An address delivered at Watertown, Ct., in the Congregational church ... the 26th of September, 1877

AN

ADDRESS

DELIVERED AT WATERTOWN, CT.; IN THE CONGREGA-
TIONAL CHURCH, ON THE EVENING OF THE
26TH OF SEPTEMBER, 1877,

BEFORE THE

Agricultural, Horticultural and Horse Associalio

OF “THAT? TOWN. °

AT THEIR FAIR HELD, ON THE 251TH; 26TH AND . 277TH OF
SEPTEMBER:

ips

W oy
a Hon. SAMUEL a “POON, Lh. i

j

OF GENEVA, N. se ian eens
Mg, Fe, SNe
e | | Oy CEN

PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE ASSOCIATION. “

GENEVA,,N,, Y.:
THE GAZETTE STHAM PRINTING HOUSE.
1877,

Paes ho 5.

Frttow Townsmen :—For so the place of my birth authorises
me to address you:

Your kind remembrance of me by inviting me to meet and
address you on this occasion found me in the retirement and
quietude of advanced years, after the completion of an active
professional and judicial life. Prudence led me at first to decline
your invitation, kind and honorable to ine as it was, but my
strong desire to visit once more the place of my nativity, meet the
the very few of my contemporaries who survive, and the sons
and daughters of those who have gone before me to their final
rest, and the hope of saying some last words which may benefit
them, have overcome all prudential considerations, and induced
~me to make this long journey of several hundred miles. When
I look at the old farm on which I was born and see the high con-
dition to which it has been brought by skillful cultivation, and
recall the years of youthful labor which I spent almost alone on
its worn-out soil, and the circumstances under which my aged
parents parted with me, just after I had entered my teens, to pur-
sue another course of life—and review my long active life, and
now find myself safely here, in good health and with almost the
full use of all my faculties, in the 87th year of my age, my
bosom swells with a volume of gratitude to my Heavenly Father
which language cannot express.

You will pardon, I hope, My Friends, these personal allusions
and reminiscences. They come spontaneously from a full heart,
and from it “the mouth speaketh.”

Agriculture and horticulture are broad themes, but so many
learned and able men have written and spoken so fully upon
them that the man is fortunate who can suggest a new practical
thought on either. My purpose is not to attempt to entertain
you by presenting to your imagination, in glowing language, a
farm or garden as an Arcadian paradise, where the earth without

2

labor and culture gives forth its products in rich profusion and
clothed in perpetual beauty, and where man is only to gather
and enjoy the bounties of “the Giver of every good and perfect
gift.” Such entertainment, if entertainment it can be called,
may be had at almost any time and place for the asking and pay-
ing of a scholarly, theoretical and amateur farmer and gardener.
But my purpose 7s, to meet you and hold converse with you as
a practical farmer and gardener, Having began life as a hard
working farmer’s boy, and thus learned all kinds of work on a
farm even to the handiing of a cradle and scythe, and now being,
and having been for the last thirty years, the cultivator ofa small
farm and good sized garden, T hope to be able, by cutting a fev,
leaves from my book of experience, to suggest a thought or two
which may be worth remembering.

Let us first inquire and ascertain who is a good farmer and
whoa poor one. On such inquiry we shall find, that a fair
specimen of the generality of good farmers is a man, who arranges
his affairs so as to command his business, and not be driven by
it—who ploughs, plants and sows at the right time—who hoes
his corn and hills his potatoes when they require it—who cuts
his grass when ready for the seythe, and harvests his grain when
ripe—who contracts no debts which he cannot pay when due,
and always has some ready money on hand, to hire labor when
he wants it, and buy, at a fair bargain, anything he may happen
to need—who has an industrious, careful wife, to make the most
of what he provides, and give him a clean, orderly, comfortable
house to enter, when he comes in from the field.

ey
5

On the other hand we shall find that a poor farmer is a shift-
less man, who is always behindhand with his work, and never
has the satisfaction of doing anything rightly and at the right
time—who neglects his fences, and, consequently, is often annoy-
ed, when he goes out in the morning, by seeing his own or his
neighbor’s horses and cattle in the fields where his crops are—
who is always in debt and worried by duns, and who, in short, is
always “under the weather,” and driven by his business—and
who is so unfortunate as to have an idle, careless and slovenly
wife—who lets the milk sour because the pans are not properly
washed and aired—and the butter become rancid, because not
thoroughly worked—who neither keeps herself nor her children

3
tidy, and wastes, instead of taking care of and making the most
of what her husband brings into the house.

The first and the valuable thought which the contrast of these
two characters suggests, and the impressive lesson which it
teaches the young farmer is, to follow the example and imitate
the excellencies of the first, and avoid the example and imper-
fections of the last. If a farmer will faithfully and persever-
ingly do that, his thrift and success are certain.

Few farmers are able to do all their own work, and nearly all
of them are obliged to hire more or less labor. I hire two men,
one by the year, who lives in my family as a domestic, and the
other for eight months from the first of April to the first of
December. He finds himself and lives in my neighborhood.
Mainly to avoid all collisions with these men in regard to their
duties, and prevent them from leaving me when their services
are needed, I enter into a written contract with each of them,
specifying in general terms his duties, and concluding with a
clause that he shall cheerfully comply with all my reasonable
requests, and on the fulfillment of the contract on his part I
agree to pay him an amount of money agreed on, as follows: a
specified sum at the end of each month, which is about two-thirds
of what he earned that month, and the residue at the end of his
term of service. I have found this operate advantageously to
both parties in three ways :—

Firsr. After the first month a sum accumulates in my hands
to which the employee is only entitled on serving me faithfully
to the end of his term. This secures his continued and faithful
service till then..

Sxconp. If any question arises as to his duties, instead of a
discussion or wrangle with him, I refer him to his contract to
settle the matter.

Tuirp. If my employee is inclined to be wasteful or extrava-
gant with his money and lay up nothing, this arrangement pre-
- vents him from westing one-third of his wages, and gives him at
the end of his term of service a considerable sum of money which
he may be inclined to save and lay up.

This method has saved me from having any flare-up with any
of my men for thirty years, and given me the satisfaction of see-
ing all, but one of them, become thrifty and respectable men in

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their positions of life. Several of them have become wealthy
farmers. One of my eight-months men served me twenty years—
is still my neighbor—is a respectable man and in comfortable
circumstances.

This method of hiring my men is one of the leaves which I
proposed to cut from my book. I will now cut another.

I act asa savings bank for all in my employ—receive deposits
from them of one dollar and upwards—pay them interest at the
rate of 6 per cent. per annum—settle their accounts at the end
of the year and add the interest to the principal until the total
reaches $500. Then I require them to take and invest it and
aid them in doing so. 1 do this only as long as they remain in
my service. When they leave it, I require them to take their
money.

A volume would be required to state in full the advantages to
employers and employees of such arrangements, and the occasion
will only permit me to say in a few words, that it secures to em-
ployers the continued services of faithful, saving, thrifty domes-
tics, and gives to them contentment and self respect, and makes
them kind, attentive and anxious to please. It is doubtless con-
siderable trouble to keep their accounts, when there are several
employees in a family; but the peace, order, comfort and enjoy-
ment of our homes depend so much on their fidelity and qualifi-
cations, that an employer is repaid four-fold forthe trouble of
keeping the accounts of their savings.

Books have been written, and one very good one which I read
a few years since, on the relations and mutual duties and obliga-
tions of employers and employees, and in which numerous rules
are given for the government ot each. I will draw you atten-
tion to only one of them, but that one I regard and have found
in practice a golden one, though difficult to follow. It is, never
censure an employee for an omission of duty while irritated by
that omission. Wait till the irritation has subsided.

Knowledge is power, whether possessed by the chief magis-
trate of our nation or by our humblest day laborer, and especial-
ly is it valuable to the farmer and gardener. That every man
and woman in every position and calling of life is the better for
having an education, all will admit. This is not a proper ocea-
sion to dilate upon the value and advantages of a thorough edu-
cation or discuss the best methods of obtaining it. It is, however,

5

a suitable occasion to consider the values and discuss the best
methods of obtaining a knowledge of farming and gardening, or
in more classic phrase, of agriculture and horticulture.

The value of such knowledge cannot be measured, for it sur-
passes all limits ; nor can it be estimated, for it is beyond all price.
It is to know the sources and elements of wealth in every age and
every land—to know that the broadest, strongest ard most en-
during basis of our power and prosperity as a nation, and of our
individual wealch is the soil. Our greatest possession and profit
are and ever will be the productions of the earth, and they are
obtained only by human toil. They are and ever must be the
sole foundation of commerce and manufactures. How deficient,
therefore, must be the education of every American youth who
is not taught the nature and value of the products of the earth,
and the extent and character of the labor required to obtain
them !

No attention has been given in any of our prominent semina-
ries of learning, or method adopted to instruct our youth in this
branch of knowledge till within the past few years, and since our
General Government made a grant to the States of public lands
for educational objects, and designated agriculture as one of them.
This has brought into existence sume institutions whose main
object is instruction in agriculture, and has created departments
in others for the same object. I have not seen the course of in-
struction in either, nor had the opportunity of judging of its meth-
od or efficiency. I have, however, a pretty clear idea of what
it ought to be, and to show you what that idea is, I will cut
another, and the last leaf to-day, from my book.

I had eight sons who grew up to man’s estate, the youngest of
whom reached manhood several years before the grant of lands
by the General Government to the States already mentioned.
To each of these suns I gave a liberal education, as I have always
deemed it the duty of every father to give his son as good an
education as his means will aliow, and his son is willing to
receive, Whatever may be his future calling. After each of my
sons was fitted for college, I required him to work one year on
my farm and in my garden, for which I paid him fair and reg-
ular wages, as “reward sweetens labor,’ and required him to
keep and work regular hours like my hired men. This gave
him a knowledge of the products of the farm and garden, and

6

the use of implements used in both, but what I regarded of more
value. showed him what labor was and the toil required to enable
‘“man to live by the sweat of his brow.” The knowledge thus
acquired has proved of service to my sons as they have settled in
life, and any agricultural education which comes short of this is
in my opinion defective.

You probably have noticed that thus far 1] have spoken only
of the education of sons, without mentioning that of daughters.
This is not because I regard their education of less importance
than that of sons. In educating my daughters, (for I have
daughters as well as sons), no pains or expense has been spared
to give to them as good and suitable educations as to my sons. But
because, in my judgment, the education of our daughters should
mainly be directed by and committed to mothers and right-
minded women qualitied to instrnet them——not to the Julia
Ward Howes and Susan B. Anthonys of the present day, who
are dissatistied with the arrangements, of a beneficent Creator,
and strive presumptuously and foolishly to improve them, but to
such women as Montgomery describes as ornaments and blessings
of Anglo-Saxon homes, when he says:

“Here Woman reigns; the mother, daughter, wife;
Strews with fresh flowers the narrow way of life ;
In the clear heaven of whose delightful eye

An angel-guard of loves and graces lie ;

Around whose knees domestic duties meet,

And fireside pleasures gambol at her feet.”

That is the kind of woman which God made as a companion
cof man. To such women should be committed the education
of our daughters, and from them they would learn their true
duties and true position in life.

While I think that the education of the young women of our
country should be mainly directed and given by their own sex,
yet I will venture to make a single remark on that subject. No
lady, however highly educated or accomplished, is less a lady
for working, salting and laying down in a crock a churning of »
butter, or cooking and preparing a meal for her husband and chil-
dren.

I will now direct your attention for a few minutes to the sub-
ject of gardening. I do not expect that my few remraks on that
subject will interest or even arrest the attention of those of my
audience who, by their inventive talents or otherwise, have ac-

(

quired large fortunes, aud employ gardeners on salaries of from
three to five hnndred a year, and do not know, so far as a prac-
tical knowledge of horticulture is concerned, whether the vege-
tables on their tables come from the earth or the skies. But my
remarks may perhaps be of some service to those of my audi-
ence who, like myself, plant or help plant their gardens, and use,
at least to some extent, the spade, hoe and weeding hook.

Twenty-two years ago on the 28th day of this very month, I
delivered an agricultural address in one of the large counties of
the State of New York, in the open air, and to a very large
assembly of farmers, said to have been over 8,000 in number.
One topic of that address was a garden, and my object was to
show and convince farmers, who in the State of New York could
scarcely be said to have a garden, of the value and advantage of
one in supplying a family with food. To show this, I stated
among other facts, that an asparagus bed, 40 feet long and 30
wide, would give more food every spring, and go farther to sup-
port a family, than a barrel of pork; while the cost of making it
in the first instance would not exceed that of raising and fatting
the pork; and the labor required in the fall, to prepare it for
winter, and in the spring, to prepare it for production, would
not exceed the value of twenty pounds of pork; and the bed,
when rightly made, if properly taken care of, would last a life-time.

This statement seemed to surprise my hearers. I now repeat
it, and no doubt it surprises you, and you can scarcely credit it.
Your minds are probably in the same frame as that of one of my
hearers on the former occasion. A friend of mine met him the
day after the address was delivered, and the following conversa-
tion between them occurred :

My F. Did you hear the address of my friend Foot yester-
day ?

Far. Yes.

My F. Well, what did you think of it?

Far. First rate. He said a great many very good things.

My F. But what did you think of what he said about the
asparagus bed and the barrel of pork ?

Far. Wall—wall, (speaking slowly and hesitatingly, fearing
to speak out his mind fully lest he might give offence, and yet
too honest to conceal the truth,) wall, your friend is a pretty
considerable smart sort of a man to talk, but I guess, if I had

5

my choice, ’d take the barrel of pork afore the sparrow-grass.

Yet I know the statement is true. For my asparagus bed is
of the size inentioned, and I know what it yields yearly, and
many barrels of pork of my own raising have been consumed in
my family. and I know how far a barrel goes in providing food
for a household, as well as how far asparagus goes for the same
object. I know, too, what it cost to make the asparagus bed in
the beginning, and what it has cost yearly to keep it in good
condition. It is now thirty years old, and last season yielded
one quarter more than my family could use, though it consisted
with my guests of twelve. A garden 150 feet long and 100 feet
wide, which is the size of mine, will produce more wholesome
food than can be obtained from ten acres of land well cultivated
and planted or sowed with any of the cereal grains, as wheat,
rye, corn, &c. A garden of the size mentioned, will supply a
family of twenty with all the vegetables they can consume, and
with a small portion of meat, feed them comfortably. Vegeta-
bles, also, are more wholesome than meats. Every farmer makes
a great mistake, in point of profit, who fails to have a good gar-
den; and if he looks to comfort, health, and enjoyment, he will
certainly have one; for a house in the country without a garden
is indeed forlorn.

You call your association, as I see from your program, the
“ Aoricultural, Horticultural and Morse Association.” The ob-
jects of your association thus appear to be three—Agriculture,
Horticulture, and the Horse. The two first have already been
considered ; the third one, the Horse, only remains for consider-
ation. I regret that my knowledge of Watertown horses is so
exceedingly limited as it is It only extends to an acquaintance
with one animal—an old black mare which my father owned for
thirty years, twenty of the last years of the last century and ten
of the first years of the present century. She was strong, square
built, sure-footed, and a smart trotter. She carried, without
stumbling or starting, my father and mother and two of their
children to and from church every Sunday for full eighteen
years, and until their youngest child, who was myself, was old
enough to go to church on foot—father riding on a saddle with
a child before him, and mother on a pillion behind him with a
child in her lap; and after that she carried them to and from
church till the infirmities of age prevented them from going.

9

There were no wagons or carriages for the conveyance of per-
sons in this town till several years after the commencement of
the present century. My present recollection is, that there was
not one in the town when I left it, November, 1805.

My brother Ebenezer, a well developed, good-looking young
farmer, full six feet high, rode this mare as a trooper in a
company of cavalry for several years during the last decade of
the last century, and when on her back in his uniform, horse
and rider were the admiration of all beholders. I never knew
the good and sure creature to start but once, and that occurred in
this wise. The little folks of this town had a ball the year I
was twelve years old, and the custom was for each boy to carry
the girl designated for him to and from the ball, which was held
in the old red tavern, which stood on the site of the present res-
idence of Mr. Homer Hemingway. We assembled and began
dancing at two o’clock P. M., and were expected to be home at
early candle lighting. The girl I was to carry was a bright,
pretty little girl named Sena Dayton, born the same week I was,
whose parents lived at the north end of Shad street. I went
after her on the old black mare in good time, her mother helped
me put on the pillion, and with my girl behind me with her right
arm around my person, to keep herself safely on the pillion, we
went happily to the ball and returned as happily, it being under-
stood both by ourselves and the neighbors that she was to be my
wife when we reached a suitable age for marriage. After safely
depositing my girl with her parents, I took the cross road from
the north end of Shad street over to the Linkfield road and co
home. By this timeit had become dark, and as I came along
by the east meadow of my father’s farm with woods on my right
hand, just at the foot of the hill near the northwest corner of
the meadow, the good old mare and I, having each about the same
knowledge of phosphorescence, saw something white lying by
the side of the road about the length and size of a man’s body,
which I in my fright took to be a corpse in a winding sheet, and
the old mare thought it was something as bad as that if not
worse, was dreadfully frightened, made a sudden start which
almost threw me off and ran furiously home. My mother met
me at the door, and I told her what an awful object the old mare
and I had seen and how frightened we were. My mother laughed
at me, told me what it was, and called mea pretty one to accom-

10

pany girls toa ball and come home frightened out of my wits by a
rotten log; and next day went with me and showed me the phos-
phorescent log.

My father aied in 1809, and the next year on the settlement of
the estate and division of his property, the good old mare was
sold to a man in Linkfield whose business was peddling oysters.
Although several years past thirty years of age, she would take
him in a one horse wagon to New Haven in the fore part of the
day and return with him in the after part of it with a load of
oysters ; and she may still be doing that fOr ought I know, for
I have never heard of her death.

This is all the information I can give you about Watertown
horses, and you are quite welcome to it, but you will not expect
me to attempt to enlarge on this object of your association.

With this my duty of to-day would be ended, did not the
occasion appear to call, as it does, for a few general and parting
words.

Having been born in the first year of the last decade of the
last century, 1790, L have lived through a most interesting period
of the history of onr country and the world. Oh, my friends,
what changes have occurred! Our country then consisted of
thirteen states, lying along the Atlantic coast and east of the
Alleghany Moutains, with three millions of people. Now we
are thirty-eight states with forty-five millions of people, extend-
ing from ocean to*ocean and from the lakes to the Gulf of
Mexico.

I saw, in 1806, the first steamboat that ever moved on the
waters of the Hudson river, or any distance on any waters. It
came up that river from Clearmont, Duchess county, where Liv-
ingston aud Fulton built it, to Albany. I was then living with
my brother Ebenézer, an office boy in his office in Troy. He
had by that time become a prominent and successful lawver. It
was known in Troy that the steamboat was to come up to Albany
on a certain day, and every body that could move went down to
Albany to see it. Those rode who could and others walked. I
and another boy went on foot; it was only six miles. I stood
on the dock at Albany pnd saw the great black thing, which
looked like a monstrous mud turtle, come slowly up the river at
the rate of four miles an hour and haul up to the dock. Now

dv

steam moves every thing on Jand or water upon the face of the
earth.

In the year 1812 I was sitting at the tea table of my brother
Ebenezer in Albany, who had then become an eminent lawyer
and moved from Troy to Albany, the capital of the State, and |
was a clerk in his office, and heard my brother and Solomon
Southwick, a friend of his, converse on various subjects. Mr.
Southwick was the editor of a newspaper published in Albany,
a man of real genius and remarkable talents, but very visionary.
There was a Jull in the conversation for ashort time; Mr South-
wick broke the silence by saying:

“ Foot, the time will come, though yon and I won’t see it,
when there will be a railroad from Boston to the Pacitic Ocean.”

My brother replied: ,

“ Why, Southwick, if you don’t put a guard on that tongue of
yours, we shall have to put you ina lunatic asylum.”

This was the first time I ever heard the word “ railroad”
spoken, and hardly knew what it meant. How truly prophetic
were the words of Mr. Southwick !

During the period of my life the telegraph has been invented
and put in practice, the art of photography discoverd, the sewing
machine invented, which should never be forgotten by any
one connected with this town*—the printing press so perfected
as to become almost a living thing. A volume could be filled
with the mere names of the inventions and discoveries which
have been made in my lifetime. But I must stop here and not
exhaust your patience; yet let me speak a few parting words.

But before speaking these words, ailow me to state that [ do
not intend ever to deliver another public address; this is conse-
quently my last one, and it gives me unspeakable gratification,
for which I am grateful, to deliver my last public address in the
church of which my parents were members and in which I was
baptised.

The very soil of this town is dear to me. I was born upon
it—spent my youth laboring on it—the ashes of my grand
parents, of my father, of many relatives near and dear to me, are
iningled with it. All my reccollections ot this town and its in-
habitants are pleasant. Nothing has ever occurred to mar any
of them. <A few years ago you remembered and honored me by

*Wheeler and Wilson were residents of Watertown.

12

inviting me to meet and address you on the dedication of your
beautiful cemetery. I accepted the invitation, met and addressed
you. QOur meeting was most happy. Whenever I have visited
you I have been received and treated with attention, kindness
and respect; these feelings are reciprocated by me. I regard
you with the greatest kindness, and hold you in the highest re-
spect; every thing which concerns your prosperity and happiness
deeply interests me. Our meeting on this occasion has been
pleasant to me and [ hope it has been to you. But it is our last
meeting in this world. I cannot hope ever to be here again. A
very few years at farthest will bring me to my final rest, and
death will end a life already unusually and mercifully extended.
But it is not “all of death to die.” Death only separates the
two elements, body and spirit, which constitute our being; while
the body perishes the spirit survives, is immortal and never dies.
When the body returns to dust the spirit ascends to our Heaven-
ly Father from whom it emanated, and there, if life here has been
what it ought to be, with expanded powers knows as we are
known, comprehends the mystery of the being of our God, His
works and providences—meets our dear Redeemer face to face,
joins and communes with saints redeemed, meets many who have
been near and dear on earth, and enters with them the mansions of
rest “our Saviour has gone before to prepare for those who love
Him.” Ob! what a day, what a glorious day will that be, My
Dear Friends and Fellow Townsmen, when we, spirtual beings as
we shall be, will begin this spiritual life, enter those mansions of
rest, and meet in them to part no more. In the hope and belief
we shall so meet, I bid you an affectionate and heartfelt farewell.

SAMUEL A. FOOT.

Pou + signed ay : . his LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

®@ 002 743 9

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