Fa ‘slater Sa tare sLIBRARY OF dale Ghelf Waa} g UNITED WPATES OF AMERICA. OS G655S46526696090000) feececes a -—% , os ie _ , JOSEPH A. WRIGHT, ON THE 6th DAY OF OCTOBER, 1853, LIVONIA, WASHINGTON COUNTY, INDIANA, TO THE DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, COMPOSED OF THE COUNTIES OF WASHINGTON AND ORANGE. INDIANAPOLIS: : AUSTIN H. BROWN & CO., PRINTERS. 1854. iy ie A’ 2 “ADDRESS. ual Fellow-citizens of the counties of Washington and Orange:— When the multitude shouted around Napoleon, on his return from the battle of Marengo, he exclaimed to a friend—“ Bour- rienne! Bourrienne! do you hear the acclamations still resound- ing? That noise is as sweet to me as the sound of Josephine’s voice.” On that occasion the multitude, and the great soldier, were cel- ebrating the triumphs of war, the glory of victories obtained under bloody banners. But, to-day, we have met to witness the peaceful triumphs of Industry; the success of Labor; and the evidences of increasing prosperity among the people of this portion of our pros- perous State. This is a glorious sight—to see the people of all classes vieing with each other in the arts of peace, rather than those of war and enmity. These popular assemblages, where the people bring into competition various productions of their skill and labor, are well calculated to advance the general prosperity of the State, and to throw around the labors of the agriculturist and the mechanic, an attractive interest. The poet has beautifully and correctly said— “ Would you be strong? Go follow the plow: Would you be thoughtful? Study fields and flowers ; Would you be wise? Take on yourself a vow To go to school in Nature’s sunny bowers. * * * * * * * * * Fly from the city—nothing there can charm; . Seek Wisdom, Strength, and Virtue ona farm.”? et wet" —_~ When we shall be able to invest practical labor with an interest and a beauty that will cheer the hearts of wifeyhusband, and child, and thereby give to Home the grace, peace, refinement, and attrac- tions that God designed it should possess, we shall have made one of the most important steps in the great cause of human progress. ¢ ata ay kings, priests, and layman; citizens and rt , field. If, however, we do not first serve the field, it will bring forth nothing but briers and thorns. To make the field serve you, you must begin by serving the field. Hence, in this work, man has much to learn; he must watch the progress and development of everything that surrounds him, in order that he may, in the way of improvement, accomplish something that will add to his sup- port, and increase the amount of his comfort and happiness. : You have no right to treat your fields as you treat your stock. You have no right, by bartering, exchanging, and traffici ith your land, to deal with it as you do with your horses, cattle, s and moneys. The land is the gift of the Almighty, and yourselves, your fami- lies, your country, and your race, all have to draw their nourish- ment and support from it. It is your duty to leave this earth in as good a condition, at least, as it was when you found it. The worst of all robberies are those which a man commits on his mother earth, when he abuses and destroys the land, either by his ignorance, or by his wilful neglect of the means that will im- prove and preserve it. It is a duty we owe ourselves, our children, our race, not to injure or impoverish the earth, the source of all life. We are mere trustees; and, as such, will be held responsible to the Author of all good, for the manner in which we shall treat the soil. I have frequently thought that, if we keep on for half a century in the same mode of cultivation that some of us have pur- sued for the last few years, in some portions of the State, we shall not be able to raise a mullen stalk. As our lands produce well, we persist in violating well-established principles of agricultural science, by raising, year after year, corn and hogs—not doubting, for a moment, that the constitution of the earth will continue good, and for all time to come, healthy and sound. In some parts of the State, we have continued so long in this system, that not unfrequently, in the fall, we find some very ale, shaking, and weakly looking corn. The State of Ohio, (with double the quantity of cultivated land that Indiana contains,) does not produce more corn than we do; and not as many hogs, by half a million. It was a singular fact that, according to the census of 1850, one half of the entire value of the live stock in Indiana, consisted of the value of hogs. We raise more corn than any other State in the Union, according to the quantity of land cultivated: and if we do not change this mode -of farming, we shall soon be able to appreciate the force of the Belgian maxim—‘ No grass, no stock——No stock no manure—lo manure no crops.” There was some excuse for the raising of corn and hogs by our people, some years ago, when the hog was the only article that would command a good price in the markets. But, with the pros- pects before us; the immense demand for cattle and sheep ; the growing of grasses, with the view of raising cattle, sheep, horses, mules, &c. i It is singular that our farmers have neglected the sheep. In some counties of Indiana there are, I believe, more dogs than When in New York, some weeks since, 1 was informed d, fat sheep, were worth from six to ten dollars a head; demand could not be supplied. There is no prospect of plying the market for wool for years to come. The sheep will pay better than any other article raised by the farmer. He never dies insolvent—his fleece will always pay his cost. The manure of the sheep is better than that of other animals. He destroys briers and thorns, and always exerts a good influence on the char- acter of vegetation. All wild grass disappears where the sheep run. We have, in many sections of the State, the very kind of land for sheep, from which nothing is now realized ; the broken—the hilly lands; yet according to the census of 1850, we have not a million of sheep in the State; we ought to have ten times that number. The general government possesses a territory of three and a quarter millions of square miles, a territory ninety-five times as great as Britian—more than sixteen times as large as France— more than twelve times as large as all Germany; yet from these countries we import millions of pounds of wool every year. Many of the Kentuckians who have settled in various portions of Indiana, are looking to their true interest. You will find them with their fields of blue grass, their herds of fine cattle ; and raising but few hogs, and not much corn. They are not exhausting the soil of their farms ; nor over-tasking themselves with labor: and yet they are making more money than many others who work much harder, and who, from year to year, impoverish their lands by raising corn and hogs. The holding of land, without improving it,is a public injury. All our tracts of land, no matter how large, should, in some way, be made productive. The very fact of putting fields down in blue grass. creates a demand for labor, and benefits the poor as well as the rich. Indiana has, at this day, lying unproductive some mil- lions of acres of land, which, if converted into meadows, would be sufficient to raise annually, for the market, an immense surplus of cattle, horses, mules, and sheep. 1 4 - 4 ~ c FLAX. oft —_ At the Wayne County Fair in 1851, I called the attention of our people to the cultivation of Flax. Subsequent examination, and 5 2 is. ; rennet linen, paper, linseed oil, seh he oil-ce In the days of our fathers, in Indiana, we cv more than we do now. I remember a third of a century ago, adjoining county, the interest that was takemdin the old practic pulling, retting, and scutching the flax ;\a nd among He e scenes of 1819 and 1820, in the ¢ county of Lawr ence, | where m moth sisters, and wives were engaged at the old fashioned wheel, there is one fresh in memory. My father was ask proper time to sow his flax, when a good natured neig remarked, that they always sowed their flax on good Fr “iday ; bu one year cood Friday came on Sabbath, and that year se flax was of no account. But the cheapness of cotton and cotton goods, eas our rich soil, upon which we raise hogs, corn, and cattle in such abundance, has turned our people away from this article, except in some por- tions of the State, where it is raised for the seed alone. The improvements in machinery, the increased consumption of linen goods, the adaptation of our soil, and the certainty of the demand, at fair prices, are awakening our ‘People to the investiga- tion of this subject. The whole amount of flax-seed produced in the United States in 1850, according to the census reports, was 562,312 bushels, and more than half of this was the product of North-Western States ; yet we imported from abroad, the same year, of flax-seed oil, 2,818,344 gallons, equal to near two millions of bushels of flax- ' seed, which, at the present eastern prices would amount to more than two and a half millions of dollars, a sum equivalent to one- half of all the flour exported for the same year.. The crop must be increased more than two millions of bushels before the home demand can be supplied, to say nothing of the shipment abroad. In the great North-West, the past year, there were probably more than two hundred and fifty thousand acres in flax—eighty thousand acres in Ohio alone. In the counties of Wayne, Henry, and other parts of our State, flax is raised, all, with few exceptions, for the seed alone. It is said, that in Delaware county, Ohio, they have made a road for five miles out of the straw of the flax. With a proper use of the same material many more miles, and a far more preferable road, could be made. The following exhibit has been furnished me by the Secretary of e Treasury, of the imports for the years 1850, 1851, 1852, and » of the a article of flax : ‘State, are admir ably adapted for flax: — We h of land millions of acres in Indiana, which 1 duce the very best article. ii: 13 The farmer in Ireland has turned his attention te o the cultivas of flax, for the value of the fibre, and neglected the seed. doubtless arose from the supposed fact, that the two objects were — incompatible with each other. But subsequent experiments have demonstrated that this is a mistake. As early as 1844, fhe Flax Improvement Society of Ireland reported that during the s season of 1844, almost every where through the country, a large porti the crop of seed has been saved, “and the flax fibre has been not at — all deteriorated, where the operation was performed with care. Hence it seems that in Ireland, for a number of years five-sixths of the seed grown was wasted; while in this country nine-tenths, if not more, of the flax fibre was thrown away, and the seed alone preserved. It is a little remarkable that in our rich and fertile fields, we should cultivate quite extensively the crop of flax, for the seed alone, with great profit by the side of wheat and corn, yet in the old country, the laborer found a like profit over high rents, tithes, and taxes, when raised for the fibre alone. But as it is now clearly demonstrated that both may be preserved, it may with pro- priety be urged, that the crop will richly pay for all the labor bestowed upon its cultivation. There is a strong prejudice against the cultivation of this crop, arising from the every day repeated story that flax exhausts the soil—that it almost wholly impoverishes every inch of land that comes in contact with it. We cannot tell from whence this view comes. It has not been proven by any experiments. It is not found in any of the agricultural works of the day. It is not sustained by a solitary report made to any of the thousand societies for the advancement of labor throughout the land. It is not authenticated by any man, be he farmer, professor, or divine, in any address, re- port, or trial. But to the contrary, you will find men all over the country who will inform you that in repeated experiments, where they have cultivated a few acres of flax, in some corner of a field, which during the fall following, has been put in wheat: and that invariably the very best of wheat was raised on that part of the field cultivated in flax, although the remainder of the field was idle Yat the same time. We are not left, however, to conjectures and probabilities on a subject of such importance to the cultivators of the soil. The Bel- fast Flax Society, to whom this subject was referred, after a most careful and minute investigation, made the following report : “The principle objection urged against the extended growth of flax is, that it exhausts the soil, without returning anything to it. But by saving the seed.and the seed balls, and feeding upon them, the manure thus produced can be returned to the ground, and will supply most of the valuable constituents abstracted from it during the growth of the plant. The flax shaws from the mill, and the fermented together VO thus have replaced on er erly abstracted by the crops, as it fa ‘been ascertained i bey ond a doubt by chemical analysis, that the fibre for which the flax plant is cultivated, is produced entirely from the atmosphere. Dr. Kane, one of the first men of Ireland, in a paper read before the Royal Acadeiny of lreland, fully confirms this report of the Flax Society, proving by chemical analysis, that while the woody stem of the flax plants, yields a considerable quantity of ash, con- sisting of inorganic compounds derived from the soil, the fibre is composed solely of organic matters derived from water and the atmosphere. It is well known that when lands are for many consecutive years cultivated in wheat or corn, that they fail to produce full crops, un- less they are renewed by manures suitable to the character of the soil, and adapted to the crop proposed to be raised. This failure, however, does not arise from the fact, that the “ humus,” or carbo- naceous portion of the soil is exhausted, but from the fact that the soluble silex which gives the glazed, shining, varnishing covering to the stalk or stem, by being so repeatedly extracted, that it is so far exhausted that a perfect and well-formed stalk or stem cannot be produced—and without a strong, perfect stalk no well developed grain need be expected. Professor Way, of the Agricultural Bu- reau of England, gives, as the average of sixty-two analyses, 121 pounds of silex in each acre of wheat, and corn doubtless con- sumes more than wheat. It is with a full knowledge of this fact, that every prudent farmer, with the view of accumulating sileceous matter in a soluble form, turns his attention to the raising of crops with unglazed stems, clover always among the first. There is, per- haps, another reason for the clover, that for every tun that he takes off from his land, he can turn under about half the same, in weight, of the roots of the crop to replenish and sustain the soil. Flax partakes of this class to a great extent, and certainly exhausts the soil less than either corn, wheat, or oats; and, when the stubble is ploughed in, supplies the organic element expended in producing the crop. We have abundance of evidence that the crop is profitable. W. Newcomb, of Pittstown, New York, in 1847, estimates his profit per acre, at fifty-six dollars. Valentine Simpson, of Preble county, Ohio, during the year 1850, produced 105 bushels of seed from a little over 5 acres of ground, making a net profit per acre, of six- teen dollars on the seed alone. John Pauly, of Warren county, Ohio, raised in 1850, sixty-five bushels of seed from five acres of ground, where the quantity of seed sown was but three bushels. George Brown, of Brownville, New York, realized a net profit of twenty dollars per acre, on a crop of 25 acres. Major Kirby, of the same place, realized a profit of thirty-three dollars per acre, on a crop of 6 acres. Benjamin Akin, of Rensselaer county, New York, in 1851, exhibits a net profit of fifty dollars per acre, and in these cases the old system of dressing was adopted. - 2 ‘gia a ie Aa re I hail among the favorab 2 signs of’ the times these very asserm- _ blages—these collecHOne of the people all over the land—this mingling together of all classes of our people, for the purpose of improving their condition at home—thus interchanging views and opinions, and making experiments, trials, and tests upon the yari- ous branches of industry. Let not the charge be laid at our doors that was brought against the ancient Romans, which was, that they made a country deso- late and, called that a peace. May it be ours to boast that we found a wilderness, and converted it into fertile fields; and, that, by our policy, we have covered over this continent with a prosper- ous, happy, and intelligent people actively engaged in the pursuits of life. To accomplish this, we should remember that it behooves us to do all within our power to give beauty and dignity to the pursuits of those who toil, and thus to make labor attractive. At the base of the prosperity of any people lies this great principle, make labor JSashionable at home. Make it an essential part of the primary edu- cation of every youth of the land; and, above all, bring, by every means within your reach, the undivided and united action, the whole strength, talents, energy, affections, motives, and power of the people to bear upon home policy. We have been looking in the wrong direction for the sources of individual, township, county, State, and even national prosperity. Take your stand at the capital of the nation; contemplate the vast machinery of the National Government; see for yourself the grow- ing interest which is manifested in the management of national affairs—the great expenditures made for the improvement of pub- lic buildings, the increase of offices and officers, and the vast in- crease of general and specific appropriations of the public money. View the crowds that are pressing for Executive favors, great and small, and then turn to the States of this Union. What a con- trast! If you were a stranger to our institutions, and were to form your opinion from the interest that is taken in the national govern- ment, and the almost utter neglect of the State governments, you would suppose that our fathers designed that the legislation, fa- vors, and strength of the Republic which they founded should be centered in the capital at Washington. The evidences of the interest manifested by politicians, presses, and people, in national affairs, over those of the State, county, or township, are before us every day. It is a rare sight to witness the people holding primary meetings to discuss the merits of the school law—the provisions of the code that affects property, character, or life—or the law that governs and controls your estate at the time of your death. These are minor considerations in comparison with the great questions as to who shall fill the vacant seat in the Cabinet at Washington, or dis- charge the duties of Collector at some port of entry on the Atlan- tic. Public meetings are held all over the country, approving or disapproving of the appointment of this or that man to office: but wo ‘cs ee Meee , 1% Y Pages a b: qe a rs he , ‘ ; 11 ! q ae w . rad) ‘7 bath, if - _ be me. ; re re . 1 — ‘Courts, Congress, Legislatures, and Governors may do acts that’ — seriously affect the peace, happiness, and prosperity of the people, and yet such acts do not seem to make even a ripple upon the sur- face of public opinion. The truth is, we must talk more, work more, act more, and think more on questions relating to home and Home Policy. We have, at home, many subjects of vast interest that must not be neglected, and this is a proper and legitimate occasion to call your attention to some of them. The wealth of an agricultural State, like ours, is not found alone in rich and productive lands. We have other ejements. Our mineral wealth, and our manufacturing wealth, are parts of the great resources of the State; and no community has discharged the duties which it owes to itself, until these great elements of wealth have been developed and rendered available, under the combined action of the capital and labor of the country. Indiana, this day, is not selling two millions of bushels of coal per annum. She should sell twenty millions. We can furnish, at the Balize, the government vessels and the steamers of the world with coal, at a cost of three dollars a tun for carriage. The rock and the marble are all around us, suitable to build the custom house at New Orleans; and if these materials were used for that purpose, thousands of dollars would be saved to the treasury of the nation. ' Your pig iron is taken from Vermillion and Greene counties, manufactured abroad, and brought back to you, and sold at high prices. The very stones, now almost in sight of us, are taken from the rich quarries of Orange and Martin, polished by eastern labor, and then returned and sold to you as Turkish oil stones. Walnut knots, taken from our forests, are, by the labor of others, polished and used in making the most valuable furniture. The timber upon our hills and in our valleys affords superior varieties for the build- ing of steamers for rivers or oceans. Indiana has water power equal to that of Connecticut or the Merrimac, though scarcely known beyond the sound of the falling waters. Yet, thus far in our history, no effort which has been made has succeeded in laying fairly before the capital and labor of the world these great elements of our wealth; and at this day less is known abroad of the re- sources of Indiana, than ot those of any other State of the confede- racy. If your representatives at Indianapolis will not send out competent and scientific men to explore our hills and valleys, and lay bare the now concealed wealth, consisting of iron, coal, salt, rock, &c., you must imitate the example of the good people of Evansville, who, I am informed, some time since, sent out at their own expense the practical geologist, David Dale Owen, on a visit to the county of Greene, to examine the rich iron mines of that county. The old world manufactured for the new for a hundred years. New England has manufactured for us for nearly half a century. 12 aT oa “A change must take place. We must, if we pursue our true inter- ests, engage in manufacturing ar ticles, not only for home use, but for exportation. Indiana is one of the central States of the Union, with advan- tages equal if not superior to those of her sister States. She is in the very heart of what is destined to be a great agricultural and manufacturing region—a region known as the valley of the Mis- sissippi—the population of which, if they faithfully pursue a true home policy, will soon be able, not only to feed, but also to clothe, Old as well as New England. But turn in another direction. Look at our township, county, and State governments; and you will find that they are overshad- owed, and almost lost sight of, in the unceasing contests growing ‘out of national subjects. We shall never arrive at that form of government so much desired by our fathers, until these questions, at home, are made the subjects of engrossing interest. By the form and structure of our government, the little local communities at home, from school districts to townships, counties, and State, are all made, as it were, part and parcel of the ma- chinery that moves and regulates the action of our republic. Visit that township, district, city, or county, where the citizens are alive to its internal management, and you will find a people prepared to make a step forward in any movement that is made to better the condition of society. Have you not noticed, in our own State, that, in counties where there are even a few enterprizing, active men, who take an interest in organizing schools, and in pro- moting other local interests, that those counties are always the foremost in every movement that elevates the character of the people? And you have no doubt noticed the reverse—that, in those counties where the engrossing subjects of agitation are those connected with national policy, and where State policy is lost sight of, the people are invariably the last to follow in any such work. It is idle to expect any people to make any permanent advances, in the way of improvement, where there is an entire neglect of their local and Home Policy. I call it local and Home Policy. I mean by this, that these sub- jects enter into and form the very heart, life, and strength of the body politic. In a government like ours, scattered over such an extent of ter- ritory, embracing such a variety of interests, combining every kind of character and people, and with such a growing diversity of ma- terials, how is it possible that we can preserve our institutions, if there shall continue to be, as there has been, a ruinous neglect of what I denominate the local and Home Policy. Can you expect the heart of this republic to be free from corrup- tion and fraud, when the little streams and rivulets that nourish that heart are neglected and become impure? The fountain heads and springs of this nation—the people of the several States, in their primary organizations, in their local policy, their laws, cus- 13 as "ae +4 5 -~ oe hai . ‘ , ee Re ey ; , ae toms, and manners—are the sources from which the national gov- ernment must derive, politically, whatever of virtue, or wisdom, or strength it may possess. When we shall live up to our privileges as members of our happy form of State government, and discharge our whole duty in the small circle in which we move ; when we shall adapt our laws and institutions, which affect us every day in all the relations of life, and in all our intercourse with each other, so as to make each man feel that upon fim rests a portion of the responsibilities of life; when we shall come up to that full standard of State pride, State ambilion, State rights, that our forefathers designed we should occupy, it will make but little difference what three hundred men at Washington do, or whether this or that act of Congress shall pass. The top may tremble and agitate, but the base will be immovable— the foundation will be secure. For the success which has attended our progress as a nation, we are indebted, not only to the power and influence of our laws and form of government; but, also, to the number of true, resolute, thinking, and intelligent men, found in every part of the confederacy and, moreover, for our success, we are materially indebted to the existence of the great truth that, under our government, man, in his individual capacity, is entrusted with rights and privileges which, when properly used, enable him to aid in advancing the welfare of the community in which he lives. That community where the individual man is respected and admired—or the reverse—on account of his conduct alone, exhibits a strict regard for the observance of every privciple that elevates the man, the masses, their laws, customs, &c. Precisely in pro- portion as the people of any community lose sight of these principles, and the central influence takes their place, will such community degenerate. Your community is not declining, if the press and people notice and observe the charities and benevolence that belong to man, as much as they do the kindness and sympathies of associations. Nor is the community going backward when individual actions are left free to perfect the improvements of the country without looking to the aid of laws and government to press them forward. If we shall keep on in the movement we have been making for the last half century, in destroying the individuality principle, in the destruction of all lines of State policy and local interests, we shall not be able, after the lapse of a short time, to build a mill, construct a bridge, or erect a temple, without the help of associa- tions, or governmental aid. ‘The interests of the district, the township, the county, and the State will be neglected; but the general government will continue to increase in power, in influence and in the number of its offices. The age is one of promise. The world is full of hope. Improve- ments are making in every thing that tends to lessen the labor of man, and to advance his comfort and happiness. But, there are other influences at work in the ration. Events - _ | be ad 14, bt are taking place around us, and before our eyes scenes are trans- piring, to which we cannot, dare not, be insensible, and which loudly demand our attention. A quarter of a century ago, Tobias Watkins, who held a small office in one of the departments at Washington, was charged with a fraud, involving a sum of less than four thousand dollars ; and upon this single instance of faithlessness in a public officer, the whole people of the Republic were aroused, and thrown into a state of excitement. But now, in these days, millions are charged to be fraudulently obtained from your treasury—committees are sitting in the vacation of your National Legislature, to ferret out the truth—-your President asks for an additional criminal code against bribery and corruption—and the public press, politicians, and people, seem to feel not half so much interest in the result of these investigations and recommendations, as they do in knowing who shall be a minister abroad, the collector of customs at some port, or the postmaster at some village or cross roads. Fifty-one years ago, Mr. Jefferson, in writing to his friend Albert Gallatin, on the subject of making appropriations for a light-house, said, “The utility of the thing has sanctioned the infraction. But, if on that infraction we build a second; on a third, &c., any one of the powers in the constitution may be made to comprehend every power of government.” In our day, it seems that he who takes the greatest interest in obtaining the expenditure of millions by the general government, even for local objects, is to be regarded as the successful states- man, and most worthy of popular applause. A change must take place. The public mind, and the influence of popular opinion in communities, States, and the nation, must be turned in another direction. The prospect brightens, and good results will follow these agricultural and mechanical exhibitions, now being held all over the country. One fourth of the population of our own State, will attend the State or County Fairs, during the present year; and five thousand volumes of agricultural and mechanical works will be distributed among the people. We are beginning to cultivate the roots, and not the tops. May we con- tinue to press forward in this work. May we make the family government, the school, the farm, the church, the shop, the labora- - tories of future greatness. We must educate our sons to be farmers, artisans, architects, engineers, geologists, in a word, prac- tical men. Their eyes must be turned from Washington to the State, county, township, district, home. This is true patriotism; and the only patriotism that will save the nation. With a territory stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and with sea-coasts more than five thousand miles in extent, we have ~ almost all varieties of soil, climate, and productions; and conse- quently we have, within our boundaries, citizens of every kind of pursuit and occupation. The world never witnessed such a busy, bustling, energetic crowd of human beings, scattered over a terri- tory so vast, and living under a government supported by their own will. Farmers and planters, mechanics and manufacturers, mer- chants and traders, miners of iron, and gold, and silver, and cop- per, and coal; men of labor, and industry, engaged in business in town and country, on the oceans of the world, and on our lakes and rivers—all of these while they constitute the strength of the confederacy, have, in their various pursuits, their own peculiar cus- toms, habits, manners and tastes ; yet their constitutions and their laws protect their rights, individually, and recognize their political equality. In this consists the strength and the beauty of our form of Government. We require, we must have the full grown policy of each of these pursuits, with the thousands of others that will naturally arise, in a government whose interests are so diversified as ours; each of these should be left free to arive at full perfection, without the in- fluences of a great overshadowing, central, consolidated govern- ment. We want no Rome, no Paris; but we should seek to make our great center in each State, county, township, district, and Home. “i A sah Bae Edits rage Rs Mie Se Seto Vw m | ae Mel: Arya wae teks are aii a “tail Peay Lass n aaa baeoidryity seein 3 bows evs aie Bhp, 46h 2 ceinanaye reatiaete \ Vsbaaehnae Abd ar begon: ooh ue ata AL oe dyer BS Oe etal Ale Pres sath Bile os oven : 5 Rt 7, hee ae bi rs ll heey Lay ‘ te oak ‘poi ee cORTA, i yee - rik Me “ti Se { bane Wits ee uitiey; hy a Ste (MME stig the ‘Wavy, # i | Be ie i ae | fide BA Lani WAI babe sah Sur Ale et it | ‘wat Cha the’ AS Brey! five Res aie) [bbb ty en gy Bei 04 beng bea oct he : Raa kre Briel LMpR de Litt ci adbagalreath Lek Vae ea GEO Mirgeicincns fact cant ee OCONEE are OE ae Mit gh ohthed be Apobieiud Sa {mag is ogee! od sein hes 4 i Oebedial y +, Ae elie Sa) a , a RAS, wn hh * ty av aN, sae oF i ee AB he Wye: Nerd pe PST ORMEN oa ie atte eX ® a by i4kb opi Ba oes na : . . ai Rh, yrds ite APPENDIX. Since the delivery of the foregoing address, before the Agricultu- ral meeting at Livonia, I have received the following letter from Tuomas Kinser, Jr., of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mr. Kiser is a gentleman who has traveled extensively in Europe, for the pur- pose of acquiring information of the best modes of raising and manufacturing flax ; and he is now engaged in the manufacture of that article, as one of the firm of the American Linen Company. Larayerte, Inp., 11th Mo. [Nov.] 21, 1853. To the Hon. Gov. Joseph A. Wright, President of the State Board of Agriculture: “EsTEEMED Frienp : I have received with much pleasure, the Report you were so kind as to send me, of the proceedings of the State Board of Agriculture for the year 1852. Lavail myself of this occasion to call your attention more earnestly to one subject, intimately connected with your agricultural indusiry, and highly important to the interests of the State of Indiana, as well as to those of the whole Northern section of our country. Lailude to the question of the proper culture, preparation, and manufacture of Flax. “Tam aware that this subject has claimed somewhat of your notice, and that you alluded to it forcibly in an address recently at Livonia, before the District Agricultural Society. “But having spent a great portion of my time. tor several years past, in investigating the vari- ous processes ot the Flax culture and manufacture, both in Great Britain and on the continent of Europe ; as well as in the endeavor, since my return, to introduce on a large scale, the manufacture of Linens, and the growth of Flax in this country, perhaps it would not be uninteresting to you to hear some of the results of these enquiries and exertions. * Firaing that the importations for the United Sta:es of Linen goods exceeded fifty millions of yards annualiy; and that even the universal home manufacture of flax which was customary among our ancestors—and which though small in dejail, was yet greatin the aggregate—had al- most entirely disappeared, the question naturally arose, how this great change had been brought about. So far as the latter subject was concerned it was at once evident that in all purposes of ordinary household use, cotton had driven flax from the field; and that the farmer had found it cheaper 10 buy calico and corduroy, and tou grow wheatand corn, than to employ his time in spin- ning and weaving linen fabrics for his household consumption. “* As regards the vast increase of importations of linens, it was to be attributed to the growin Wealth and luxury of our country, more especially in the great cities, which are springing up with magical rapidity to the very shores of the far off Pacific ; and which gather around them all the refinements of an older civilization. *- So much for the vast and greatly increasing demand ; as to the supply, it became evident that this was maintained with unfailing and equally ra, id increase, by the introduction of steam ma- chincry in every part of the process of the linen maufaciure, which, until recently, was altogether the result of hand labor. I therefore determined to make a vigorous effort among our capitalists to establis4 this profitable manufacture in this country ; and with the aid of the firm of which | wasa member, (Hacker, Lea, & Co.,of Philadelphia,) succeeded in interesting some of our most influential eastern friends in the enterprise, and in establishing a large manufsctusing company at Fall River, Mass,, under the title of the American Linen Conipany, ‘This company is incorporated witha capital of $500,- 000, and of thissum $350,000 have been already paid in, and invested in buildings, machinery, and other preparations. 3 = 18 “Having said thus much, as briefly as possible, by way of explanation, and in order to detach entirely this enterprise from all connection with the Flax Cotton movements of the day, in which we are not at all interested and have no confidence, I may proceed to the more immediate object of troubling you with this communication, “© We expect to comsume in the ensuing twelve months, over siz hundred and fisty tuns of Flax fibre (1,300,000 lbs.) an{ when in full operation, shall consume annually over one thousand tuns, or two millions of pounds. Being about commencing operations, we have already been obliged to import from abroad over one hundred tuns, at an expense of more than $30,000. *+ Now in passing through your State and that of Ohio, in company with my friend, Chas, Harts- horne, who has also paid considerable attention, abroad and at home, to the flax culture, we have found that many thousands of ares of flax are grown for the seed al ne; the stalk and its fibre being entirely wasted and thrownaway. And my objectin addressing you is to ask your earnest attention to this great and important error, in the agricultural management of this part of the country. “It seems to me that such exertions on your part can be appealed to no less in your position as President of the Azricultural B iard, than as Governor of the State of Indiana —for the subject is of equal importance in its bearfigs on the commercial, as on the agricultural interests of our coun. try, and of every portion thereof. ‘We have found that the farmer, on an average, obtains about ten bushels of flax-seed to the acre, which has yielded him from 90 cents to $1 25 per bushel, and often a much less price. Now in the first place this is hardly a half crop of the seed. In Great Britain and Belgium they obtain from 20 to 25 bushels of the seed, besides saving tie fibre. The secret lies in the proper prepara— tion of the ground, before sowing the seed. “Tf the farmer would give the land a Fal! pioughing, (it is not too late to do it yet,) and leaving it Over the winter to mellow, then plough it deeply again im the spring, reducing it as fine as pos- sible without too much labor, he would, on good ground, average 20 bushels of seed to the acre, The flax plant is peculiarly sensitive to such attentions, and amply repays them; the rvots striking downwards almost as deep and straigh!, where the ground is open and mellow, as the stalk shoots upward. It is not too much to say that, taking into considerati n the incre:sed seed as well as the fibre, every dollar s» spent in ploughing and pulverizing the ground would yield ten-fold in the harvest gathered. ‘- The land best suited for flax is an open, rich ioam, with a clay subsoil if possibl>. In the next place for the fibre: If the farmer wouid sow 2 bushels or 234 to the acre, on rich gr und so prepar-d, he would, while obtaining 20 bushels of seed, als» obtain two tuns to two and a half tuns of flax straw per acre. At present, with the poor preparation and thin sowing, not over one or one and a quarter tuns are obtained on an average. Every tun of straw yields three hundred pounds of flax fibre, so that he would then obtain, if he chose to ro; and prepare it. as was done in the days of our grandfathers, about six hundred or six hundred and fifty pounds per acre of flax fibre rotted and scutched. For this fibre we would gladly contract for two years to come, at the rate of 1234 to 15 cents a pound ($250 to $300 per tun) according to quality. It costs us this price, cash, 1o import it, and we should much prefer paying it to our own industry. If, however, the farmers preferred to sell the straw, and would grow and prepare it as above, there are parties who would purchase such straw so grown and prepared, of good length and not injured in the rippling, 01 remov ng the seed, at the rate of five do\lars a tun for the straw, This wou'd give. by the slight addition of Fall ploughing, enriching, if the land needs it, and, after sowing, a light brush harrowing or rolling, a great increase of profit to the farmzr. He could then get, say 2 tums of straw at BS 00..... ccc cee wec cece ener scees ale clade vlareiciG(elee'e wie\eiesole’e opted bia che aie te cetera MIMAEMNRLD GLOSSTELUTNS PCLiACTC. wevje rae ojciein)ecseie cae/coue sovcsicciocs sens eteciesss soameisieisels wiesslesis ele POUIUU “Even if he so'd his straw at the above price. If he occupied his leisure hours, and those of his family, in rotting and scutching the straw, he would obtain vastly more, by s-lling the fibre at 1244 cents a pound. “That these are no chimerical figures, I now lay before you, as evidence, the first agricultural authorities in Great Britain andin Europe. And I appeal to your well known philanthropical disposition, to lend your influence to all proper endeavors to promote and improve this great indus- trial interest. \We might have flax as cheap as cotton, and linen goods nearly as cheap as cotton goods, if the exertions of the farmers would second the improvements of machinery. “Yours, very resyectiully, cweonras KIMBER, Jaa? al ? bs The foregoing letter contains many suggestions which are worthy of the attention of the Indiana farmer. Accompanying the letter, I received from Mr. Kimber, samples of Russian, Irish, and American flax, which may be seen in the Agricultural Room, at the State House. In connection with this subject, 1 deem it proper to publish a diagram of the machinery used for the purpose of separating the flax from the stalk; together with a description of the improve- ment and process. The description is from the pen of John Wilson, a very distinguished gentleman, who is President of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, and who attended the ‘ 19 Chrystal Palace, at New York, as one of the commissioners from England. It seems that the merit of practically employing heated water for the purpose of preparing the flax in a short time, belongs to Mr. Shenck, an American, who obtained a patent for his process, in 1846. Improvements were made upon Mr. Shenck’s mode, by Mr. Watt’s; and afterwards the principle was further improved by Mr. Buchanan. In reference to this latest improvement, Mr. Wil- son says :— “Tn this the steeping is effected by repeated immersions in a tank of heated water, arrangements being made by which the temperature is never allowed to exceed a ceriain degree—a point of great importance, both as regards the abstraction of the azotized extractive matter, and also the quality of fibre produced. It is well known that albuminous solutions, contaming even a very small proportion of albumen (1 in 1000) coagulate at atemperature of 180 degrees, and then become insoluble; and it is always considered that fibre is more or less injured if exposed beyond a certain high temperature. These two important: points have been taken advantage of in Buchanan’s pro- cess ; the temperature of the steep liquor is kept within a ceriain range “Of temperature, and the operation, both as regards time and produce, more satisfactorily performed. The process is quite automatic, thus saving labor and the risks consequent upon carelessness ; and the machanical arrangements by which it is effected, are very simple and inexpensive. The accompanying diagram, will, 1 hope, make the process clearly understood. The flax straw is placed ip an open vessel (No 3) termed the steeping vat, having a false bottom (7); a boiler (No. 1) generates the steam required; and between these two is placed a suitab e vessel (No. 2), the condenser, of about the same capacity as No. 3, and communicating with that by the hot-water pipe (4), and with the boiler by the steam-pipe (a). This center vessel or condensing chamber is filled with water from the cistern (No. 5), and steam is then blownin from the boiler. When the latent heat of the steam is absorbed, and condensation no longer takes place, the hot water is driven over into the steeping vat, and completely immerses its contents. ‘Ihe overflow pipe (c) then conveys a portion into the bucket (No. 4), which, overpowering the balance weights (gg) descends, drawing the chain (ee), which, being attached to the pullies (ff) fixed on to the cock= of the steam- -pipe (a), and of the condensing’ pipe (h), reverses their action by cutting off the steam and turning on a charge of cold water into the conJenser. The steam in No. 2 is then rapidly condensed, and the liquor drawn back from the steep vat into which it had previou-ly been forced. '!‘his completes the operation of immersion, which recommences immediately:—for as soon as the overflow bucket (No. 4) has reached a certatn point in its descent, it strikes against a pin, having a screw adjustment, which causes the valve (d) at the bottom to open and discharge its coments into the discharge pipe (No.6). The bucket, then relieved of its load, resumes its original position, the balance weights (gg) act on the pullies (ff), Which again reverse the cocks, cutting off the cold water sparge, and luining on the steam to No.2. ‘This is repeated as often as may be required, *-So fir as the experiments have gone, it has been found that by ten such immersions the whole of the coloring matter of the flax has been removed. ‘These in practice would not occupy more than three or four hours.” 20 = Beh ou S s2. SN mS SS Bors SX 5 uN = SS qa YM WW oHONG MOPAOAG ‘fF ‘Aaqureyo yea Suidse1g ‘g MM SS ‘adid o8aeyostqg ‘9 ‘uteysto Ajddng *¢ creer — ee i HHH nt in . TVA If our farmers will go into the cultivation of Flax, I have no doubt that the machines described by Mr. Wilson will spring up all over the country; and the farmer, in addition to his crop of seed, will receive for his flax straw as much per tun as he now does for his hay. Responsible persons in Indiana will now contract for any quantity of dressed flax, properly prepared, at $250 per tun; and three acres, well cultivated, should produce a tun of flax ready for the bale. It does seem to me that $250 a tun for dressed flax, and even a higher price if the quality will warrant it, together with the value of the seed, for which we have heretofore raised it, ought surely to make flax one of the most profitable crops of our State. Sas S Tas atessseseseae tre ay 4y L