon the fact that this
subject has been, and is, neglected; that this
whole region is largely deficient in furnish
ing even a home supply of good fruit, one of
the richest and most delicious products of the
earth. Our towns every year purchase the
refuse of distant markets, while there is no
better reason why we should not supply our
selves, and even send in large quantities
abroad, than that we neglect it. This is
known and acknowledged. I proceed to drop
a few hints upon the manner this subject
should be attended to, and the inducements
to it.
I. Every farmer, I remark in the first
place, who has not a good orchard, should
plant one without delay. What his hands
find to do here, should be done at once.—
The kinds of fruit which come into bearing
soonest, require five or six years to yield any
considerable crop, whilst you must wait twelve
or fifteen years for an apple orchard to come
into profitable bearing. All this time, if you
have not yet commenced, you have lost.—
Your neigh bor if you have such a one, who star
ted ten years ago, is ten years ahead of you,
and you cannot overtake him. If you buy
a farm with everything else wanting, you
can supply it almost immediately, if you have
means. But money will not supply you at
once with an orchard; nothing but TIME will
do it. You must-wait for it. This is a con
sideration of such immediate and pressing
importance, that it should remove and dispel
at once a rising doubt, as to whether the fall
or spring is the better time to plant an or
chard. Now is the time. If you wait till
spring, something may then prevent it, and
another year will be lost.
2. Every farmer, I remark again, when be
procures young trees, should see to it that
they are rightly panted, and properly cared
for and attended to, as something of value.
A young fruit tree, if he wishes it to grow
thriftily, and bear good fruit, should not be
set out, as he would plant a fenco post. A
large hole should be dug, and a bountiful
supply of suitable soil be provided, and then
he should prune and form it as it grows ; and
he should protect his young orchard from
cattle, and from the various enemies of the
trees, with unremitting care. If he is un
willing to do this, he should not incur the ex
pense of purchasing, or the trouble of plant
ing trees. 'Uhe maxim is nowhere more in
point, that " what is worth doing at all, is
worth doing well."
3. I remark again, that every farmer who
has planted an orchard, and made a com
mencement to grow fruit, should select some
suitable spot of ground in his garden, or some
other convenient place, which be should call
his " nursery." There he should plant the
seeds, and grow up for his own use, seedling
stocks of the various kinds of fruit trees cul
tivated. If he does not know how to do it,
he can readily learn the simple process of in
oculating or engrafting these stocks, when
large enough, with the choicest kinds of fruit
that can be procured. When he finds abroad,
any new or superior kind, if it be during the
season of rest, or when the sap is down, he
can take grafts, or, in the summer, buds, and
carry them home, and preserve and propa
gate them. He can thus, at no greater ex
pense than the few occasional minutes it may
require, and which would doubtless prove
agreeable pastime, always have a stock of
valuable young trees. Ho is prepared to ex
tend his orchard, if he wishes to make it
larger ; or to plant another to take the place
of one on the decline ;—to dig out, at the
proper season, a tree that has died, and sup
ply, its place with another:and thus, with
) out the trouble and expense of going or send
' ing to a distant nursery, he can keep his
farm well stocked with good trees, bearing
the choicest and most valuable fruits. This
should be practised by every farmer : and
he should teach it to his sons as a necessary
branch of husbandry. Even ladies would
find it an agreeable and appropriate amuse
ment, to learn to transfer a bud of one flower
ing shrub, one variety of rose, for example,
to the stock of another, and thus secure the
pleasant effect of having many varieties grow
ing upon the same stock.
And now, let me ask, why should not eve
ry farmer give some share of his attention to
the cultivation of fruit? In view of the in
ducements to it, it is truly surprising that so
much apathy and indifference prevail upon
the subject. There is no department of his
labor in which he is more likely to become
pleasantly interested. You feel towards a
tree that you have reared and trained, a de
gree of at taehment akin to parental. You feel,
when planting and rearing it, that you are pro
viding the richest luxury for yourselfand your
family. You feel that you may be making
such provision for them, after you shall have
left them. You feel, moreover, the sweet
consciousness, that you are discharging an
obligation, and performing a duty, which we
all owe to those who may follow us. The
tree that you rear, may outlive you ; but there
is something pleasant even in the thought
that it may survive, a living monument to
your memory. Then, when in the spring
time it shall put forth its blossoms, and in
the summer or autumn bend beneath its rich
fruit, your children will be reminded of you,
and will say, " our father planted it." It
will linger, a living remembraneer of you,
when, perhaps, the stone that marks your
resting-place in the cemetery, shall be neg
lected and moss-grown.
But, comparing the yield with the expense,
there is no more profitable crop ; nor is there
any other way by which a farmer can, with
the same labor and outlay, so much increase
the permanent value of his farm. With res
pect to the profits of fruit-growing, I have not
time to make or present calculations. It is
well known, that, in New York and the east
ern states, the apple is a valuable export
crop ; and it can be produced as well here as
there. It is knewn also, that in New Jersey,
many a princely residence, and many a prince
ly fortune, have been reared by the profits of
the peach. And, to show how a good or
chard enhances the value of a farm here, or
how the want of one depreciates it, allow me
to state a single fact. There is a body of land
lying within two miles of ono of the county
towns in this state, upon which the owner, §