# LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.! 
 
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 | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. J 
 
THE 
 
 ORATION 
 
 FOURTEENTH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 AMERICAN INSTITUTE 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 JOHN OVERTON CHOULES, 
 
 BROADWAY TABERNACLE, 
 
 OCTOBER, 1841. 
 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 
 PRINTED BY J. VAN NORDEN & CO., 
 No. 27 Pike-Street. 
 
 1842. J 
 
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Niblo's Garden, 
 
 New-York, Oct. <22d, 1841. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 The Managers of the Fourteenth Annual Fair of " the American Institute of 
 the City of New- York" gratefully acknowledge their obligations to you for the 
 timely relief afforded by your prompt acceptance of their invitation to deliver the 
 Anniversary Address last evening — which invitation was delayed by the interven- 
 tion of unexpected circumstances, and did not come to the knowledge of the 
 Managers until within a few hours of the time which had been announced for this 
 part of the celebration. 
 
 The important facts contained in your Address, and their bearings on the 
 vital interests of Agriculture and productive industry generally, and the patriotic 
 sentiments it is calculated to inspire if extensively read, are the reasons for soliciting 
 from you the further favour of a copy for publication. 
 
 On behalf of the Managers, 
 
 T. B. WAKEMAN, 
 
 Chairman of Pub. Committee. 
 The Rev. J. O. Choules. 
 
 T. B. Wakeman, Esq., Chairman of the Publishing Committee 
 
 of the 14th Annual Fair of the American Institute: 
 
 Dear Sir, — I have received your kind favour, requesting a copy of the 
 Anniversary Address for publication. 
 
 You are perfectly aware that it was not prepared for such an important 
 occasion, or such an immense assembly as that to which I was summoned at 
 two hours' notice, through the unavoidable absence of the learned and honourable 
 gentleman who was to have gratified and instructed the friends of Commerce, 
 Agriculture and Manufactures. 
 
 The subject which I selected is one, too, little appreciated by the inhabitants 
 of cities and towns, and I think far too seldom brought before their attention ; 
 and yet it is full of interest, and admits of popular discussion. The kind 
 reception which the address met with on its delivery, and the frequent applications 
 I have had to repeat it in other places, induce me to comply with your request, 
 although I am quite aware that the Oration is better calculated for the audience 
 than the press. 
 
 With best wishes for the success of the Institute and respect for the 
 Managers, 
 
 I am ; very faithfully yours, 
 
 JNO. O. CHOULES. 
 
ORATION 
 
 Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the American Institute : 
 
 " Our Country," is a phrase of wide and endearing import. 
 Poetry has sung its charms, patriotism has felt them, and piety 
 has consecrated them. And what a country, fellow citizens, 
 does God permit us to call our own ! There is our long At- 
 lantic coast, with more than two thousand one hundred miles 
 of seaboard, skirting states containing more than one million of 
 square miles. There, too, is our imperium in ijwperio, the Valley 
 of the West, lying between the Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, 
 the Alleganies and the Rocky Mountains, containing two mil- 
 lions of square miles, one hundred thousand miles of internal 
 ship and steam-boat navigation, four thousand miles of rail-road, 
 two thousand miles of lake, and one thousand of gulf. All this 
 extent embraces the best variations of climate upon the globe, 
 comprehending exactly those degrees which have been ever 
 marked by the genius and enterprise of man. 
 
 Our land is a mart for the nations, a workshop for the earth ; 
 every ocean is white with our canvass, and we have learned to 
 press into our service steam as it rises, water as it flows, air as 
 it flies. We have almost the only Constitution that deserves 
 the name — freedom for every citizen, liberty breathing full and 
 free through all our institutions — thus cherishing a spirit of enter- 
 prise, a security that holds out a protecting bounty to each in- 
 dividual, rendering every citizen assured of the full enjoyment 
 of all lawful acquisition ; and in addition to this, the law does all 
 that for every man's religion which true religion asks, wishes or 
 wants, and that is, — lets it alone. 
 
6 
 
 With a lamentable exception of three millions, our people 
 are free, and are characterized by strength, ingenuity and pa- 
 tience ; they present, in body and mind, the noblest materials for 
 the formation of national greatness. 
 
 I believe you are all disposed, after this brief survey, to ex- 
 claim with me of the Giver of every good gift, who hath thus 
 ordered the bounds of our habitation — " He hath not dealt so 
 with any other people." 
 
 How little did Columbus understand of the true nature and 
 bearing of his mission, when, with a heart big with mighty pro- 
 jects, he walked in silence on the sjiores of Andalusia, and 
 watched the star of evening down the western sky ! Little did 
 he dream that he was about to open another Paradise to thou- 
 sands driven from their homes, not by the wrath of their Maker, 
 but the rage of their brethren ; that he was the instrument in 
 the hands of God to throw open an asylum to which the feet of 
 the oppressed would direct their course from all lands for pro- 
 tection, and to which the imploring eye of misery would be 
 turned, from almost every scene of human wretchedness. And 
 now, after almost four centuries have passed away, what do we 
 see ? Nation upon nation, long reposing in the lap of its 
 rulers, is starting up to action, and animated and incited to 
 hope by our blessedness, is making its way for this lighthouse 
 of the world.* An attraction in the material world is ever 
 withdrawing particles of matter from whatever is old, and com- 
 bining them in newer and more beautiful forms ; so a moral in- 
 fluence is withdrawing subjects from the old and worn-out 
 governments of Europe, and hurrying them across the Atlantic, 
 to participate in the renovated youth of our western republic. 
 It is an influence which, like that of nature, is universal, with- 
 out pause or relaxation, and hordes of emigrants are continu- 
 ally swarming off, as ceaseless in their passage, and as crowded 
 and as unreturning, as the travellers to eternity. Even those 
 who are forced to remain feel a melancholy restlessness, like a 
 bird of passage whose wing was broken at the season of emi- 
 gration, and they look at America as the land of the dear de- 
 
 * Douglass. 
 
parted, where every one has some near relative or dear friend 
 gone before him. In all Europe a voice, like that heard before 
 the final ruin of Jerusalem, seems to whisper to such as have 
 ears to hear, "Arise, let us depart hence." 
 
 But why does the public teacher of Christianity appear upon 
 such an occasion ; does he not transcend his appropriate duty 
 when he talks of the details of earthly actions ? ' 
 
 I feel myself entirely in the discharge of appropriate duty 
 when I advocate the ordination of Jehovah, and speak of the 
 most ancient, honourable and satisfying employments that ever 
 occupied the intelligent creation. 
 
 I cannot but regard agricultural improvement as closely con- 
 nected with a prosperous state of morality and religion ; for the 
 inculcations of Christianity, neatness, order, and consequently 
 taste, find their natural sphere in rural pursuits. The habits of 
 life, and the sentiments which accord with husbandry, are highly 
 congenial to the genuine spirit of religion ; and a well conducted 
 farm should be the home of devotion, tranquillity and peace. 
 
 I greatly fear that the moral influences flowing from the cul- 
 tivation of the rural sciences are inadequately appreciated by 
 too many. Every minister of religion should aim to call out 
 and encourage the observation and curiosity of the young ; he 
 should train them up around him as querists ; he should himself 
 remember, and let them never forget, that Newton, by observing 
 the fall of an apple, was led on to the discovery of the sublime 
 principles of the material world. O, how much can be done 
 for happiness and comfort in a country parish by a well edu- 
 cated minister ! what transformations he may effect — what im- 
 provements he may suggest — what trains of future action he 
 may set off, by a hint, a request, or an example. 
 
 Who that has passed through the town of Worcester, in Mas- 
 sachusetts, has not admired the taste and beauty of its well 
 planted trees and shaded avenues ? All this, I believe, was de- 
 vised and commenced by a young minister, who, without any 
 resources but of taste and genius, applied himself and a few 
 kindred spirits to the work of moulding the taste and habits of 
 the community. He was one of four ministers who formed the 
 Worcester County Agricultural Society, and in that county 
 
many of the ministers have been successful farmers, and they 
 have received as many premiums as any other class of men. 
 And while I speak of Massachusetts, and refer to the clergy, I 
 am sure you are all of you reminded of the indebtedness of 
 every man who cultivates the American soil to that able farmer, 
 that distinguished philanthropist and eloquent teacher, the Rev. 
 Henry Coleman, late Agricultural Commissioner for the Com- 
 monwealth. When I read his reports and letters to the yeo- 
 manry of New-England, I wish that his voice could be heard in 
 every farm of our State and Union.* 
 
 Mitchell, in his agricultural tour through Holland, states, that 
 each Divinity student, before being licensed, has to attend two 
 years lectures upon agriculture. I have no doubt that the use- 
 fulness of the clergy is much augmented by this step, and that 
 their future influence over the manners and habits of the country 
 is greatly increased. 
 
 When I think of the state of society in our country, I wish 
 that many, very many, of the Lord's prophets were themselves 
 husbandmen, or at least fond of rural pursuits, and distinguished 
 by their attachment and devotion to nature ; for what beautiful 
 teachings there are in that volume which the Almighty has 
 spread open to us ; and to some thoughtless minds the lessons of 
 the open field are far more impressive than our discourses of 
 the music and harmonies of heaven. Go out into nature, all is 
 visible, all is tangible. I can take a leaf, a plant, an insect, and 
 from either I can make appeals that the sophist's art, the skeptic's 
 hatred, can neither mystify nor evade. I can bring up from 
 nature, evidences in favour of my faith in God, that only " a fool" 
 can deny. And then nature speaks one universal language, 
 and establishes the same facts to all classes and orders of minds. 
 Her unity is wondrous, and no inquisitive eye roams far for a 
 curious object. No student complains that nature's lessons 
 are few, or her colours faint. " Her lines are gone out into all 
 the earth, and there is no speech nor language where her voice 
 
 * Since this address was delivered, Mr. Coleman has taken charge of the New 
 Genesee Farmer, and will, I doubt not, render that excellent paper more valuable 
 and useful than ever. 
 
is not heard." I long for the day when men shall be told more 
 of the material revelation God has made, which admits no change. 
 No Vandal hordes can ever blot out its inscriptions, or burn its 
 library. Nature's alphabet is made up of only four letters, 
 wood, water, rock and soil ; and yet with these four letters she 
 forms such wondrous compositions, such infinite combina- 
 tions, as no language with twenty-four letters can describe. 
 Nature never grows old, she speaks now as ever; she has no 
 provincialisms. The lark carols the same song, in the same key, 
 as when Adam turned his delighted ear to catch the strain ; the 
 owl still hoots in b flat, yet loves the note, and screams through 
 no other octave ;* the stormy petrel as much delighted to sport 
 among the first waves the Indian Ocean ever raised, as it does 
 now. Birds that lived on flies, laid bluish eggs, when Isaac went 
 out into the fields to meditate at eventide, as they will two thou- 
 sand years hence, if the world does not break her harness from 
 the orb of day. The sun is as bright as when Lot entered the 
 little city of Zoar. The diamond, and the onyx, and the topaz 
 of Ethiopia, are still as splendid, and the vulture's eye as fierce, 
 as when Job took up his parable. In short, nature's pendulum 
 has never altered its strokes. 
 
 I might magnify your estimate of the value and importance 
 of agriculture, by carrying you back to the primeval scenes of 
 the world's history ; but who does not remember, that when all 
 things were pronounced to be very good, it was amid scenery, 
 of which the grouping was made up of a God, a garden, and 
 its cultivator, man. The soil whence Adam sprang was the 
 granary whence he was to be sustained, and it afforded him at 
 last his grave and resting place. 
 
 I might occupy your time in alluding to Patriarchal agricul- 
 tural labours, when the world's forefathers worshipped God in 
 all the simplicity of nature, tending their flocks by day, and re- 
 posing at night in calm serenity beneadi the spreading sky, 
 peace their pillow, and piety their guardian angel. I might 
 speak to you of Israel's monarch, who planted him vineyards, 
 and made him gardens and orchards, and planted in them trees 
 
 * Bayley on Nature. 
 2 
 
10 
 
 of ail kinds of fruit, and who had possessions of great and small 
 cattle, above all that were in Jerusalem before him, and who 
 spake of trees from the cedar that is in Lebanon, even unto the 
 hyssop that springeth out of the wall. And Uzziah and other 
 kings, while good and virtuous, had cattle in the plains and low 
 country, and husbandmen and vine dressers in the mountains 
 and in Carmel, and who loved husbandry. It is not needful, to 
 make you see the dignity of agricultural labour, that I carry 
 you back to Babylon, Persia or Rome, for you all know that 
 wherever liberty, the arts and sciences have flourished, there 
 has the patriot encouraged, the statesman protected, and the 
 poet praised the art of husbandry. How delightful are the 
 glimpses which we obtain of rural life in the literature of 
 Greece and Rome ! Laertes pruning his vines, Eurnenes enter- 
 taining his king, and Hesiod himself leading us to the very 
 cradle and infancy of agriculture. 
 
 " Forget not, when you sow the grain, to mind 
 " That a boy follows with a rake behind, 
 " And strictly charge him, as you drive, with care 
 " The seed to cover and the birds to scare." 
 
 Every schoolboy knows the agricultural glory of old Rome, 
 and thinks of Varro, Cincinnatus, Cato, Virgil, Horace and 
 Cicero, in connection with the cultivation of their mother earth. 
 The history of agricultural improvement is almost the history 
 of the world, and comes not within my province ; but it is grati- 
 fying that we can trace its most rapid developements in the 
 land which contains the tombs of our ancestors, and was the 
 birthplace of our language, laws and religion. It was only at 
 the close of the fifteenth century that agriculture began to be 
 regarded and pursued as a science. Fitzherbert, a Judge of the 
 Court of Common Pleas, wrote the earliest piece upon farming,* 
 
 * " The Bookof Husbandry, very Profitable and Necessary for all Persons." He 
 also wrote several other pieces. The Judge applied himself as vigorously to hus- 
 bandry in the country as to the study of the law in the town. We have a similar 
 instance at the present time in the Hon. Daniel Webster, whose thorough acquaint- 
 ance with practical farming is exemplified in the very ablest agricultural address I 
 have ever read. It was delivered in Boston soon after his return from Europe. It 
 is the fullest and most condensed article on husbandry that we have access to, and 
 should be reprinted by the American Institute for general distribution. 
 
11 
 
 about one hundred years before the establishment of Plymouth 
 Colony or New-Amsterdam. It was published in 1534. The 
 work imparted much interest to the pursuit of husbandry. Tus- 
 ser's Five Hundred Points of Husbandry appeared thirty years 
 after ; then came Barnaby Goage's " Whole Art and Trade of 
 Husbandry." Sir Hugh Piatt turned his mind to the proper 
 food of the soil, and wrote " The Jewel Houses." His remarks 
 upon manures are sensible, and still in repute. Samuel Hartlip 
 wrote an admirable treatise, for which he was rewarded by 
 that true-hearted patriot and far discerning statesman, Oliver 
 Cromwell, who bestowed upon him a pension. Hartlip has the 
 merit of having been the first who recommended a public di- 
 rector of husbandry to be established by law. Evelyn and 
 Tull are names dear to the well-read and scientific cultivator of 
 the soil ; and I join with one who has gone before me in this 
 duty, in declaring that Jethro Tull is more deserving of a monu- 
 ment than the Duke of Marlboro'.* 
 
 The time would fail me to run over all the names that have 
 helped to make England, if not a garden, yet a prodigy of agri- 
 cultural wealth, and that little island the wonder of the world. 
 
 Anderson and Hunter, Marshall and Home, Young and Dick- 
 son, Sinclair and Davy, Loudon and Knight, Bedford and Spen- 
 cer, Coke and Shaw, are the true friends of man, and their 
 fame is yet to grow brighter and run in larger circles. 
 
 The glorious era from which all the triumphs of husbandry 
 now date, is 1793, when, under the auspices of Sinclair and 
 Pitt, the British Legislature incorporated the Board of Agricul- 
 ture ; then surveys were made of every county, the resources 
 of the empire developed and proclaimed. It is from this 
 period that we may regard agriculture as a science. The 
 essays published on turning grass land into arable, and the 
 
 * How much it is to be lamented that there is no library in our country where 
 even a tolerable collection of the old agricultural authors can be found for purposes 
 of reference. It is matter of doubt whether a rich man could do the American Institute 
 as much real good in any other way as by presenting it with the means of collecting in 
 England some twenty-five or thirty old authors upon husbandry and gardening. 
 One hundred dollars would procure all the above named authors, and several others 
 who were cotemporary with them. 
 
12 
 
 culture of the potato, exhibited the ablest talent of Great 
 Britain, and have furnished, I believe, some of the most 
 valuable volumes ever written. The patronage of the govern- 
 ment gave interest to the subject, and the proudest peers of 
 England placed their sons with practical farmers for the ac- 
 quirement of the details of husbandry. 
 
 A member of the late cabinet devoted three years to all the 
 labours of a farm. Now, too, chemistry was brought forward 
 to the aid of agriculture, ancl has been one of its firmest pillars. 
 In short, we may regard this organization of the agricultural 
 society as the origin of the systematic rotation of crops, the im- 
 provement in breeds of cattle, use of plaster, the soiling of 
 cattle, culture of root crops, and artificial grasses. Comparisons 
 led to the establishment of facts, and agriculture may now be 
 regarded as an art resting upon facts. 
 
 In almost every portion of Great Britain these societies 
 sprang up, and the farmers had the courage and wisdom to 
 profit by the improvements which skill and science had intro- 
 duced, and the result is, that five millions of all ages produce 
 annually from her soil seven hundred millions worth of agri- 
 cultural produce. In 17G0 the growth of all grain in England 
 and Wales was one hundred and twenty millions of bushels, in 
 Scotland thirty millions, making a total of one hundred and fifty 
 millions. In 1840 the produce was four hundred and ten mil- 
 lions of bushels. Think of seven hundred millions worth of 
 produce from that little island, and remember, that competent 
 Judges tell us this may still be doubled ! Agriculture has clothed 
 Che most barren heaths with luxuriant crops, converted pools 
 and marshes into fruitful meadows, and clothed the bleakest 
 mountains with groves of forest trees. 
 
 Agriculture has been termed by Sully, the breast from 
 -whence the state receives support and nourishment. It is the 
 primary source of wealth and independence ; and when the 
 soil of a country is in such a state naturally or artificially, as, 
 under judicious management, to furnish maintenance for more 
 persons than are required for its culture, thence proceeds the 
 profits of the farmer, the rents of the landlord, the subsistence of 
 the manufacturer and merchant, and the greater proportion of 
 
13 
 
 the income of the state. That surplus marketable produce is 
 justly considered to be the principal source of all political power 
 and personal enjoyment; when that surplus does not exist there 
 can be no flourishing towns, no naval force, none of the supe- 
 rior arts or finer manufactures, no learning, none of the conve- 
 niences and luxuries of foreign lands, and none of that cultivated 
 and polished society at home, which not only elevates and dig- 
 nifies the individual, but extends its beneficial influence through- 
 out society. What exertions, then, ought to be made, and encour- 
 agement to be given, to preserve and to improve so essential a 
 resource, this foundation of national prosperity. Agriculture 
 does more than feed, it clothes us : without it we should have no 
 manufactures, no commerce. These all stand together like pil- 
 lars in a cluster, the largest in the centre, and that largest is 
 Agriculture. 
 
 Let us look at our own state — the empire state. Her terri- 
 torial extent is ten thousand square miles larger than England 
 and Wales. In 1783 she had not half the population of the states 
 of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia ; now 
 her inhabitants are two million five hundred thousand. Our 
 Commonwealth exhibits physical capabilities of wealth and 
 greatness existing to an unknown extent, and is fertile in most 
 of the productions which minister to the necessities of man. I 
 envy not the individual whose heart does not swell when he 
 gazes on the bold and magnificent profusion with which the liv- 
 ing God has scattered the proofs of his eternal Godhead, and 
 with what a vast and awful scale of grandeur he has piled up 
 the mountain and spread out the valley, planted the forest and 
 poured forth the flood. 
 
 The western portion of our state was, forty years ago, a wil- 
 derness — we now point out to it as a garden. In that time 
 seventeen millions of acres of forest land have been subdued and 
 brought into improvement. One million five hundred thousand 
 inhabitants are occupied in the various departments of civilized 
 life ; and they are to-day in the peaceful possession of more 
 than six hundred millions of property. 
 
 No state in the Union presents to the farmer the means of 
 health, independence and abundance, more amply than our 
 
14 
 
 own ; and we are indeed criminal, if we do not avail ourselves 
 of all the lights of science, and the aids of other lands, in prose- 
 cuting our onward march. 
 
 Many of my hearers have heard that the revival of agricul- 
 ture commenced in Flanders, about seven hundred years ago. 
 There the soil was little better than a white barren sand, now its 
 increase is said to be twice as great as in England. The grand 
 maxim on which the Flemish farmer acts is, " without manure 
 no corn, without cattle no manure, and without root crops no 
 cattle can be raised." Their success may be resolved into the 
 following causes : small farms, careful manure, rotation of crops, 
 clover and roots, cutting their forage, and close, undivided 
 personal attention. The farmer does not lumber, fish, specu- 
 late, nor hold office. 
 
 I have had much opportunity to notice the conduct of our 
 western farmers; and I am entirely impressed with the belief 
 that most of them would be better off if they were to be de- 
 prived of half their lands. Labour and anxiety are all they can 
 obtain from the extensive cultivation they now attempt. But 
 there is a perfect mania for adding acre to acre. 
 
 The true idea of a farm, is its closest possible resemblance to 
 a well-conducted garden. The Flemish farmer never dreams 
 of exhausting his soil in one place, then moving off to wear it 
 out in another, and then in his old age to commence a new 
 clearing of the forest. If I can make ten acres yield me as 
 much as one hundred, by affording it all my means of improve- 
 ment, and which was required by the one hundred, the conse- 
 quence is, that I have profited in my body and mind in an 
 astonishing degree. I have saved ten times the ploughing and 
 harrowing, ten times the sowing and hoeing, mowing and reap- 
 ing, besides ten times the rent. 
 
 I fully expect to see the second crop far more common than 
 it is. With our powerful sun, we need only efficient manuring, 
 limited extent of soil under cultivation, and an increase of care, 
 to effect this. We have all encouragement to persevere, when 
 we reflect upon what has resulted from the formation of Agri- 
 cultural Associations. We can tell of crops augmented in our 
 own state as follows : 
 
15 
 
 Wheat, 
 
 from 18 
 
 bushels 
 
 per 
 
 acre, 
 
 to 
 
 30 
 
 Corn, 
 
 « 
 
 40 
 
 << 
 
 « 
 
 ti 
 
 a 
 
 70 
 
 Barley, 
 
 n 
 
 25 
 
 <« 
 
 « 
 
 tt 
 
 a 
 
 40 
 
 Peas, 
 
 «« 
 
 25 
 
 M 
 
 <« 
 
 it 
 
 a 
 
 45 
 
 Oats, 
 
 << 
 
 40 
 
 «« 
 
 u 
 
 « 
 
 tt 
 
 74-79 
 
 Potatoes, 
 
 u 
 
 200 
 
 tt 
 
 a 
 
 ti 
 
 «< 
 
 475 
 
 Carrots, 
 
 a 
 
 500 
 
 tt 
 
 n 
 
 «< 
 
 (< 
 
 1000 
 
 Sugar Beet, 
 
 '< 
 
 750 
 
 it 
 
 a 
 
 ti 
 
 M 
 
 1500 
 
 Mangel Wurzel," 
 
 600 
 
 ti 
 
 u 
 
 u 
 
 it 
 
 1200 
 
 Ruta Baga. 
 
 u 
 
 500 
 
 (( 
 
 a 
 
 << 
 
 it 
 
 1200 
 
 Hay, 
 
 CI 
 
 J 3 
 
 tons 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 3 tons, 
 
 In New-York we have authenticated reports of 53 bushels of 
 wheal, 58 barley, 50 peas, 135 corn, 750 potatoes, and 5 tons of 
 hay to the acre. 
 
 It would ill become me to adventure instruction to men who 
 have long been conversant with the cultivation of the soil, from 
 their habits of labour, or the deep personal interest which they 
 have in the land which they possess. But it is proper that I 
 should endeavour to call up a more general attention to the 
 pursuits of the farmer. Here, in our cities and large towns, 
 there are errors in the public mind, strong prejudices, un- 
 concealed contempt, and above all, the most unfortunate 
 ignorance. 
 
 I am not in danger of contradiction when I declare, that our 
 community has regarded money as the chief good, and its 
 accumulation has been practically regarded as the chief end of 
 man. All the occupation and the energy of life have gone out 
 in this direction. To till the ground has been thought disrepu- 
 table, I imagine, very principally, because its profits have been 
 thought to be slow in their return ; there have been no wonder- 
 ful fortunes made in a few months — no food for that preternatural 
 restlessness which cupidity has revelled in. What a frightful 
 conspiracy there has been going on for years past in our cities 
 and towns against the unchangeable law and ordinance of heaven, 
 "in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread till thou be turned 
 again into the ground." Gen. iii. 19. All classes in our midst have 
 been affected. Lawyers, doctors, merchants and ministers 
 have turned their minds to the best way of getting rich without 
 
16 
 
 labour ; and such was the ingenuity of this city, that in one year 
 we made property grow ninety-two millions ! 
 
 But in accounting for this popular distaste, let me be more 
 particular. I believe that parents have had much to do in the 
 creation of this feeling. The men and women who enjoy the 
 honour to have been the architects of their own fortunes, seem 
 in many cases determined to place their children at the very 
 farthest distance from the line of occupation, and the principles 
 and methods of life, which have rendered them happy, prosperous 
 and respectable. No matter how many children they have, the 
 sons are to do with as little labour as may be, and the daughters 
 are to be lilies, they are neither to toil or spin. How many a 
 parent would feel absolutely insulted if you supposed that he 
 intended to put his boy to actual labour of any sort ! When parents 
 and children come to the conclusion that the lad must obtain 
 his living by some exertion of his own, they put their minds to 
 the ra^ck, to discover a way by which it can be done without 
 labour. The father, perhaps, has made every cent he possesses 
 by toil, yet, under the influence of the day in which we live, he 
 cannot endure the idea that his son should be seen in a labouring 
 dress, engaged in a mechanical or agricultural employment. 
 When will men see the folly of the opinion, that the youth who 
 labours on a farm or works in a shop, can be jit for nothing else! 
 A young man upon a farm may qualify himself not only to 
 pursue his calling, but to take a part in all the public concerns 
 of life. ... 
 
 It is idle to talk of the want of time or means for menial 
 cultivation upon an American farm. Judge Buel was correct 
 when he declared that a man might devote three hours out of 
 twenty-four to study, without infringing upon his business, 
 fatiguing his mind, or impairing his health, allowing eight hours 
 for sleep, ten for labour, and three for contingencies ; and I ask 
 what ordinary occupation affords a larger portion of time to 
 the acquisition of general knowledge ? Let no man on a farm 
 complain of want of opportunity. How many such suffer 
 money to be squandered, which would purchase a capital library, 
 and fritter away time in taverns, idle talk, and lounging on 
 
17 
 
 winter evenings, and useless sleep in long nights, which, if 
 employed in reading and study, would make them able agri- 
 culturists, and fit them for the halls of legislation and the council 
 tables of the nation. 
 
 I believe, too, that parents err in placing such an estimate upon 
 the talents of their sons, as leads them to select the learned 
 professions as the only sphere in which they can have a proper 
 scope for exhibition. The principals of our academies and the 
 presidents of our colleges will testify, that at the opening of 
 every term, and at the annual commencements, they receive 
 from fond parents nothing but intellect and genius of "the first 
 order" and "greatest promise." Alas, that all this preeminence 
 so soon finds its level. 
 
 I have ever regarded the best carpenter in a village as a 
 more distinguished man than an ordinary, every day, common- 
 place lawyer; the best blacksmith, the ingenious, contriving 
 mechanic, as a more valuable and respectable character than 
 the half educated, conceited, lounging professional man, who 
 has forgotten almost all he learned in the schools, and has never 
 made advances in general knowledge since he commenced the 
 profession which his apathy and dulness have so served to 
 disgrace. The president of one of our colleges remarks, " I 
 have long thought that our graduates mistake their path to 
 honour and usefulness in making choice of a learned profession, 
 instead of converting agriculture into one, as it ought to be." 
 Agriculture not a science ! Why, there is hardly a science that 
 is not subservient to the promotion of agriculture ; zoology, 
 botany, geology, chemistry in a most essential degree, mecha- 
 nical sciences, all are connected with it. But the great practical 
 problem which this country has to solve, is, to give the speediest 
 return to the cultivator, and of yielding the largest amount of 
 produce at the smallest proportionate expense ; and though the 
 science of theory and expensive experiments may not be 
 adapted to the mass of our agriculturists, yet, happily, we have 
 a noble class of men of education, property and public spirit, 
 capable of weighing the scientific speculations of the wise, and 
 with means, and the inclination to apply those means, to a 
 practical investigation of the result of theories. 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 It is one of the happiest signs of the times, that many young 
 men of education and wealth are turning their attention to 
 husbandry; they are making a wise choice for their own 
 happiness and that of others. Let me quote from Lord Stanley, 
 at Liverpool, in relation to the magnitude and vastness of 
 agriculture, as affording room for investment. Speaking of 
 draining, "I am aware," he says, "that the process of draining 
 is an expensive one, which requires an outlay of capital which, 
 if we were to take the total of even a single county in England, 
 would strike every man as something marvellous and almost 
 appalling; and yet I am satisfied of this, that while no landlord 
 could expect a tenant to engage in operations so extensive 
 without his concurrence and assistance, and without his bearing 
 the principal burden of the original outlay, I am firmly persuaded 
 of this, that there is no bank in the whole country, no com- 
 mercial speculation, no investment, so safe, so sure, so profitable, 
 as that in which even borrowed capital may be engaged, by 
 investing it under the ground of your own soil." 
 
 I should not be surprised if here, as in England, farming 
 came to be a fashionable pursuit ; and almost every man here 
 may afford to be in the fashion. We may get our small farms 
 of fifty, eighty and one hundred acres, and almost every man 
 may enjoy his homestead ; nor need we for this go out into the 
 wilderness. We can find good land, at cheap prices, almost at 
 our very doors. The opening of that portion of the New- York 
 and Erie Rail-Road which is completed, places all the facilities 
 of a farm in the reach of every man who covets them. I wish 
 I could persuade you all to go and look at the country through 
 which the entire route of that road is laid. You would then be 
 satisfied that there are the same happy miracles of improvement 
 to be accomplished in the southern tier of counties, which have 
 blessed and civilized our state on the line of the Erie Canal. 
 How strange that any apathy should exist among us in reference 
 to this vast and important work, which brings all the produce 
 of the west to our doors at all seasons — gives us access to 
 New-Orleans in nine days — offers us a western business not 
 only in spring and autumn, but during the whole year. 1 am 
 sure that in ten years the line of that road will exhibit an appear- 
 
19 
 
 ance of culture, comfort and opulence, worthy of the great 
 highway to the commercial emporium of our country. 
 
 I wish I could see in all our farmers a disposition to magnify 
 their calling; but I have been grieved in many a farm-house, to 
 listen to lamentations over what they term their " hard lot." I 
 have heard the residents upon a noble farm, all paid for, talk 
 about drudgery, and never having their work done, and few or 
 no opportunities for the children ; and I have especially been 
 sorry to hear the females lament over the hard fate of some 
 promising youth of seventeen or eighteen, who was admirably 
 filling up his duties, and training himself for extensive useful- 
 ness and influence. They have made comparison between his 
 situation, coarsely clad and working hard, and coming in fa- 
 tigued, with some cousin at college, or young man who clerked 
 it in a city store, till at length the boy has become dissatisfied, 
 and begged off' from his true interests and happiness. I am 
 conversant with no truer scenes of enjoyment than I have wit- 
 nessed in American farm-houses, and even log cabins, where the 
 father, under the influence of enlightened Christianity and sound 
 views of life, has gone with his family, as the world have termed 
 it, into the woods. The land is his own, and he has every in- 
 ducement to improve it ; he finds a healthy employment for 
 himself and family, and is never at a loss for materials to occu- 
 py his mind. I do not think the physician has more occasion 
 for research than the farmer ; the proper food of vegetables 
 and animals will alone constitute a wide and lasting field of in- 
 vestigation. The daily journal of a farmer is a source of much 
 interest to himself and others. The record of his labours, the 
 expression of his hopes, the nature of his fears, the opinions of 
 his neighbours, the results of his experiments, the entire sum to- 
 tal of his operations, will prove a deep source of .pleasure to any 
 thinking man. If the establishment of agricultural societies, 
 and the cattle shows of our country, should have the effect of 
 stimulating one farmer in every town to manage his land and 
 stock upon the best principles of husbandry, there would be a 
 wonderful and speedy alteration in the products of the earth, 
 because comparison would force itself upon his friends and 
 neighbours ; and his example would be certainly beneficial, for 
 prejudice itself will give way to profit. 
 
20 
 
 I know an individual who, at a great expense of money and 
 travel, carried, hundreds of miles, a pair of fine imported Berk- 
 shires : his fellow farmers around were large raisers of pork, 
 and their swine were, without exception, of the genuine land 
 pike and alligator breed, all leg and snout; well, they crowded 
 to see the new pigs, admired their shape, did not like their colour, 
 did not think they were " so great, after all," and thought that 
 one hundred dollars invested in two pigs was " quite ridiculous." 
 The result, however, was, that the farmers were soon willing to 
 help pay for the original outlay, for they quickly became dis- 
 satisfied with their own rail-like breed ; and I have since seen, 
 at the piggery of a flour mill two miles off, more than fifty half 
 blooded Berkshires, and all through the township they are get- 
 ting a better article for pork and hams. 
 
 The prejudices of the farmers to new ways, fresh breeds, and 
 book farming, are all destined to give way. I am sure that a 
 remark which that great man, De Witt Clinton, made in 1825, 
 in relation to American invention, that we were " a people that 
 had no stand still in us," is perfectly applicable to us as agri- 
 culturists. Our farmers have eyes, they can all see, and they 
 will learn. I am acquainted with a vicinity where a root crop 
 had never been raised as a principal resource for cattle. An 
 experiment in 1838, has now twenty rivals, all at first slow to 
 believe, but quick to follow ; and all their working cattle this 
 winter will have cause for thanksgiving. In that same town a 
 man has converted a soil, marred by the salts of iron, into valu- 
 able ground, by the free use of lime ; a course to which he was 
 advised by a neighbour who took the Cultivator. And here let 
 me say, that in 1840, on a long western journey, I one day re- 
 marked to my friend, that I thought I could give a pretty shrewd 
 guess, from observation as w r e went along, as to the fact whether 
 the occupants of the farms took any agricultural papers: 
 in thirteen trials I made but one wrong guess. It is important 
 that the doings of this society, good agricultural reports, books 
 and periodicals, be circulated among the farmers; because 
 improvements and the alterations of established customs and 
 habits are very slowly admitted, and the farmer oftentimes, from 
 his retired position, unless he is addicted to reading, is likely to 
 
21 
 
 acquire very little knowledge of his art, but that which is tra- 
 ditional and peculiar to his vicinity. We should do much for 
 our state, if we could put forth a periodical into every farm- 
 house ; one that would keep pace with the times, and afford the 
 earliest notice of every important invention or discovery in ru- 
 ral life. I never take up the Ploughboy, the New-York Farmer, 
 and especially the Cultivator, without an earnest wish that such 
 admirable pages of wisdom and experience, and plain, round- 
 about common sense, could be scattered in every farm-house in 
 America, and its volumes placed in every city habitation. I do 
 not know a more amusing or instructive set of volumes than 
 Bud's Cultivator. I almost envy that good great man his claims 
 upon national gratitude. 
 
 I wish I could induce the father of every family to give this 
 work a place in his house at Christmas, for the benefit of his 
 children ; the practical information which they would gain from 
 it, and their acquaintance with things of rural life, would richly 
 repay the expenditure, and this knowledge would all come into 
 useful play.* I know a youth, the son of a president of a city 
 bank, a boy of eighteen, who gravely asked how long it took to 
 bring a crop of wheat and barley to perfection, and what ani- 
 mals were called neat cattle ; and yet this lad was deemed well- 
 educated and accomplished, in the circle in which he moved. 
 
 We all know how much is done by oral instruction ; how often 
 men are more affected by what they hear than what they read ; 
 and this has induced me to wish that suitable, and, of course, well- 
 qualified men, could go through every portion of our state, and 
 address the population of every vicinity on the great subject of 
 the improvements in husbandry, and urge the cultivators of the 
 soil to a generous rivalry. The man who went out upon this 
 
 * I am happy to state, that Mr. A. B. Allen has commenced another periodical 
 devoted to agriculture. It is published in New-York, and is called " The American 
 Farmers' Magazine," a monthly, at two dollars a year. No writer in our 
 country brings more thorough practical skill and a larger share of science to the 
 subject than Mr. Allen. His magazine will, I doubt not, be a standard authority, 
 New-York city ought to furnish it with a large number of subscribers. Our mer- 
 chants depend so much upon the production of the soil, that their very business in- 
 terests demand that they should be acquainted with the farming interests of the state 
 and country, and Mr. Allen will give such statistics as are adapted to their use. 
 
22 
 
 task should not go forth as the profound scholar, or the refined 
 gentleman, but as a plain, honest-hearted citizen, who had an 
 important subject to talk about, and valuable information to 
 diffuse. 
 
 I believe that such an agency would be productive of the 
 happiest results. It would do much to overcome prejudice ; the 
 individual would drop the seed of suggestion upon much good 
 ground; he would acquire immense practical information. 
 There are a hundred things which a wise man could do upon 
 such a tour that we can hardly hope to effect by our publica- 
 tions. Improvements in fencing, especially in building, could 
 be pointed out and explained ; the abatement and removal of 
 absolute nuisances could be judiciously hinted at and enforced 
 in good natured conversation, and the cultivation of fruit recom- 
 mended. I know a gentleman who prides himself on having 
 induced several farmers to get up woodpiles, where formerly 
 daily fuel was only to be obtained by daily prayer and coaxing 
 and scolding, on the part of all the women, to all the men in 
 the establishment. 
 
 It is to be deplored, that in many parts of the country the 
 farm-house makes so little pretension to external beauty, and 
 that it is destitute of those attractions which are always at the 
 command of the occupant. 
 
 How many abodes do we know that are almost without gar- 
 dens, and quite without flowers. It is the part of wisdom to 
 make our habitations the home of as many joys and pleasures 
 as possible, and there ought to be a thousand sweet attractions 
 in and around the sacred spot we call our homes. 
 
 This feeling is perfectly philosophical. The fragrance of the 
 rose that is plucked at the door of the cottage, is sweeter in 
 odour to the poor man, who has assiduously reared it there amid 
 difficulties and discouragements, than if it were culled from the 
 " parterre" of the palace ; and the root which he has dug from 
 his own little garden is more grateful to his palate than if it were 
 the purchased product of unknown hands ; and this argument, 
 if it be true when applied to individuals, is equally valid on the 
 broad principle of nations. 
 
 O, we greatly need something more of the sweet and beau- 
 
23 
 
 tiful about our houses and cottages, that shall make childhood, 
 youth and age all cry out, "there is no place like home." In 
 your summer rambles away from the hot city, you go to the 
 farm-houses of this and other states ; now just think how differ- 
 ently your memory calls up various houses at which you have 
 sojourned. You can think of spots like paradise, and there are 
 others that you recollect, and there are only the capabilities for 
 improvement and fine opportunities for the hand of industry and 
 good taste. How well we recall to mind the pretty white cot- 
 tage, the deepgreenblinds, the painted trellis, the climbing shrub, 
 the neat garden fence, the sweetly scented flowers, the entire air 
 of comfort, and how we long again to enjoy the bliss of quietness 
 and repose. 
 
 I believe a garden spot exerts a salutary influence, not only 
 in early life, but in the advanced periods of human existence. 
 " O, how much sweeter is it to me," said Madame De Genlis, " to 
 recall to my mind the walks and sports of my childhood, than 
 the pomp and splendour of the palaces I have since inhabited. 
 All these courts, once so splendid and brilliant, are now faded ; 
 the projects which were then built with so much confidence are 
 become chimeras. The impenetrable future has cheated alike 
 the security of princes and the ambition of courtiers. Ver- 
 sailles is drooping into ruins. I should look in vain for the ves- 
 tages of the feeble grandeur I once admired ; but I should find 
 the banks of the Loire as smiling as ever, the meadows of St. 
 Aubyn as full of violets and lilies of the valley, and its trees 
 loftier and fairer. There are no vicissitudes for the eternal 
 beauties of nature ; and while, amid blood-stained revolutions, 
 palaces, columns, statues disappear, the simple flowers of nature, 
 regardless of the storm, grow into beauty, and multiply for ever." 
 
 Hannah More felicitated herself through life on her attach- 
 ment to the garden, and declared to an American friend, that in 
 her eighty-third year the love of flowers was the only natural 
 passion left to her which had lost none of its force. 
 
 I am unhappy when I see a farm without a garden, and al- 
 most so in a house without flowers. I believe all who possess 
 sensibility are fond of plants, and I also believe that at some 
 period or other of life the predilection will break out. I think 
 
24 
 
 nature indicates the garden as man's proper place ; for the infant 
 can hardly walk before he is found planting a flower. Every 
 boy loves a garden — a garden of his own ; every sailor talks 
 about his garden, and some old sailors can show us rare ones. 
 Napoleon and Siddons, Washington and Jefferson, in their re- 
 tirement from life's busy scenes, are found in the garden. 
 
 As far as I have noticed, the greatest admirers and most pas- 
 sionate cultivators of flowers are females and manufacturers. 
 I was much pleased, at the exhibition in New-Haven last week, 
 to observe that the choicest fruits and flowers came from the 
 care of the ladies ; and the manufacturing classes in England and 
 Scotland, especially in Staffordshire and Lancashire, and vicinity 
 of Paisley, are enthusiastic florists, and derive much enjoyment 
 from their gardening societies ; they regard gardening as a relax- 
 ation. It is not undeserving of a notice on this occasion, that a 
 mechanic* who labours daily in our city, has agarden in Williams- 
 burgh, where he can show a finer collection of flowers than is 
 possessed by most rich men, and his dahlias are now adorning our 
 agricultural room at the Garden. 
 
 " Flowers, of all created things, are the most innocently sim- 
 ple, and most superbly complex — playthings for childhood, 
 ornaments of the grave, and companions of the cold corpse ! 
 " Flowers, beloved by the wandering idiot, and studied by the 
 deep thinking man of science ! Flowers, that unceasingly ex- 
 pand to heaven their grateful, and to man their cheerful looks 
 — partners of human joy, soothers of human sorrow ; fit em- 
 blems of the victor's triumph, of the young bride's blushes ; wel- 
 come to the crow : ded halls, and graceful upon solitary graves ! 
 Flowers are, in the volume of nature, what the expression ' God 
 is love' is in revelation. What a desolate place would be a 
 world without a flower ! It would be a face without a smile, 
 a feast without a welcome. Are not flowers the stars of the 
 earth ? And are not stars the flowers of heaven 1 One cannot 
 look closely at the structure of a flower without loving it. 
 They are the emblems and manifestations of God's love to the 
 creation ; and they are the means and the ministration of man's 
 
 * Mr. Tucker. 
 
25 
 
 love to his fellow creatures, for they first awaken in his mind a 
 sense of the beautiful and good. The very inutility of flowers 
 is their excellence and great beauty, for they lead us to thoughts 
 of generosity and moral beauty, detached from and superior to 
 selfishness : so that they are pretty lessons in nature's book of 
 instruction, teaching man that he liveth not by bread alone, but 
 that he hath another than animal life." 
 
 1 think it will appear to all who have visited our best herds 
 and seen the state of the English cattle shows, that the time 
 has arrived when we should breed for ourselves ; and, with our 
 climate in New- York, Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky, so favour- 
 able for our purpose, and perhaps even for exportation, I 
 know men who think we may not have to wait one hundred 
 years to repay favours to our friends in England. Only let us 
 keep Our high blood pure, and bring up judicious selections to 
 the best pure blood bulls, and breed steadily toward the Durham, 
 and I expect we shall have cattle that will reflect as much 
 credit upon their breeders as the milk pots of Col. Jaques, or 
 the short horns or alloys of Collings. One thing I am quite 
 satisfied of, and that is, that we have no further need of extensive 
 importation in short horns. I think their value cannot well be 
 overrated for milking qualities or for beef. If any are sceptical 
 on the latter point, I beg their particular attention to a pair of 
 steers which Mr. Townsend will exhibit next week for compe- 
 tition, and which weigh 2,615 lbs. each.* 
 
 In relation to the cattle, I have hardly time to say much ; nor 
 perhaps is this the best place, though something may be ex- 
 pected. It is well known, that for a few years past much 
 attention has been directed to this subject, and very heavy 
 investments have been made in the improved breeds. The 
 best herds of England have been inspected ; and we have now 
 in New- York, New- Jersey, Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky, some 
 of the choicest animals that have been reared. Great praise 
 is due to such men as Van Rensselaer, Prentiss, Corning, Rotch, 
 
 * These noble animals afterwards received the silver cup at the Fair. They 
 are returned to New-Haven, and will probably have an addition of 500 lbs. to theiv 
 individual weight when they are brought to the market. 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 Lossing, Bement, Pope, Giddings, Whitney, Townsend, Poole, 
 Renwick and Clay, who, at great expense, have brought among 
 us the best blood of England. 
 
 I trust that our farmers will avoid the grievous error of pre- 
 ferring a breed whose services may be obtained cheaply, 
 rather than selecting an animal of the highest merit. This, 
 indeed, is to be " penny wise and pound foolish." 
 
 I yesterday had the pleasure to accompany Mr. A. B. Allen, 
 of Buffalo, who has just returned from an agricultural tour in 
 England, on board the packet ship Hendrick Hudson, from 
 London, for the purpose of inspecting the superior stock selected 
 by him for himself and his friends. Several large previous 
 importations had arrived by the packet ships Mediator and 
 Wellington. This consists of South Down sheep, the great 
 York and Kenilworth breeds of pigs, shepherd dogs, the large 
 Dorking fowls, which are distinguished, like Goliah, by having 
 an additional toe, English pheasants, &c. Of cattle, Mr. Allen 
 has made no importation, principally on account of the disease 
 which is at present pervading all England, and he was fearful 
 of importing that with them, to the injury of our present stock. 
 He however concurs with me in the opinion, that New- York, 
 Ohio and Kentucky, with the exception of one herd, may even 
 now challenge all England in the breed of short horns; and this 
 is his judgment, after having attended the Royal Agricultural 
 Society's Exhibition at Liverpool, and the still finer one of 
 Durhams, long-wooled sheep and horses, at Hull, Yorkshire, 
 and examining the celebrated herds of Earl Spencer, Mr. Bates, 
 and other eminent breeders. Mr. Allen thinks very favourably 
 of Herefords, but more so of some very large and improved 
 South Devons. The celebrated Ayrshires he greatly admires; 
 but for the most delicate knife, and for a source of real profit 
 to the grazier, he thinks highly of the Scotch Highlanders, as 
 now raised by a few choice breeders. These animals are but 
 of medium size; they are occasionally of dun colour, more 
 commonly black, without horns, and very hardy and thrifty. 
 There can be no doubt that they would suit the climate of 
 New-England. 
 
 If any of you, gentlemen, wish to investigate the history of 
 
27 
 
 the improved breed of Durhams, I would advise you to consult 
 " Cully on Live Stock," a work, I have reason to believe, quite 
 as much to be depended upon, as the more recent treatise by 
 the Rev. Henry Berry. It may not be amiss to say, that we 
 can trace back the short horns for nearly two hundred years. 
 Sir H. Smythson then used to weigh out food to his cattle, and 
 his notes upon his herd, as to the eye, horns, hoof, hide, all 
 indicate the identity of this breed. It is an interesting fact, 
 and probably known to very few, that while Lord Percy was 
 engaged in this country during the Revolution, his steward sent 
 the celebrated herd, one by one, to the shambles. At the return 
 of Lord Percy, he found the butcher carrying off the very last 
 cow, which he rescued from the knife, and thus preserved the 
 breed. 
 
 Mr. Allen thinks that in horses we are far superior to Eng- 
 land. There is nothing there equal to our American trotters. 
 Their cart horses carry more flesh, but have not the muscle of 
 our heavy Pennsylvania horses ; nor are they as enduring in 
 their work, or as strong at a pull, and are much coarser in their 
 conformation, with long hair below the knee, and heavy fet- 
 locks, that gather mud, give them disease, and hinder quick 
 movement. Even our racers, he thinks, would beat England as 
 weight carriers, at three or four mile heats, but does not know, 
 owing to their very fine training, and the soft springing turf on 
 the course, but the English horse might be quicker a few 
 seconds for a single heat ; but, generally, that ours have the most 
 bottom or endurance, he has not a doubt. He thinks our cli- 
 mate greatly superior to that of England for breeding these no- 
 ble animals ; and if we only pay close attention to this depart- 
 ment of husbandry, we may become large exporters, especially 
 of roadsters. Our horses are already much talked about and 
 inquired after abroad ; and Mr. Allen tells me he rode after 
 some quite ordinary American horses that had been taken to 
 England, which were highly prized, beating every thing upon 
 the road with perfect ease. 
 
 The South Downs which I saw yesterday, I hardly know how 
 to speak of; they must be seen to be understood. You have 
 often heard travellers' stories about English mutton ; well, let 
 
28 
 
 the incredulous go and look at these importations. Three of 
 them are brought out by Mr. Allen for the Hon. Mr. Stevenson, 
 late Minister at St. James ; three for Bishop Meade, of Vir- 
 ginia ; five for Mr. Rotch, of Butternuts, Otsego county, N. Y. 
 Mr. Stevenson has been abroad six years, and after visiting all 
 the flocks of note, prefers the South Downs to all others ; and 
 Dr. Meade and Mr. Allen concur fully in this opinion. I have 
 heard it doubted whether the South Downs are adapted to our 
 hard northern climate ; to this I would say, that they have been 
 found to endure a Scotch winter even better than the Cheviots, 
 at an elevation of two thousand feet above the sea. 
 
 These sheep were selected from the celebrated stock of Jonas 
 Webb, Esq., of Babraham, Cambridge, who carried off all the 
 prizes this year at the show of the Royal Agricultural Society. 
 These animals are of great size for Downs, of the most finished 
 form, of a fleece about equal, I think, to three quarters blood 
 Merino, and as thick and close as felt. The bucks will shear 
 from ten to eleven and a half pounds per annum, and are of great 
 weight ; those of Bishop Meade and Mr. Stevenson are of two 
 hundred and forty-eight and two hundred and 'fifty-four pounds, 
 though only eighteen months old, while that of Mr. Rotch, a 
 lamb of six months, is one hundred and fifty-two pounds. Mr. 
 Webb killed a wether last Christmas which weighed, dressed, 
 with the head on, two hundred. The sire of Mr. Rotch's buck, 
 as the best yearling in all England, took the prize of thirty- 
 sovereigns from the Royal Agricultural Society at Liverpool, 
 and is now merely let to the Duke of Newcastle for the present 
 season at one hundred sovereigns! The shepherd's dog I think 
 remarkably beautiful ; he is of a medium size, of shining black 
 colour, with long and glossy hair. The breed is so good and 
 true, that they break themselves in, to guard and drive sheep on 
 the extensive ranges of hill and down, without any training. 
 He is almost as active as the greyhound, and very docile and in- 
 telligent. The introduction of dogs into agricultural use would 
 be of great service, and especially in driving flocks to city mar- 
 kets. The Dorking fowls are of immense size, often weighing 
 eight pounds dressed, and all sportsmen know the beauty of the 
 English cock pheasant. I am happy to inform you that my 
 
29 
 
 friend, Mr. Allen, will soon favour the public with an article 
 upon the history and pedigree of South Downs, with a series 
 of engravings. 
 
 In relation to pigs, it is well known that Mr. Allen has long 
 been one of the most extensive and successful breeders ; his 
 learned article, which appeared in Albany, has been reprinted 
 in London, and excites much attention. To examine the breeds 
 of England was one great object of his tour, and in the inves- 
 tigation of this matter he travelled many hundreds of miles. 
 
 He still pronounces the Berkshire the best, combining the 
 finest qualities, and, he thinks, yielding a sufficient size. He 
 saw the best Chinese, the wild boar, the German boar, and all 
 the crosses which have been procured. 
 
 Our good friends in Kentucky, who " go the whole hog," re- 
 gard the Berkshires as only approximations to bacon excellence, 
 and have always been asking northern breeders to furnish them 
 length, length. Well, I think Mr. Allen will satisfy them now, 
 he has a breed which he can easily fat to weigh fourteen hun- 
 dred ; he saw one exhibited in England, and, strange as it may 
 sound, under the patronage of Queen Victoria, which he mea- 
 sured. From the tip of nose, over his head, to the tail, nine 
 feet nine inches ; from the tip of nose, along the side, to the 
 end of the rump, seven feet nine inches ; in height four feet, girt 
 round the breast seven feet seven inches. This is the stock 
 from which Mr. Allen has shown me specimens. 
 
 The details of the Agricultural Society at Liverpool afford 
 the most interesting proof of the fresh impetus which the cause 
 of improved husbandry has received. The best men in Eng- 
 land, in all walks of life, are becoming interested. Noblemen 
 may be seen in their gaiters and nailed shoes, cuffs turned up, 
 examining cattle and guiding ploughs. Young noblemen, leav- 
 ing their habits of dissipation, are joining the masses of the 
 people, doing what they can to advance the true interests of the 
 land. 
 
 It is gratifying to know that Mr. Allen has received the kind- 
 est attention from the gentlemen who are engaged in agricul- 
 ture, and has been treated with the greatest confidence ; and it 
 is to be hoped that the results of his tour may be speedily laid 
 before the public. 
 
30 
 
 I close by indulging myself and gratifying my audience by 
 quoting a passage from a work which I strongly commend you 
 to purchase. Read it, read it again ; it will do the young man 
 more good than he will get from any half dozen novels that have 
 been published this year ; it is Howitt's Rural Life in England; 
 I have placed it, by recommendation, in the hands of several 
 friends, and they have all been delighted with the work. 
 
 " There is no class of men, if times are but tolerably good, 
 that enjoy themselves so highly as farmers ; they are little kings. 
 Their concerns are not huddled up into a corner, as those of the 
 town tradesman are. In town, many a man who turns thou- 
 sands per week is hemmed in close by buildings, and cuts no 
 figure at all. A narrow shop, a contracted warehouse, without 
 an inch of room to turn him on any hand, without a yard, a 
 stable, or outhouse of any description, perhaps hoisted aloft, 
 up three or four pairs of dirty stairs, is all the room that the 
 wealthy tradesman can often bless himself with, and there day 
 after day, month after month, year after year, he is to be found, 
 like a bat in the hole of a wall, or a toad in the heart of a stone 
 or of an oak tree. Spring, and summer, and autumn go round ; 
 sunshine and flowers spread over the world ; the sweetest 
 breezes blow, the sweetest waters murmur along the vales, but 
 they are all lost upon him ; he is the doleful prisoner of Mammon, 
 and so he lives and dies. The farmer would not take the wealth 
 of the world on such terms. His concerns, however small, 
 spread themselves out in a pleasant amplitude both to his eye 
 and heart. His house stands in its own spacious solitude ; his 
 offices and out-houses stand round extensively, without any stub- 
 born and limiting contraction ; his acres stretch over hill and 
 dale ; there his flocks and herds are feeding ; there his labourers 
 are toiling — he is king and sole commander there. He lives 
 among the purest air and the most delicious quiet. Often, when 
 I see those healthy, hardy, full-grown sons of the soil going out 
 of town, I envy them the freshness and the repose of the spots 
 to which they are going. Ample old fashioned kitchens, with 
 their chimney corners of the true, projecting, beamed and 
 seated construction, still remaining ; blazing fires in winter, 
 shining on suspended hams and flitches, guns supported on 
 
31 
 
 hooks above, dogs basking on the hearth below ; cool shady- 
 parlours in summer, with open windows, and odours from 
 garden and shrubbery blowing in ; gardens wet with purest 
 dews, and humming at noontide with bees ; and green fields and 
 verdurous trees, or deep woodlands lying all around, where a 
 hundred rejoicing voices of birds or other creatures are heard, 
 and winds blow to and fro, full of health, and life-enjoyment. 
 How enviable do such places seem to the fretted spirits of towns, 
 who are compelled not only to bear their burden of cares, but 
 to enter daily into the public strife against selfish evil and ever 
 spreading corruption. When one calls to mind the simple 
 abundance of farm-houses, their rich cream and milk, and un- 
 adulterated butter, and bread grown upon their own lands, 
 sweet as that which Christ broke, and blessed as he gave to his 
 disciples ; their fruits, ripe and fresh plucked from the sunny 
 wall, or the garden bed, or the pleasant old orchard ; when one 
 casts an eye upon, or calls to one's memory the aspect of those 
 houses, many of them so antiquely picturesque, or so bright 
 looking and comfortable, in deep retired valleys, by beautiful 
 streams or among fragrant woodlands, one cannot help saying 
 with King James of Scotland, when he met Johnny Armstrong, 
 
 " What want these knaves that a kins; should have*!"