THE AGRICULTURIST.
1. Agriculture embraces, in its broad application, whatever relates to the cultivation of the fields, with the view of producing food for man and those animals which he may have brought into a state of domestication.
2. If we carry our observations so far back as to reach the antediluvian history of the earth, we shall find, from the authority of Scripture, that the cultivation of the soil was the first employment of man, after his expulsion from the garden of Eden, when he was commanded to till the ground from which he had been taken. We shall also learn from the same source of information, that "Cain was a husbandman," and that "Abel was a keeper of sheep." Hence it may be inferred, that Adam instructed his sons in the art of husbandry; and that they, in turn, communicated the knowledge to their posterity, together with the superadded information which had resulted from their own experience. Improvement in this art was probably thenceforth progressive, until the overwhelming catastrophe of the flood.
3. After the waters had retired from the face of the earth, Noah resorted to husbandry, as the certain means of procuring the necessaries and comforts of life. The art of cultivating the soil was uninterruptedly preserved in many branches of the great family of Noah; but, in others, it was at length entirely lost. In the latter case, the people, having sunk into a state of barbarism, depended for subsistence on the natural productions of the earth, and on such animals as they could contrive to capture by hunting and fishing. Many of these degenerate tribes did not emerge from this condition for several succeeding ages; while others have not done so to the present day.
4. Notwithstanding the great antiquity of agriculture, the husbandmen, for several centuries immediately succeeding the deluge, seem to have been but little acquainted with any proper method of restoring fertility to exhausted soils; for we find them frequently changing their residence, as their flocks and herds required fresh pasturage, or as their tillage land became unproductive. As men, however, became more numerous, and as their flocks increased, this practice became inconvenient and, in some cases, impracticable. They were, therefore, compelled, by degrees, to confine their flocks and herds, and their farming operations, to lands of more narrow and specified limits.
5. The Chaldeans were probably the people who first adopted the important measure of retaining perpetual possession of the soil which they had cultivated; and, consequently, were among the first who became skilful in agriculture. But all the great nations of antiquity held this art in the highest estimation, and usually attributed its invention to superhuman agency. The Egyptians even worshipped the image of the ox in gratitude for the services of the living animal in the labours of the field.
6. The reader of ancient history can form some idea of the extent to which this art was cultivated in those days, from the warlike operations of different nations; for, from no other source, could the great armies which were then brought into the field, have been supplied with the necessary provisions. The Greeks and the Romans, who were more celebrated than any other people for their military enterprise, were also most attentive to the proper cultivation of the soil; and many of their distinguished men, especially among the Romans, were practical husbandmen.
7. Nor was agriculture neglected by the learned men of antiquity. Several works on this subject, by Greek and Latin authors, have descended to our times; and the correctness of many of the principles which they inculcate, has been confirmed by modern experience.
8. Throughout the extensive empire of Rome, agriculture maintained a respectable standing, until the commencement of those formidable invasions of the northern hordes, which, finally, nearly extinguished the arts and sciences in every part of Europe. During the long period of anarchy which succeeded the settlement of these barbarians in their newly-acquired possessions, pasturage was, in most cases, preferred to tillage, as being better suited to their state of civilization, and as affording facilities of removal, in cases of alarm from invading enemies. But, when permanent governments had been again established, and when the nations enjoyed comparative peace, the regular cultivation of the soil once more revived.
9. The art of husbandry was at a low ebb in England, until the fourteenth century, when it began to be practised with considerable success in the midland and south-western parts of the island; yet, it does not seem to have been cultivated as a science, until the latter end of the sixteenth century. The first book on husbandry, printed and published in the English language, appeared in 1534. It was written by Sir A. Fitzherbert, a judge of the Common Pleas, who had studied the laws of vegetation, and the nature of soils, with philosophical accuracy.
10. Very little improvement was made on the theory of this author, for upwards of a hundred years, when Sir Hugh Platt discovered and brought into use several kinds of substances for fertilizing and restoring exhausted soils.
11. Agriculture again received a new impulse, about the middle of the eighteenth century; and, in 1793, a Board of Agriculture was established by an act of Parliament, at the suggestion of Sir John Sinclair, who was elected its first president. Through the influence of this board, a great number of agricultural societies have been formed in the kingdom, and much valuable information on rural economy has been communicated to the public, through the medium of a voluminous periodical under its superintendence.
12. After the example of Great Britain, agricultural societies have been formed, and periodical journals published, in various parts of the continent of Europe, as well as in the United States. The principal publications devoted to this subject in this country, are the American Farmer, at Baltimore; the New-England Farmer, at Boston; and the Cultivator, at Albany.
13. The modern improvements in husbandry consist, principally, in the proper application of manures, in the mixture of different kinds of earths, in the use of plaster and lime, in the rotation of crops, in adapting the crop to the soil, in the introduction of new kinds of grain, roots, grasses, and fruits, as well as in improvements in the breeds of domestic animals, and in the implements with which the various operations of the art are performed.
14. For many of the improved processes which relate to the amelioration of the soil, we are indebted to chemistry. Before this science was brought to the aid of the art, the cultivators of the soil were chiefly guided by the precept and example of their predecessors, which were often inapplicable. By the aid of chemical analysis, it is easy to discover the constituent parts of different soils; and, when this has been done, there is but little difficulty in determining the best mode of improving them, or in applying the most suitable crops.
15. In the large extent of territory embraced within the United States, there is great variation of soil and climate; but, in each state, or district, the attention of the cultivators is directed to the production of those articles which, under the circumstances, promise to be the most profitable. In the northern portions of our country, the cultivators of the soil are called farmers. They direct their attention chiefly to the production of wheat, rye, corn, oats, barley, peas, beans, potatoes, pumpkins, and flax, together with grasses and fruits of various kinds. The same class of men, in the Southern states, are usually denominated planters, who confine themselves principally to tobacco, rice, cotton, sugar-cane, or hemp. In some parts of that portion of our country, however, rye, wheat, oats, and sweet potatoes, are extensively cultivated; and, in almost every part, corn is a favourite article.
16. The process of cultivating most of the productions which have been mentioned, is nearly the same. In general, with the occasional exception of new lands, the plough is used to prepare the ground for the reception of the seed. Wheat, rye, barley, oats, peas, and the seeds of hemp and flax, are scattered with the hand, and covered in the earth with the harrow. In Great Britain, such seeds are sown in drills; and this method is thought to be better than ours, as it admits of the use of the hoe, while the vegetable is growing.
17. Corn, beans, potatoes, and pumpkins, are covered in the earth with the hoe. The ground is ploughed several times during the summer, to make it loose, and to keep down the weeds. The hoe is also used in accomplishing the same objects, and in depositing fresh earth around the growing vegetable.
18. When ripe, wheat, barley, oats, and peas, are cut down with the sickle, cradle, or scythe; while hemp and flax are pulled up by the roots. The seeds are separated from the other parts of the plants with the flail, or by means of horses or oxen driven round upon them. Of late, threshing machines are used to effect the same object. Chaff, and extraneous matter generally, are separated from the grain, or seeds, by means of a fanning-mill, or with a large fan made of the twigs of the willow. The same thing was formerly, and is yet sometimes, effected by the aid of a current of air.
19. When the corn, or maize, has become ripe, the ears, with the husks, and sometimes the stalks, are deposited in large heaps. To assist in stripping the husks from the ears, it is customary to call together the neighbours. In such cases, the owner of the corn provides for them a supper, together with some means of merriment and good cheer.
20. This custom is most prevalent, where the greater part of the labour is performed by slaves. The blacks, when assembled for a husking match, choose a captain, whose business it is to lead the song, while the rest join in chorus. Sometimes, they divide the corn as nearly as possible into two equal heaps, and apportion the hands accordingly, with a captain to each division. This is done to produce a contest for the most speedy execution of the task. Should the owner of the corn be sparing of his refreshments, his want of generosity is sure to be published in song at every similar frolic in the neighborhood.
21. Maize, or Indian corn, and potatoes of all kinds, were unknown in the eastern continent, until the discovery of America. Their origin is, therefore, known with certainty; but some of the other productions which have been mentioned, cannot be so satisfactorily traced. This is particularly the case with regard to those which have been extensively cultivated for many centuries.
22. The grasses have ever been valuable to man, as affording a supply of food for domestic animals. Many portions of our country are particularly adapted to grazing. Where this is the case, the farmers usually turn their attention to raising live stock, and to making butter and cheese. Grass reserved in meadows, as a supply of food for the winter, is cut at maturity with a scythe, dried in the sun, and stored in barns, or heaped in stacks.
23. Rice was first cultivated in the eastern parts of Asia, and, from the earliest ages, has been the principal article of food among the Chinese and Hindoos. To this grain may be attributed, in a great measure, the early civilization of those nations; and its adaptation to marshy grounds caused many districts to become populous, which would otherwise have remained irreclaimable and desolate.
24. Rice was long known in the east, before it was introduced into Egypt and Greece, whence it spread over Africa generally, and the southern parts of Europe. It is now cultivated in all the warm parts of the globe, chiefly on grounds subject to periodical inundations. The Chinese obtain two crops a year from the same ground, and cultivate it in this way from generation to generation, without applying any manure, except the stubble of the preceding crop, and the mud deposited from the water overflowing it.
25. Soon after the waters of the inundation have retired, a spot is inclosed with an embankment, lightly ploughed and harrowed, and then sown very thickly with the grain. Immediately, a thin sheet of water is brought over it, either by a stream or some hydraulic machinery. When the plants have grown to the height of six or seven inches, they are transplanted in furrows; and again water is brought over them, and kept on, until the crop begins to ripen, when it is withheld.
26. The crop is cut with a sickle, threshed with a flail, or by the treading of cattle; and the husks, which adhere closely to the kernel, are beaten off in a stone mortar, or by passing the grain through a mill, similar to our corn-mills. The mode of cultivating rice in any part of the world, varies but little from the foregoing process. The point which requires the greatest attention, is keeping the ground properly covered with water.
27. Rice was introduced into the Carolinas in 1697, where it is now produced in greater perfection than in any other part of the world. The seeds are dropped along, from the small end of a gourd, into drills made with one corner of the hoe. The plants, when partly grown, are not transferred to another place, as in Asia, but are suffered to grow and ripen in the original drills. The crop is secured like wheat, and the husks are forced from the grain by a machine, which leaves the kernels more perfect than the methods adopted in other countries.
28. Cotton is cultivated in the East and West Indies, North and South America, Egypt, and in many other parts of the world, where the climate is sufficiently warm for the purpose. There are several species of this plant; of which three kinds are cultivated in the southern states of the Union—the nankeen cotton, the green seed cotton, and the black seed, or sea island cotton. The first two, which grow in the middle and upland countries, are denominated short staple cotton: the last is cultivated in the lower country, near the sea, and on the islands near the main land, and is of a fine quality, and of a long staple.
29. The plants are propagated annually from seeds, which are sown very thickly in ridges made with the plough or hoe. After they have grown to the height of three or four inches, part of them are pulled up, in order that the rest, while coming to maturity, may stand about four inches apart. It is henceforth managed, until fully grown, like Indian corn.
30. The cotton is inclosed in pods, which open as fast as their contents become fit to be gathered. In Georgia, about eighty pounds of upland cotton can be gathered by a single hand in a day; but in Alabama and Mississippi, where the plant thrives better, two hundred pounds are frequently collected in the same time.
31. The seeds adhere closely to the cotton, when picked from the pods; but they are properly separated by machines called gins; of which there are two kinds,—the roller-gin, and the saw-gin. The essential parts of the former are two cylinders, which are placed nearly in contact with each other. By their revolving motion, the cotton is drawn between them, while the size of the seeds prevents their passage. This machine, being of small size, is worked by hand.
32. The saw-gin is much larger, and is moved by animal, steam, or water power. It consists of a receiver, having one side covered with strong wires, placed in a parallel direction about an eighth of an inch apart, and a number of circular saws, which revolve on a common axis. The saws pass between these wires, and entangle in their teeth the cotton, which is thereby drawn through the grating, while the seeds, from their size, are forced to remain on the other side.
33. Before the invention of the saw-gin, the seeds were separated from the upland cottons by hand,—a method so extremely tedious, that their cultivation was attended with but little profit to the planter. This machine was invented in Georgia by Eli Whitney, of Massachusetts. It was undertaken at the request of several planters of the former state, and was there put in operation in 1792.
34. In the preceding year, the whole crop of cotton in the United States was only sixty-four bales; but, in 1834, it amounted to 1,000,617. The vast increase in the production of this article has arisen, in part, from the increased demand for it in Europe, and in the Northern states, but, chiefly, from the use of the invaluable machine just mentioned.
35. Sugar-cane was cultivated by the Chinese, at a very early period, probably two thousand years before it was known in Europe; but sugar, in a candied form, was used in small quantities by the Greeks and Romans in the days of their prosperity. It was probably brought from Bengal, Siam, or some of the East India Islands, as it is supposed, that it grew nowhere else at that time.
36. In the thirteenth century, soon after the merchants of the West began to traffic in Indian articles of commerce, the plant was introduced into Arabia Felix, and thence into Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, and Morocco. The Spaniards obtained it from the Moors, and, in the fifteenth century, introduced it into the Canary Islands. It was brought to America, and to the West India Islands, by the Spaniards and Portuguese. It is now cultivated in the United States, below the thirty-first degree of latitude, and in the warm parts of the globe generally.
37. Previous to the year 1466, sugar was known in England chiefly, as a medicine; and, although the sugar-cane was cultivated, at that time, in several places on the Mediterranean, it was not more extensively used on the continent. Now, in extent of cultivation, it ranks next to wheat and rice, and first in maritime commerce.
38. The cultivators of sugar-cane propagate the plant by means of cuttings from the lower end of the stalks, which are planted in the spring or autumn, in drills, or in furrows. The new plants spring from the joints of the cuttings, and are fit to be gathered for use in eight, ten, twelve, or fourteen months. While growing, sugar-cane is managed much like Indian corn.
39. When ripe, the cane is cut and brought to the sugar-mill, where the juice is expressed between iron or stone cylinders, moved by steam, water, or animal power. The juice thus obtained is evaporated in large boilers to a syrup, which is afterwards removed to coolers, where it is agitated with wooden instruments called stirrers. To accelerate its cooling, it is next poured into casks, and, when yet warm, is conveyed to barrels, placed in an upright position over a cistern, and pierced in the bottom in several places. The holes being partially stopped with canes, the part which still remains in the form of syrup, filters through them into the cistern beneath, while the rest is left in the form of sugar, in the state called muscovado.
40. This sugar is of a yellow colour, being yet in a crude, or raw state. It is further purified by various processes, such as redissolving it in water, and again boiling it with lime and bullocks' blood, or with animal charcoal, and passing the syrup through several canvas filters.
41. Loaf-sugar is manufactured by pouring the syrup, after it has been purified, and reduced to a certain thickness by evaporation, into unglazed earthen vessels of a conical shape. The cones have a hole at their apex, through which may filter the syrup which separates from the sugar above. Most of the sugar is imported in a raw or crude state, and is afterward refined in the cities in sugar-houses.
42. Molasses is far less free from extraneous substances than sugar, as it is nothing more than the drainings from the latter. Rum is distilled from inferior molasses, and other saccharine matter of the cane, which will answer for no other purpose.
43. Sugar is also manufactured from the sap of the sugar-maple, in considerable quantities, in the northern parts of the United States, and in the Canadas. The sap is obtained by cutting a notch, or boring a hole, in the tree, and applying a spout to conduct it to a receiver, which is either a rude trough, or a cheap vessel made by a cooper. This operation is performed late in the winter, or early in the spring, when the weather is freezing at night, and thawing in the day.
44. The liquid in which the saccharine matter is suspended, is evaporated by heat, as in the case of the juice of the cane. During the process of evaporation, slices of pork are kept in the kettle, to prevent the sap or syrup from boiling over.
45. When a sufficient quantity of syrup, of a certain thickness, has been obtained, it is passed through a strainer, and, having been again placed over the fire, it is clarified with eggs and milk, the scum, as it rises, being carefully removed with a skimmer. When sufficiently reduced, it is usually poured into tin pans, or basins, in which, as it cools, it consolidates into hard cakes of sugar.
46. Most of the lands in a state of nature, are covered with forest trees. This is especially the case in North America. When this division of our continent was first visited by Europeans, it was nearly one vast wilderness, throughout its entire extent; and even now, after a lapse of three centuries, a great portion of it remains in the same condition. The industrious settlers, however, are rapidly clearing away the natural encumbrances of the soil; and, before a similar period shall have passed away, we may expect, that civilized men will have occupied every portion of this vast territory, which may be worthy of cultivation.
47. The mode of clearing land, as it is termed, varies in different parts of the United States. In Pennsylvania, and in neighborhoods settled by people from that state, the large trees are deadened by girdling them, and the small ones, together with the underbrush, are felled and burned. This mode is very objectionable, for the reason, that the limbs on the standing trees, when they have become rotten, sometimes peril the lives of persons and animals underneath. It seems, however, that those who pursue this method, prefer risking life in this way to wearing it out in wielding the axe, and in rolling logs.
48. A very different plan is pursued by settlers from New-England. The underbrush is first cut down, and piled in heaps. The large trees are then felled, to serve as foundations for log-heaps; and the smaller ones are cut so as to fall as nearly parallel to these as practicable. The smaller trees, as well as the limbs of the larger ones, are cut into lengths of twelve or fifteen feet.
49. At a proper season of the year, when the brush has become dry enough, fire is applied, which consumes much of the small stuff. The logs are next hauled together with oxen or horses, and rolled into heaps with handspikes. The small stuff which has escaped the first burning, is thrown upon the heaps, and, fire being applied, the whole is consumed together.
50. In the Northern, Middle, and Western states, where a great proportion of the timber is beech, maple, and elm, great quantities of ashes are obtained in this mode of clearing land. From these ashes are extracted the pot and pearl ashes of commerce, which have been, and which still are, among the principal exports of the United States.
51. The usual process of making potash is as follows: the crude ashes are put into large tubs, or leeches, with a small quantity of salt and lime. The strength of this mixture is extracted by pouring upon it hot water, which passes through it into a reservoir. The water thus saturated is called black ley, which is evaporated in large kettles. The residuum is called black salts, which are converted into potash by applying to the kettle an intense heat.
52. The process of making pearlash is the same, until the ley has been reduced to black salts, except that no lime or salt is used. The salts are baked in large ovens, heated by a blazing fire, which proceeds from an arch below. Having been thus scorched, the salts are dissolved in hot water. The solution is allowed to be at rest, until all extraneous substances have settled to the bottom, when it is drawn off and evaporated as before. The residuum is called white salts. Another baking, like the former, completes the process.
53. Very few of the settlers have an ashery, as it is called, in which the whole process of making either pot or pearl ash is performed. They usually sell the black salts to the store-keepers in their neighborhood, who complete the process of the manufacture.
54. The trade in ashes is often profitable to the settlers; some of them even pay, in this way, the whole expense of clearing their land. Pot and pearl ashes are packed in strong barrels, and sent to the cities, where, previous to sale, they are inspected, and branded according to their quality.
