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ADDRESS
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
Aew Hampshire Agricultural Society,
THIRD ANNUAL EXHIBITION,
7
IN MEREDITH-BRIDGE, OCT. 7,. 1852.
i
BY WILLIAM S. KING, ESQ.,
EDITOR OF THE BOSTON ‘‘ JOURNAL. OF AGRICULTURE..”
aT WITH THE
REMARKS OF HON. FRANKLIN PIERCE.
PBOSTON: — SQkerwasnm 3)
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BAZIN & CHANDLER, PRINTERS, 37 CORNHILL,.
1853.
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A) D Ree SS.
BY WILLIAM 8S. KING, MANTON, BR.I.
Mr. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN, OF THE New Hampsuire
AGRICULTURAL SocleTy,—
It is a truth, that all have their presupices. There
is no man, no class of men, no nation,.that has not
prejudices, peculiar to the individual, the class, and the
people. |
The Lawyer, reared with a reverence for black-letter,
and the mould of age, bows with a delighted awe before
some statute, with its steel-trap clauses, that has come
down to us, from the days of “good Queen Bess.” The
prolix statement of a small matter, ingeniously avoiding
all reference to the facts aimed at, and rendered still
more obscure by an interlarding of villainously-bad
Latin, he regards as the very “ perfection of human
’
reason;” and we have seen him contend, with an en-
ergy worthy of a better cause, for the retention of
abuses, that, to him, were hallowed by Time.
Puysicians, of every school, are filled with preju-
dices. ‘The Allopath, pointing back with pride to Ms-
4
culapius and Hippocrates, and to the myriads, who have
consented to be killed or cured, secundem artem, is elo-
quent of the beauties of the bolus and the blister ;—
with Epicurean gusto, he descants on the excellence of
Castor-oil, and the beautiful effects of Calomel Jalap ;—
Emetics, purgatives, tonics, and febrifuges, if we may
believe him, are the very poetry of practice. Your
Homeopath the while, — with his horror of blood-
letting and blistering,—regards his Allopathic brother
as little better than a diplomaed Spanish Inquisitor,—
-a graduated and licensed butcher. ‘This disciple ot
Hahnemann woos you to your grass-covered couch and
final sleep, with sugared pills, and limpid drops. The
Hydropath raves of the luxury of a plunge-bath in a
dark pool, with the thermometer at 3°; and holds up
for your admiration the wet sheets, wherein you may
shiver, then sweat, back to health. The Grahamite
toils for a pallid cheek and sunken eye, by gormandiz-
ing bran bread and saw-dust puddings. In humble
imitation of Nebuchadnezzar, he grazes on greens and
cresses. Not one of these, because of the spectacles of
prejudice, can see a grain of good in his brother. And,
as with the practitieners, so it is with the patients ;—
the blind followers of the blind.
The Divinr, who has todo with the concerns of
eternity ;—to prepare the souls of fellow-sinners for a
world and a judgment to come,—we might well hope
to find free from prejudice, in the contemplation of the
mighty interests committed to his charge. But no!
Pastor and people look upon the narrow path which
5
they themselves tread, as the very best, if not the only
road to heaven. The Presbyterian is prejudiced against
the formalism of the Episcopalian, who insists upon
kneeling, when he prays, and standing when he praises
God, The Baptist has his prejudices against your
Presbyterian, because he does not assent to the essen-
tiality of immersion to salvation. The Methodist
roundly rates his Baptist brother, for not admitting the
benefits of a migratory ministry. And all fall afoul of
the unfortunate Unitarian, who refuses to look through
any of their spectacles, and hand him over to uncondi-
tional damnation.
The Mercuant mixes with all sorts of men in his
business; finds it to his interest to please all; and, as
one of a class, is, perhaps, more free than many others,
from prejudices. ;
The Mecuantc partakes much of the same character.
The Poutictan is a perfect pile of prejudices. In
his eyes, his opponents have no one good quality; his
friends, no faults. Bring forth from the crowd a can-
didate for any office in the gift of the people,—from
keeper of the pound to President,—and he, who was
yesterday a worthy man and member of society, is to-
day pronounced by opponents, (if we credit their vitu-
perative assertions,) an unfit associate for felons. And
the higher the office, the more bitter the Billingsgate.
If, hereafter, the hand of History, searching among the
records of the past, should by evil chance clutch a
bundle of party papers,—and the wrong bundle, at
that,—future ages would read with astonishment, that
1*
6
the world, where a free press was enjoyed, had been
governed by a set of scoundrels, that would disgrace
Pandemonium.
But to approach a step nearer to our subject, and to
to-day’s audience; your horse-man has his prejudices ;
insomuch, that he who is charmed with the graceful
gait and fine form of the Black-Hawk tribe, can find
nothing to admire in the well-knit frame and muscular
action of the other Morgan horses; while, on his part,
the Morgan man repays the prejudice, with interest.
The lover of short-horns has his prejudices in favor of
a square build and majestic size. ‘The Devon breeder
boasts that his favorite will come, sleek and well-condi-
tioned, from a pasture where the Durham would die of
starvation. And the patriotic Yankee crows a very
“Chapman” note upon the merits of “Our Nartve
STock.”
Nations have their presupices. “ My son,” said a
turbaned Turk, as he pointed out to a young Moham-
med, in the streets of Constantinople, a Parisian dandy,
tricked out in the latest lady-killing fashion ; “ My son,
if ever you forget God and his prophet, you will come
to look like that!” And the eyes of the horrified little
Turk, following the direction of his father’s finger,
gazed on the Frenchman, through the mist of Moslem
prejudice. The Greenlander, guzzling train oil with a
relish, pities the poor John Bull, who stuffs himself
with beef and plum-pudding. The wild Indian, who
trod the Western prairie, looked upon the white man,
7
and the comforts of civilization, as the wolf regarded
the lot of the collar-marked house-dog.
Not many months ago, the principal countries of the
Earth were represented at an “ Exhibition of the In-
dustry of all Nations;” and, with her elder sisters,
came the Cinderella of the family—Young America.
Haughty Austria paraded there her gorgeous furniture
and rich hangmgs. Sunny France sent her Sevres
ware; her ornaments of gold and her ornaments of
silver; rich jewels and silks ;—all that could captivate
the eye of taste and refinement. Great Britain crowded
her own Crystal Palace with her rich and extensive
contribution. Italy, Spain, Greece, Prussia, even Tur-
key were represented there in gold and silver, and pre-
cious stones, statuary, and fine fabrics; but Cinderella
had brought with her only the implements of her toil—
her daily companions,—which constant practice had
enabled her to improve upon. There were plows, such
as the American farmer uses ; differing much from the
favorite patterns of Englishmen, and all others. ‘There
were her reapers; her flour; her meat-biscuit ; and
many an other valuable and useful contribution.
But blear-eyed Prejudice stalked through the long
aisles of the Palace of Glass; and in all the show of
this trans-atlantic sister, the older nations of the earth
could see no good thing. She was the subject of their
scorn, and the point of their jests. “Do you wish to
be in solitude,” said a presumptuous official, “ go to the
United States quarter,—the prairie land !”
8
It was our fortune to haye there, among others, one
man, who deserves honorable mention at this farmer’s
festival,—the Commissioner from the State of New
York, B. P. Jounson ; then, as now, Secretary of the
New York State AcricuturaL Society. For many
dreary weeks, he stood almost alone ; sad and desolate,
amid the neglected contributions of his country. Who
chanced to visit us, came to sneer. ‘These Yankee
plows,” said an unusually unprejudiced visitor, one
day, “may do well enough among the rocks and stumps
of America; but they are not comparable, for general
work, to our English plows, or even to the Belgian.”
“ Do you know,” retorted Johnson, “that in our coun-
try, we have fields, without a fence, or a rock, or a
stump, larger than your whole island of Great Britain ;
and these plows are found to work well there, as they
will work well anywhere. This flour is made from the
wheat, you see yonder; and the wheat was grown on
land plowed with implements like these; that crop of
wheat averaged 62 1-2 bushels to the acre, weighing
63 pounds to the bushel.” So with the reapers. The
London Times paraded an account of the American
department, and christened McCormick’s machine, “a
cross betwixt a flying-machine, a tread-mill, and an
Astley’s chariot.” “That flying machine must be
tested on the field,” insisted the sturdy Johnson, “and
let them laugh that win.” The tread-mill was tried.
The grain, green and storm-soaked as it was, went
down before it, as if it were the shears of Fate; and
loud, though late, were the honest congratulations of
9
our discomfited critics. The introduction of the Amer-
ican Reaper, alone, was by common consent, allowed
to compensate England for all the gross expenses of
the Exhibition. In like manner, the plows were found
to work well on English land. And, finally, the bitter
opponent of all that is American and republican,—that
same London Times—confessed that the United States,
by their contributions for ensuring the good of the
many, instead of pandering to the luxuries of the few,
had carried off the palm, in this World’s Tournament.
Why was it, that at the eleventh hour, only, was
"justice done to one of the competing countries? Why
did thousands, whose voices were afterwards loudest in
praise,—to their honor be this said,—for so long a
time speak, but to scofft Prxsupicr had pre-occupied
their minds, and jaundiced their vision.
As this is a Farmer's Festival, and a great proportion
of the thousands before me are farmers, I shall not
enter farther upon the wide field of man’s Prejudices ;
but confine myself to a description of Ture Presupices
oF Farmers. And if, as we have seen, all classes of
men, and all nations have prejudices, what wonder is
it, that the farmer has his prejudices! In thus declar-
-ing, I simply pronounce him to be a man, and not
unlike other men.
The first of these prejudices, that now occurs to me,
is that against, what many of you are pleased to term
in scorn, Book Farminc. It would be exceedingly
amusing, were it not for the painful reflections that, at
10
the same time, occur to one, to mark the look, and tone,
and manner of ineffable disgust, with which one of our
old-time farmers mentions a new-light cultivator, who
subscribes to agricultural papers that inculcate science,
and is silly enough to search in printed books, for in-
formation to direct his labors. ‘ The field, rue Fre.p,”
_ says old Father Stand-still, “is the school-room for me ;
the plow-tail is the desk I want, and Nature’s great
page, the only book that I peruse.”
What is called Book-farming, is simply the appro-
priation of the experience of other farmers ; which they,
or others for them, have thought proper to print. IR=fa
farmer, known to you to be a good farmer and a truth-
telling man, tells you that by a system of management,
differing somewhat from yours, he has nearly doubled
his crops, you listen with widely-opened ears ; you store
in memory every particular of his proceeding, and you
determine to pursue another year, that plan that has so
well answered the purposes of your neighbor. But, if
this very man, desirous of benefiting a whole commu-
nity by his experience, and having too much business
at home to go abroad repeating his success from man
to man, by word of mouth, shall write out his experi-
ment, and cause it to be printed in a book, or periodical,
that moment it becomes a part of book-farming, and
ceases to have virtue, in the eyes of many. ‘There is a
magic in types, it would seem, that converts what is
wisdom when spoken, into folly when printed.
But the species of Book-farming that above all others
call into play the prejudices of working farmers, is the
11
printed advice of men, who work more with their brains
than with their hands;—of men, who observe the
operations of others, and carry into practice, by the
hands of hired help, what commends itself to their
judgment, by its fruits ;—of men, who regard agricul-
ture as a science.
What is this but a prejudice against Minp ;—against
Mind, as applied to agriculture? ‘This prejudice is
unreasonable, not to say absurd. It declares that God
has given to the farmer reason; but not that he may
apply it, as other men do, to the advancement of his
calling; so that every year shall witness improvements
in husbandry, as every year witnesses improvements in
mechanics, or other sciences; not that by its exereise
he shall be a better farmer, ten years hence, than he
was ten years ago, or than his grand-father was before
him;—for the thorough-going old-fashioned farmer
scouts the idea of improvement; he is contented to
tread in the tracks of his progenitors, neither asking
nor caring whether or not there is any safer and better
path.
Now, I am prepared to say,—and, I think, to prove,
that every other branch of industry, and every occupa-
tion of man, has advanced toward perfection just in
proportion as Mind has been brought to bear upon it ;
and there can no reason be given, why agriculture
should be an exception.
War, as a serious occupation of man, is the only one
that contests antiquity with agriculture. As soon after
the fall, as there were human beings enough to consti-
12
tute a respectable fight, we had war. And the history
of every nation, that has come down to us through the
mists of tradition, or appears on the chronicler’s page,
is little less than a narrative of their broils and conten-
tions. For many centuries, brute strength was the only
force applied to attain victory; hence the horses of
ancient history are all prodigies of muscular power, as
well as of prowess. But, by and by, the mighty inter-
ests at stake, brought Mrnp into the conflict, and mere
muscular force ceased to be pre-eminently esteemed ;
for the gigantic strength of an Ajax became very weak- —
ness before the little pellet of lead, that Mind had pre-
pared and propelled. In the days of the Trojan war
the puny person of Napoleon Bonaparte would have
contrasted strangely with the huge bulk of the contest-
demigods; but it requires little wisdom to assure us,
that with a battalion, such as earned for him, by their
rolling discharges at Aboukir, the name of King of
Fire ; or with a battery, such as swept the ensanguined
plain of Borodino, the Grecian heroes would soon
have been hurried in an unseemly flight to a disorderly
embarkation; or the walls of Troy been battered about
the ears of its defenders in a day.
The “ consummation devoutly desired” in battle, is
to slay, maim, and capture as many of the opposing
host as possible; and the records of blood will testify
that ten thousand can now be murdered, mutilated, or
imprisoned with greater ease, than a score were killed
of yore. Murnp has worked the change; and now the
fate of armies is decided, not by the actual shock of
13
arms, but by the skill of most accomplished chess-
players on the bloody board. Our Mexican war has
given us a terrible fame, as a martial people, and we
are justly proud of the prowess of our troops; yet all
previous history will bear me out in the assertion, that
a change of generals would have changed the tide of suc-
cess. The Austrians, who had conquered the French —
in Italy and threatened them with death by the sword or
by starvation, were in turn chased, like sheep, over the
mountains, as soon as one Minn was added to the forces
of the defeated French.
It is difficult to evade the conclusion, that the mind
of one man may be equal to the combined force of
toiling thousands; yet farmers are found, who, in prac-
tice, deny that the application of intellect could at all
advance their interests. ay
Let us look at Commerce,—Commerce is the carrier
of Agriculture, but Mind has been brought to bear upon
its operations; and in place of the unsafe cratt, that
once “crept cautiously from head-land to head-land,”
the mighty steamship is now employed to draw together
continents; and there is not a sea, however remote,
that is not plowed by an American keel; nor a wind,
whether loaded with sleet at the pole or warmed by
the sun’s hot breath at the equator, that does not fill
an American sail and unfold her glorious stars and
stripes.
Manufactures are but the maid-servants of Agricul-.
ture, toiling and spinning in her halls; Mind has of-
fered her aid; and the old hand-looms are garretted, to
2
14
make room for machinery, that seems to possess an
almost diabolical intelligence,—a miraculous power.
Our Mechanics have given to the farmer the Plow
and the Reaper, the Drill and the Cultivator, the Hay-
Cutter and the Grain-Thresher, the Fanning-Mill and
all the other improvements in agricultural implements,
of which farmers sometimes make boast. And they
have been able to do these things by an application of
mind to their occupation ;—by the study of books, as
containing the experience of the more eminent mechan-
ics ;—by earnest thought.
But to come to the second prejudice of farmers. As
a class they say, that especial Epucation is not neces-
sary for them ;—an education, adapted to their oceupa-
tion, as farmers, to teach them more than they now
know, of their own business; thereby enabling them
to improve upon the doings of their predecessors, as
other classes of men have done ;—an AGRICULTURAL
Epucation, looking directly at their intended business
for life.
The Shipwright, before he is able to launch upon
the deep, those models of marine architecture, which,
whether propelled by sails or steam, have alike carried
our starry flag in triumph on the sea, has, in his youth,
been apprenticed to a finished master of his craft; he
has, so to speak, studied the alphabet of his trade under
a competent teacher ; and has pored, dreary hours long,
over models, and lines, and rules laid down in books.
No one of my hearers supposes, that the improvements
15
made in ship-building, whereby, even before the intro-
duction of steam on the ocean, we had already dimin-
ished the distance to the English coast from our own,
by full one-half in twenty years, are the result of acci-
dent, or of fortunate guess work. No! constant study
alone enabled the builders to improve upon every
model, that was launched ; until now, the work of our -
ship-yards is the admiration of the world. It may be
here added, as an argument for education, that the con-
ceded superiority of our ship-wrights even over those
of our mother country,—Nosiz Otp Encianp,—is uni-
versally and unhesitatingly attributed to the fact, that
our ship-builders are more generally men of inquiring
minds and of education in their business.
The Mason, who rears your house-walls, and spans
the swift stream with the striding arch, has had his
years of apprenticeship and education. Much of his
knowledge must come from books, but he does not
therefore despise it.
The Painter, who sketches, with magic pencil, the
glowing landscape, or “the human form divine,” has
prepared himself to execute those masterly touches, by
previous care and study.
The Lawyer is educated with a steady view to his
future profession.
The Physician acquires from books, and from obser-
vation, the knowledge of the healing art; that renders
him a minister of mercy in our dwellings.
The Divine, whose errand is to warn the sinner to
“flee from the wrath to come,” and to comfort the part-
16
ing soul, about to wing its way on a dim and untried
journey, learns to understand and to expound the will
of his Heavenly Master, by continued perusal of the
writings of the good and the learned.
All professions, all trades, all other occupations of
men testify to the advantages of especial education ;
but the farmer is yet unconvinced. Men are not born
with a natural knowledge of law, or of mechanics; so
that after a little observation of the practice, they can
take high rank in their respective occupations; but the
farmer claims that he has, from youth, all the knowl-
edge of his business that is necessary ; and a few years
of practice completes the education. If we allow that
we merely desire to equal those who have preceded us,
it may be that we can keep close to them, by walking
in their footsteps; but the tendency of the age is to
improvement ;—the design of our Maker appears to be,
that each generation of man should excel, in knowl-
edge, its predecessor ;—but it is idle to expect improve-
ment, where all are content to be imitators.
The object of an agricultural education is, undoubt-
edly, to make practical farmers ; and here, at the out-
set, we stumble over a prejudice, as to what consti-
tutes a practical farmer.
My purpose here, as all know, is not,—cannot be,—
to ridicule my hearers. I have too high a respect for
those who called me hither,—for those who now so
kindly listen to me,—for the great subject that we are
discussing,—for my own character,—to attempt to
throw ridicule upon any whom I address. But you
17
yourselves shall be judges of what yourselves declare
to be a Practicat Farmer.
To decide whether a stranger, who calls himself a
farmer, has a right to the title, is not your first glance
cast upon his clothes, to see if they be farmer-like ; and
your next upon his hands, to find if they are hardened
by manual labor. If a man, in a black broadcloth
dress coat, having hands fair to look upon, and uncal-
loused by contact with the plow-handle, presents him-
self to your notice, as a practical farmer, your polite-
ness may or may not prevent you from laughing in his
face, at the obvious absurdity of the claim; but you
laugh none the less, in your sleeve, as you set him
down for a fancy-farmer.
Now, Sirs, what right have you to deride this man’s
pretensions; and, off-hand, to pronounce that he is not
a farmer, as accomplished as yourself, or even able to
teach you what you have not yet learned, in your own
occupation? It is because you consider that a practical
farmer, is he, and he only, who labors with his hands ;
this would make them tough; and the necessities of
his occupation would compel him to wear more homely
apparel. Is it true, that this it is, and this alone,—
labor with the hands,j—uarp worx,—that makes the
practical man? Then is your hired help, who follows
the plow, day in and day out; who shivers in the win-
try stable, and sweats at the harvest, many an hour
when you are occupied about other affairs, a better
practical farmer than you; for he often works more.
Then is the ox, that he drives, the most practical, for
o*
18
he wears rougher and tougher garments, has harder
hands, and does more hard work, than either of you.
Farmers! you greatly mistake the meaning of the
word practical. Stand with me upon the quarter deck
of a ship, as she strips for a battle with the storm. The
bullying winds roar. The threatening sky descends
and contracts. The angry waves lift up their heads.
The tempest-tost bark, now piercing the sky with her
trembling masts, now driving headlong into the yawning
trough of the sea, is freighted with human souls. Do
they not now, if ever, need the services of a practical
sailor to conduct them safely through the environing
perils? Who then is he, to whom all eyes instinctively
turn, as under God, their only hope? Is it that stal-
wart son of the sea, whose strength is the boast of the
ship’s company ;—who can “swim farther, dive deeper,
and come up drier, than any man in the crowd ;’——-who
can “ hand, and reef, and steer ;’—-who can mount therig-
ing, with asquirrel’s agility, and tie all the fast-knots, and
sliding knots, that are the sailor’s pride; and splice, or “lay
a cable, with the next man ;”—is this he, who is selected
as the best practical sailor, to command the craft, in her
hour of danger? Far from it, friends. The practical
man, for the occasion, is yon dapper little fellow, with
soft, white palms; sporting, mayhap, a seal ring; and
dressed, as if inclined to give to tar and pitch, and all
other defiling substances, a wide berth. He it is;—
this man, who has been educated for his position, and
who directs the labors of others,—he it is, who is the
practical sailor.
19
If, then, in the hour of danger, when death rages for
his prey, and the yawning sea shows the ready grave,
men acknowledge the might of mind; why is it, that
farmers will persist in undervaluing it? and will set up
sinews before it ?
As we cast our eyes over the country, we sce it trav-
ersed in every direction by roads of iron ; mighty hills -
are demolished, wide valleys are filled up, and swift
streams are spanned by viaducts. The neigh of the
steam-horse wakes the echoes, far and near; as with
eyes of fire and with breath of pitchy smoke, he rushes
along his iron road with the roar and strength of the
avalanche. Now if there are things that practical men
can surely do, the piling of dirt and stones into a long
narrow heap; and the digging down of banks of earth ;
and the hammering of iron and the putting together of
bolts and nuts and plates, must be among them. But
we do not give to the thousands of brawny workmen,
who ply pick and spade, the honor of building the rail-
road; nor do we credit to the faithful smith, who,
obedient to directions, has wrought out a rod, and
again hammered out a plate, the performances of the
finished locomotive.
By and by,—as all now admit that a man may be a
finished practical sailor, who does not defile his palms
with pitch, oakum, or rattlin-stuff; and as one may
claim to be a practical builder, rearing huge structures
of gran:te, bridging rivers, and moving mountains, who
does not harden his hands by the use of spade, pick, or
crow; so will we acknowledge that a man may be a
20
practical farmer, competent to the management of
acres, who does not toil all the day long at the plow-
tail. ‘To farm well, as to direct any other operation
well, the foreman, whether he be master or man, must
thoroughly understand how things ought to be done;
and then the proverb will be found to hold true of
farming, as of most things else,—“ the eye of the master
is of more value than his hands.”
A great bug-bear to plain farmers, and a lion in the
path of agricultural advancement, is Science; and this
constitutes a third, in our list of PREJUDICES.
You have allowed yourselves to indulge the idea that
a scientific farmer is one who goes a-field with his
mouth crammed full of hard words, and his arms filled
with gallipots from the drug-store. The manure for
an acre of land, you have made him declare, he can
carry in one vest pocket; and thereupon you retort,
that the resultant crop he will be able to convey home
in the other. Common opinion has stuffed his coat
pocket with books, and his hat with pamphlets; and
even from out his bosom peep papers, covered with cal-
culations and estimates. Thus armed by the bookseller
and the apothecary, you push him forth to the hay-
field. Ask him when ought hay to be cut,—in the
flower or in the seed,—and he answers from “ Vol. 6,
page 281.” Speak of the depth of plowing or the
quantity of manure to the acre; and you cause him to
squat on the wall, till he can consult the tables of con-
21
terts of a score of treatises, and read out the recorded
experience of a hundred theorizers.
This man of print and pepper-boxes is not entirely
the creature of your own creation; there are originals
of this portrait,—men of mere pretensions to scientific
acquirements, the more supercilious and presuming in
proportion to their shallowness. These are the chaps —
who have created in the minds of farmers a prejudice
against that science, of which they pretend to be teach-
ers. These pretenders, these mere book-farmers build
theories, and then try to twist and squeeze facts to ac-
cord with them.
A genius of this class once wandered into a country
village. A thriving store-keeper of the place had lately
added to his articles for sale, hides and leather; and as
an appropriate sign, had drawn.a calf’s tail through a
small knot-hole, leaving the bushy end hanging down.
As he came once in a while to admire the effect of his
own ingenuity, he observed a man draped in black,
with white neckerchief and gold spectacles, intently
observing, for hour after hour, this pendant tail.
“ My friend,” said he at length, “do you want to buy
hides ?”
“No;” abruptly answered the observer, without re-
moving his eyes from the calf’s caudal appendage.
« Are you a drover ?”
‘“No, I am a philosopher; and I am trying to satisfy
my reason, how the calf got through that knot-hole.”
_ These are the men who have brought ridicule upon
science, instead of concentrating it upon themselves.
22
Now Science is simply KNOWLEDGE REDUCED TO A SYS-
TEM; and this system, which has worked wonders in
every other department of industry, we commend to yeu.
Of water, Science has built bridges thousands of miles
long, and upon this race-course of nations she has
placed and propels steamers and sailing craft, plying
with the regularity and despatch of an ordinary ferry-
boat. ‘The Sun has been instructed as a portrait-paint-
er. The Lightning is harnessed as an express-man.
And of late, we learn that the air we breathe has been
made to labor in the cylinders of Ericsson, with a force
superior to steam. ‘These are the triumphs of Science,
—of systematic knowledge.
Justice calls Science to her aid. They descend into
the tomb. The dead are made to speak, and tell the
terrible tale of their violent death.
With strained eye Science searches the heavens, to
manifest the wondrous works of God. . Twinkling
plainly before her upraised glass is a star millions of
miles distant. With patient calculation she traces the
route traversed by this eye of heaven, back to its far-off
source; and tells to her astonished hearers that this
light, which has travelled at the rate of 20,000 miles in
a second, has been 3541 years in coming from its dis-
tant home. Bessel, a Prussian, has discovered the dis-
tance of a fixed star to be sixty-three billions of miles
from us. Sixty-three billions of miles! The mind of
man refuses to conceive of such distance; he can but
express it in figures.
23
Science, with reverent tread, approaches the very
council chamber of the Creator; and, from off the out-
spread plan of the universe, reads his yet untold de-
erees. She tells of the day,—and names the very day
and the hour and the fractions of a minute,—when
“the face of the sun shall be darkened, and the moon
shall refuse her light. She tells of the coming of the
fiery comet. Nay, more. She dares to say that the
completeness of the Divine plan of the universe, requires
that a planet should exist, where none has been found;
and hard upon the heels of the daring assertion comes
the announcement of the discovery of the required
planet.
Science thus bridges oceans, conquers time and space,
and wrenches their secrets from the heavens; but farm-
ers yet are found, who say that it cannot aid them to
grow beans,—that it is not practical !
The washer-woman laughs at science, as she stands
over her wash-tub, and wses soap. ‘The smith smiles at
the pretensions of scientific men, when he tires a wheel.
But how many years of dabbling in grease and ashes
would have enabled the woman to make a recipe for
soap! And how many tons of iron would be heated
and cooled before the blacksmith, of his own observa-
tion, would fathom the mystery of expansion and con-
traction !
Science is villified and ridiculed because she has not
already explained all the secrets of Nature ; and because,
when inquired of by the farmer, she often errs. Allow
to her as many years in the field of Agriculture, as she
24
has enjoyed,—yes, enjoyed and improved,—in other
_ fields, and the results, which she will present,—not sell,
but present,—to you, will be quite as astonishing and
quite as incalculable in value. But cramped within
confined limits, hooted at when she appears abroad, how
is it possible that Science can do herself justice.
The practical farmers,—fondly so styling themselves,
—have had in possession “the cattle on a thousand
hills,” and the thousand hills themselves, for over five
thousand years; but are now unable to tell how many
pounds of hay go to a pound of beef. And in this vast
assemblage we could not agree with unanimity upon
such questions as these ;—whether is it better, to plant
large potatoes or small!—to top corn, or to cut it up
at the butt ?—to strip off suckers or not ?—to cut grass
in the flower or in the seed?
These are plain questions, which one would suppose
might be answered by a thirteen-year-old boy, of ordin-
ary observation; but five thousand years of feeding and
killing and cutting up, and of planting and reaping
and gathering into garners, have not enabled the farmer
to decide these and other mooted points. Is it, then,
an exaction on the part of Science, to demand “a clear
field and no favor” for ten or twenty years, at least ? Is
it unreasonable ?
Few valuable inventions or improvements have re-
sulted from guess-work, or from following in the cider-
mill-track of an established routine. So the farmer may
vainly hope to improve upon the knowledge of his pre-
decessors, if he studies only to follow in their footsteps ;
29
and the success that is the result of chance, and not of
calculation, is a poor dependance for him, who relies for
his daily bread upon the bounteous yield of the soil. A
certain system is necessary to obtain facts ; and by these
facts we must alter and amend our system. Most good
farmers, even among those most loud-mouthed in decry-
ing Science, are, in the main, scientific farmers. The
great operations of their farms are conducted upon a
system, born of observation and experience. ‘Thus they
know, by aseries of observations, that it is not well to
sow wheat upon newly-manured land ; but in preference
plant corn there, and follow it with a wheat crop. But
they will not carry this system into the details of farm-
management, and learn the whys and the wherefores,—
the causes and effects,—by the same system, watchful
and long-continued, that taught them the prominent
facts. Science unlocks these mysteries, shows the
reasons of things and tells to the inquiring farmer, that
an over-supply of ammonia will force his wheat, when
sown on land dressed with green manure, into a rank
and unnatural luxuriance ;-—that the stalk will be weak
in texture and unable to support the head of grain ; and
that the wheat will lodge.
Precisely thus, medical men, before the day of Hervey,
were acquainted with the fact, that a bandage tightly
encompassing the arm or leg, would cause the veins to
stand out like whip-cords; but until Science enabled
Hervey to proclaim his theory of THE CIRCULATION OF
THE BLOOD, no reason could be given for the phenome-
non. Ere Jenner lived, it was known that milk-maids
3
26
were liable to an eruptive form of disease, caught of
the cows; it was noticed, too, that those thus attacked
were not subject to the small-pox: but Science,—a
series of observations, directed by an enlightened rea-
son,—proved to him, alone, from these generally known
facts, that Vaccination was a perfect shield from that
dreadful scourge. ‘Thus farmers know the leading
facts, which are not only important, but indispensable
to successful cultivation ; but it is the scientific farmer,
only, who makes of these a key to unlock the inner
chamber of the temple of knowledge; he it is, who
uses every fact as a stepping stone to reach a higher.
Screntiric AGRICULTURE is the cultivation of the
earth by rule, and not by guess-work. Indeed, when
and where guessing ends and system begins, then and
there is the birth, and the birth-place of Science.
How many farms, gentlemen, within the reach of
your observation, are, by this definition, scientifically
cultivated? On how mary is the depth of the plowing
gauged by the depth of the soil, the character of the
subsoil, and a wise intention to render the fertile loam
deeper year after year, inch byinch? Jlow many farm-
ers of your acquaintance, who enter on a farm with a
soil three inches deep, undertake, as they well and
easily might, to render it in ten years, twelve inches
deep? I would tell you here, that the experiments of
thousands of farmers have proved, that by thrusting
the point of your plow one inch, or three-quarters of an
inch deeper at each plowing and bringing to the sur-
27
face so much of the inert subsoil, to be operated on by
the atmosphere and to be benefitted by the manure
year after year, you will to this extent increase your
active fertile soil, and gradually create another farm,
as it were, under your old one. But this would be
scientific farming; and, consequently, in the opinion of
too many farmers, mere nonsense; notwithstanding that
facts, plenty as blackberries, confront them with evi-
dence.
On how many farms in this State, or in any State, is
the manure applied with sufficient knowledge of the
component farts, and consequently of the wants, of the
soil? On how many is the manure itself prepared and
preserved, so that it retains all of its valuable constitu-
ents? Why, gentlemen, if one were to say that plants,
to thrive, require food in certain proportions; and that
if one of the necessary substances is not present in the
soil, and is not supplied in the manure, the plant can-
not thrive; and that in proportion as you have or
apply the precise quantity of each ingredient necessary,
so nearly do you come to getting the maximum crop,—
you would set it down at once, in scorn, as scientific
farming! And yet how else do you account for the
fact, that one man grows a hundred bushels of corn to
an acre and another but twenty? Why, clearly, be-
cause the land whereon grew the hundred bushels was
naturally, or by scientific treatment, in a proper condi-
tion for corn-bearing,—had in its womb all the neces-
sary kinds, and enough of each kind of food, that the
young and the growing plant required for its leaves,
28
its stalk, its tassel and its ear. And how do you ac-
count for the fact, that you do not get an equal crop
on the same ground the next year? Why, because the
first crop has eaten up a good share of the food in the
ground-pantry; and the third season, (if any man is
silly enough to try corn again on the same ground,
without having supplied food by manure,) the third
crop would find the shelves pretty well cleaned; and
the progeny of that year would be pigmies.
On how many farms in New Hampshire is an ac-
curate calculation made of the cost of growing different
crops, so as to decide which is the most profitable to
raise? On how many farms is an account kept of out-
lay and income from each field and each animal, that
the prudent husbandman may know where is the
mouse-hole in his meal-bin? This is not done because
it would be scientific farming. To be sure, a merchant
who pretended to carry on an extensive business with-
out keeping books, and without taking now and then
“an account of stock;” or who continued to deal in
certain styles of goods, without knowing whether he
was making or losing money by the operation, would
be held insane. But surely that is no reason why a
man, who prides himself on being a plain practical
farmer, should farm by arithmetic.
Do farmers hereabout, or farmers generally any-
where, attempt gradually to improve their seed by early
and judicious selection; and by always planting the
best, instead of reserving the worst for that purpose ;
or do they sell all that is fit to be sold, and keep the
29
poorest for home use and for seed? This gradual im-
provement of seed, such as Mr. Brown, on an island in
Lake Winnepesaukee has made in corn—known as
Brown corn—and as many others have made in many
plants, and fruits, and flowers, by the simple selection
of seed, with judicious cultivation,—this smacks rather
too much of Science, for a practical farmer.
Scientific Agriculture recognizes the fact, that ma-
nures are not economically applied, to exert their best
influences, upon soils where water too much abounds ;
and recommends drainage. ‘And so,” say you, “ does
every practical farmer, who knows beans.” Well, per-
haps every practical farmer does not “ know beans,” or
he would recognize them in a good share of the ready-
burned coffee, that he buys! At any rate, how different
the operations of the systematic and of the guess-work
drainer. ‘The first discovers the secret springs, that
supply the superfluity of water; and so locates his
drains, and so to cut off the vein before it opens on the
surface. While nine-tenths of your practical men dig
ditches in the lowest part of the meadow, where the
water stands :—forgetful that an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure. This subject of drainage opens
too vast a field for me to venture upon it at this time.
This same rule of prevention causes your scientific
farmer to do all things in season. He stirs up the
earth between the drills of his crops, with the hoe or
cultivator, to kill the weeds, before they attain to great
size, and strength, and appetite. There is no such glut-
ton as your weed. Like a sharper among honest folks,
383*
30
it defrauds the legitimate owner of what rightfully be-
longs to him. With coolest impudence, it steals from
the young and tender plant three fourths of its food,
and grows in consequence three inches to its one; Mr.
Weed over-tops it ; he bullies it, as it were, after redu-
cing its strength by starvation. By and by, he claims
the ground as his own, and flourishes in undisturbed
possession. He becomes seedy at length; establishes
a large family, in good quarters to rob succeeding crops
of potatoes and carrots; and is only uprooted and pun-
ished when he has about run the length of his evil
course.
Agriculture is understood to express, not merely the
cultivation of the land, but also all the operations inci-
dental to it, or consequential upon it. Accordingly, we
find Science in the Stocx-yarp. The same enlightened
system, that prevails in the field, is introduced here. —
Acting upon the well-established rule that “ like begets
like,” she selects fit moulds, and builds up breeds of
cattle for the shambles, square and ponderous, like the
lordly Durhams; and again for the yoke she prepares
the beautiful and agile Devon ; for the milk-pail she re-
serves families of each of these breeds, in which big ©
udders and profuse secretions of milk are hereditary.
For the churn she shows the gentle Jersey cow ; seven
quarts of whose milk will yield a pound of butter.
Among Swine, this same wise System, — a synonyme
for Science — has produced the Suffolk, the Middlesex,
and other breeds, that run to fat, as naturally as a tur-
tle-fed alderman ;—they eat, they grunt, they sleep their
dl
lives away, until they have attained to a very Lambert-
ism of obesity: and then, with a gurgling in the throat
they change into pork and are laid down in the barrel.
These noble horses, too, whose ardent nei.h comes
even now to our ears, were fashioned by Science! Ask
the breeder if the fine points of his prancing steed are
come by chance? and he will indignantly tell you, No.
He was bred systematically, or, as we chose to call it,
“for short,” scientifically. He has regard to the best
points of sire and dam, and with careful consideration
has produced the animal we admite.
Science is at home in the manger and in the manure
cellar. She tells us what feed goes to the making of
bone and muscle for the young and growing calf; and
what makes fat on the stalled ox. She tells us what
gives speed,—because it supplies the wear and tear of
tendon and bone,—to the racer; and what will lap the
lazy pig in Elysium, until he wakes to the sight of the
gleaming knife, struggles, groans and dies.
So with the manure heap, she is a safe and learned
counsellor. She tells you that, when exposed, its
strength is washed away by the rains; and darkening
the current of yon bubbling brook, is carried away
from you, forever. She bawls in your deaf ears, “house
it; prepare a cellar beneath your barn, or at least, a
roof to protect it from the thievish element.” She points
out to your wilfully blind eyes the escaping gases, dis-
engaged by the sun, and flying off upon the wind’s
wings. Doing nothing by halves, she holds out to
your closed and retracted hand, absorbents and divisors
32
—such as charcoal dust, and peat, and muck. She tells
you of the value of Guano and other fertilizers, and in-
structs you in the mode of applying them.
In the Garden, and the Orchard, and the Green-house,
Science has been made welcome, and we see her doings
there. The mean Crab has become the blooming Bap-
win; the bitter Sloe, or the Wild-Bullace, has been
changed into the precious PLum; the Beam-tree has no
longer its small and acerb berries, but bears bouncing.
Bartierts. The wild Cole-wort, that grew, small and
thriftless, on the sea-shore cliffs, has been improved into
the big-headed Bergen Cassace. Pitiful weeds or insig-
nificant field-flowers are made blooming ornaments of
the garden and the green-house. Here, in Horticulture,
may be seen some of the rarest triumphs of Agricultu-
ral Science.
In view of what has beer said of Scientific Agricul-
ture, many of my hearers will say,— Why, if this is
your scientific farming, we have been scientific farmers
all our lives without knowing it. We plow, we ma-
nure, we drain, we breed cattle and swine and horses,
we house our manure, we prune and scrape our trees,
and everything—just as you say Scientific Agriculture
commands,—upon a system that practice has proved to
be correct.”
Gentlemen, fellow-farmers, I am fully aware of the
fact, that many of the sturdiest opposers of Science are,
practically, Scientific farmers, denouncing Science as a
name without examination or inquiry.
33
A fourth prejudice of farmers is against, what are
sneeringly denounced as, NEW-FANGLED NOTIONS.
New-fangled notions! And why may not the new-
fangled be as valuable as the old-fangled notions?
Gentlemen, we make the manifest miitake of looking
backward, toward the infancy of the world, for knowl-
edge ; and towards its darkness, for ight. Does wisdom —
come of experience? We have the experience of all
the farmers from Abel’s day, down to your President
Nesmith’s ; and our own little stock, added thereto, to
be handed down to our children. Does wisdom come
of travel and observation? We can now, with ease
and comfort, fly over a hundred miles of road ; where
our forefathers with difficulty accomplished one. Does
wisdom come of reading? We have libraries of books,
where our ancestors could boast of single volumes. And
yet we prate, constantly, of the wisdom of our forefathers,
and we denounce, what they never had a chance of
knowing, because it has not the aroma of antiquity
about it. Gentlemen, I reverence age, as much as any
one; but if wisdom comes of age, on the heads of this
generation are the hoar-frosts of five thousand years ;
and we, who now live, are the true, grey-bearded,
ANCIENTS !
We have thus more years to boast than our fore-
fathers ; we can acquire more knowledge by travel,
and a comparison of notes than they, because of our
increased facilities; we have all the learning of their
day, and more, handed down to us; we have all
their experience, with our own added lot; and yet
34
we are told to regard these men—with their no more
than equal intelligence, and inferior privileges, as
oracles. We don’t ride to mill now, as some of our
grandfathers did, with the meal in one end of the
sack ; and, to balance it, a stone in the other. Why
then should we keep up other of their antiquated
notions? One of two things must we choose; —
either to acknowlege, with mortification, that the race
of men has dwindled in intellect; or that the preju-
dices, so prevalent against new-fangled notions,—merely
because they are new, and conflict with the expe-
rience of a gone generation,—is absurd.
One more point, and I have done. We find Preju-
dices at our firesides. ‘The fond mother — who sees in
the unfolding mind of her young son evidences of more
than ordinary intellect,—thinks that his talents will
be thrown away, or hid undera bushel, if he is made
a farmer of; and straightway determines, in her own
mind, that her darling shall shine as a lawyer, or “ wag
his jaw in a pulpit.” The poet has said of woman,
that
When she will, she will, you may depend on’t ;
And when she won’t, she won’t ; and there’s an end on’t.’
And those of us who have wives—all of us, know how
much of truth there is in the description !
Mr. President, I see the reproachful glances cast at
me by the fairer portion of my audience, for this apt
quotation; and I hasten to add that another poet, equally
30
well versed in human nature, and of equal authority,
writes thus :
“ The lords of creation men we call,
And they think they rule the whole ;
But they ’re much mistaken after all,
For they ’re under woman’s control.”
There is much of truth in both these descriptions.
But let me not, Sir, while I occupy this responsible
position, appear, even in jest, to undervalue woman ;
faithful, untiring, devoted Woman! Man’s first, last,
best comforter on earth. Cradled upon her bosom, and
shielded in her protecting arms; we pass, happily, the
helpless years of infancy. She is our guardian and
guide, in youth; the friend and faithful counsellor of
our manheod; and our heavy head rests in death, as at
birth, upon the true heart of woman!
Oh, Woman! your's is a noble destiny! To you is
committed the charge of the generation to come. To
know what the world will be, when we are laid
“In the deep stillness of that dreamless state
** Of sleep that knows no waking joys again !”
We need but to ask, “ What are the mothers, now 2”
In your hands, for evil or for good, is (under God,) the
fate of the world. The old gnarled oak can be bent into
no position; but that, in which the winds and the
frosts of its youth have left it; but the tender twig,
hereafter to be, perhaps, the pride of the forest, is under
your control: “just as the twig is bent, the tree
inclines.” IPfthen the generation of farmers, who are
to succeed us, do not cause the glad earth to smile,
amid the rich abundance of her good gifts to man;
36
it will be, because the women of this generation have
not rightly reared the men of the next.
It is a prejudice of some, Sir: that woman is defrau-
ded of her rights, by the laws, enacted by man. Old
grannies in pantaloons, and pantaletts, preach the doc-
trine of the equality of the sexes; and contend that
woman should hustle and elbow, among the dense
crowd, a lane to the polls; while, in placid dignity, at
home, she may be moulding a mind to sway the State;
— that she is down-trodden and oppressed, because not
eligible by the breath of popular favor, to posts of pre-
ferment. Woman is eligible to a seat in the kingdom
of God; and one of her highest, holiest, happiest,
duties is to hasten the coming of His kingdom on
earth, by preaching His truths to the listening and
believing ear, that is now all her own,—the child, in the
innocence of his early years. His throne on earth, is in
the hearts of her husband and children; through them,
ruling the world; and in them, peopling Heaven.
To return to the prejudices at home, Sir; itis but
the necessary consequence of the prejudices, we enter-
tain against the application of mind to agriculture;
that talents are looked upon as buried, if their posses-
sor is brought up as a farmer; — he has no theatre, we
say, whereon to display his abilities. Hence, when
we see rising up at our fire side, a fine boy with
rich promise of rare faculties; instantly we decide,
that he must be liberally educated, that hereafter he
may shine as “a bright particular star” in one of the
professions, — the Law, Medicine, or the Ministry.
37
Does he give evidence of possessing a shrewd and cal-
culating mind, —he is at once put in training for a
merchant; that he may rival those princes. of trade,
whose
argosies, with portly sail, —
Like seignors, and rich burghers of the flood ;
Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea, —
Do over-peer the petty trafickers,
That curt’sey to them, — do them reverence —
As they fly by them with their woven wings.”
The boy is educated from his early youth, with a view
to a certain profession or business ; and he is made to
feel,—we are all willing to acknowledge,—that, if he
expects success, he must depend upon the exercise of
his intellectual faculties; he must apply, not his
hands only, but his mind also, to his occupation.
Do I do wrong to point your attention, fellow far-
mers, to the fact; that herein we stultify ourselves
and debase our own calling, — making it a mere mat-.
ter of thews and sinews,— while we cry up the pro-
fessions, and trade, as calling for the exercise of those
faculties, which, alone, make man superior to the brute
creation ? Can we wonder, that our children should re-
gard farming, as a “low business for a lad of spirit ;”
and that, deserting the homestead, they crowd the pro-
fessions, and the counting houses of merchants, as_ the
avenues to wealth and distinction ; — too often finding
them the roads to disappointment and beggary; or if
successful, equal with their highest hopes, too. often
4
38
ready to acknowledge, at the summit of their ambition
that
es tis better to be lowly born,
And range with humble livers, zn content ;
Than to be perked up in a glistering grief,
And wear a golden sorrow.”
Ws, Sirs, we have filled the cities with our children ;
we have driven them into temptation, and amid the
haunts of vice; when, unprotected by saving home in-
fluences,—the father’s word of warning and the mother’s
bed-side prayer,—they have too often filled the drunk-
ard’s or the gambler's grave; or, broken in health and
spirit, come home but to die. And we have done this
by undervaluing and degrading our own calling.
And in thus educating our children, we stultify our-
selves; because we deny our own definition of a
PRACTICAL MAN; we confess that he who writes the le-
gal documents is not, necessarily, the practical lawyer ;
but, rather, he who uses the labor thus performed ; and
that he, who packs up the boxes and bales of merchan-
dize, and toils in the drudgery of the store, is not the
practical merchant, but a mere porter ;—in a word, that
minD makes the Man.
‘Mr. President and Gentlemen, I have now, to the
best of my ability, discussed the subject in hand.
Faithfully, so far as I knew it, I have declared “the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” If
to-day, I have opened the eyes of one individual in this
mighty assemblage, to the influence and effect of his
Prejudices, my labor has not been spent in vain. Gen-
39
tlemen, we may boast of our achievements abroad
and of our glories at home; but as “ he that ruleth his
spirit” is better “than he that taketh a city,” so no
campaign is so glorious, as that which shall terminate in
the overthrow of our PREJUDICEs.
GENERAL Prerce being recognized by his fellow-citizens, and
called forth when the address was concluded, was greeted with
enthusiastic cheers, silence being restored, Gen. Pierce spoke as
follows :
GEN. PIERCE’S REMARKS.
A speech from me, Mr. President would be out of
place, andif it were otherwise, I would not mar the fine
effect of what has been so appropriately and eloquently
said by the gentleman who has just resumed his seat,
by following with any crude remarks of my own. I
hope that the address will be printed, and that it will
find a place in the dwelling of every farmer in the
State.
This has been one of thebright, pleasant days, which
now and then cast their radiance over our pathway—
dispelling the rigid expression from the brow of care
—animating, with a rich glow, whatever meets the eye,
and quickening within us all the sources of innocent
enjoyment. I have in common with this vast audience,
felt its power ; and the satisfaction it has brought was
at the moment alloyed only, by the regret, that such
holidays, when practical improvement, delightful relax-
40
ation, and genial sympathy, were so happily blended,
were not of more frequent occurrence.
The exhibition is, in all respects worthy of the State;
the preparation and arrangement highly honorable to
the gentlemen to whose hands they been committed,
and to this county, so distinguished for the grandeur of
its mountains, the beauty of its lake scenery, and the in-
telligence, industry, and probity of its sturdy population.
More than this will not be expected of me under ex-
isting circumstances. I came to see, to hear, and enjoy,
not to speak ; and I must ask my friends to excuse me,
expressing only the hope, that, the reflection of “ the
Great Spirit ”* might never be cast upon a population
less prosperous and happy.
*Designation of Winnipissiogee ; the Indian name of the beautiful lakes in
the centre of Belknap county.
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