CHAPTER III.—AGRICULTURE.
OUR sketch of the agriculture of the United States must be brief and general; as the numerous subjects to be treated in the present volume do not allow space for very minute details. The vast extent of the country, and its various soil and climate, afford growth to a great variety of productions. As a science, agriculture was formerly much neglected, and it is only of late years that it has received any thing of the attention it deserves. ‘It is indeed a lamentable truth,’ says Mr. Watson, ‘that, for the most part, our knowledge and practice of agriculture, at the close of the revolutionary war, were in a state of demi-barbarism, with some solitary exceptions. The labors, I may say, of only three agricultural societies in America, at that epoch, conducted by ardent patriots, by philosophers, and gentlemen, in New York state, Philadelphia, and Boston, kept alive a spirit of inquiry, often resulting in useful and practical operations; and yet these measures did not reach the doors of practical farmers, to any visible extent. Nor was their plan of organization calculated to infuse a spirit of emulation, which county, or state, should excel in the honorable strife of competition in discoveries and improvements, in drawing from the soil the greatest quantum of net profits within a given space; at the same time, keeping the land in an improving condition, in reference to its native vigor. These results, and the renovation of lands exhausted by means of a barbarous course of husbandry, for nearly two centuries, are the cardinal points now in progression in our old settled countries, stimulated by the influence of agricultural societies. Nor did their measures produce any essential or extensive effects in the improvement of the breeds of domestic animals; much less in exciting to rival efforts the female portion of the community, in calling forth the active energies of our native resources in relation to household manufactures. The scene is now happily reversed in all directions. Perhaps there is no instance, in any age or country, where a whole nation has emerged, in so short a period, from such general depression, into such a rapid change in the several branches to which I have already alluded; in some instances, it has been like the work of magic.’
The early neglect of agriculture may be traced to very obvious causes. The first settlements in the country were made along the shores of the sea, or on the banks of navigable rivers. Population was thin and scattered, and the ocean with its tributary waters offered by far the easiest means of subsistence. The fisheries and navigation naturally attracted their active attention, and the cultivation of the earth was limited to the supply of the necessaries of life, and a scanty surplus to answer the humble demands of colonial commerce. The circumstances of the country, down to the very era of the revolutionary struggle, were such as tended unavoidably to reduce agriculture below its just consequence in the scale of useful employments, and to elevate all the arts connected with navigation above their proper estimation. Capital was drawn off from the pursuits of agricultureand devoted to the more lucrative pursuits of commerce. When to this is added the unceasing drain upon the agricultural population, by the prospects which the extent of the interior, and the cheapness of lands, opened to their enterprise, and the consequent effect upon the demand for labor, there is more cause of surprise that the actual state of cultivation is so good, than of reproach that it did not receive higher improvement. The increase of population in the United States, and the long-continued peace in Europe, by limiting the sphere and diminishing the profits of commercial speculation, have operated to withdraw capital from the sea, and invest it in agriculture and manufactures.
The farms of the eastern, northern, and middle states consist, generally, of from fifty to two hundred acres, seldom rising to more than three hundred, and generally falling short of two hundred acres. These farms are inclosed, and divided either by stone walls, or rail fences made of timber, hedges not being common. The building first erected on a new lot, or on a tract of land not yet cleared from its native growth of timber, is what is called a log-house. This is a hut or cabin, made of round, straight logs, about a foot in diameter, lying on each other, and notched in at the corners. The intervals between the logs are filled with slips of wood, and the crevices generally stopped with mortar made of clay. The fire-place commonly consists of rough stones, so placed as to form a hearth, on which wood may be burned. Sometimes these stones are made to assume the form of a chimney, and are carried up through the roof; and sometimes a hole in the roof is the only substitute for a chimney. The roof is made of rafters, forming an acute angle at the summit of the erection, and is covered with shingles, commonly split from pine trees, or with bark, peeled from the hemlock.
When the occupant or first settler of this new land finds himself in comfortable circumstances, he builds what is styled a frame house, composed of timber, held together by tenons, mortises and pins, and boarded, shingled and clapboarded on the outside, and often painted white, sometimes red. Houses of this kind generally contain a dining-room and kitchen, and three or four bed-rooms on the same floor. They are rarely destitute of good cellars, which the nature of the climate renders almost indispensable. The farm-buildings consist of a barn, proportioned to the size of the farm, with stalls for horses and cows on each side, and a threshing-floor in the middle, and the more wealthy farmers add a cellar under the barn, a part of which receives the manure from the stalls, and another part serves as a store-room for roots, &c. for feeding stock. What is called a corn-barn is likewise very common, which is built exclusively for storing the ears of Indian corn. The sleepers of this building are generally set up four or five feet from the ground, on smooth stone posts or pillars, which rats, mice, or other vermin cannot ascend.
With regard to the best manner of clearing forest land from its natural growth of timber, the following observations may be of use to a first settler. In those parts of the country where wood is of but little value, the trees are felled in one of the summer months, the earlier in the season the better, as the stumps will be less apt to sprout, and the trees will have a longer time to dry. The trees lie till the following spring, when such limbs as are not very near the ground should be cut off, that they may burn the better. Fire must be put to them in the driest part of the month of May, or, if thewhole of that month prove wet, it may be applied in the beginning of June. Only the bodies of the trees will remain after burning, and some of them will be burned into pieces. Those which require to be made shorter, are cut in pieces nearly of a length, drawn together by oxen, piled in close heaps, and burned, such trees and logs being reserved as may be needed for fencing the lot. The heating of the soil so destroys the green roots, and the ashes made by the burning are so beneficial as manure to the land, that it will produce a good crop of wheat or Indian corn, without ploughing, hoeing, or manuring. If new land lie in such a situation that its natural growth may turn to better account, whether for timber or fire-wood, it will be an unpardonable waste to burn the wood on the ground. But if the trees be taken off, the land must be ploughed after clearing, or it will not produce a crop of any kind.
The following remarks on this subject are extracted from some observations by Samuel Preston, of Stockport, Pennsylvania, a very observing cultivator. They were first published in the New England Farmer, issued at Boston, and may prove serviceable to settlers on uncleared lands. Previous to undertaking to clear land, Mr. Preston advises,—‘1st. Take a view of all large trees, and see which way they may be felled for the greatest number of small trees to be felled along-side or on them. After felling the large trees, only lop down their limbs; but all such as are felled near them should be cut in suitable lengths for two men to roll and pile about the large trees, by which means they may be nearly all burned up, without cutting into lengths, or the expense of a strong team, to draw them together. 2d. Fell all the other trees parallel, and cut them into suitable lengths, that they may be readily rolled together without a team, always cutting the largest trees first, that the smallest may be loose on the top, to feed the fires. 3d. On hill-sides, fell the timber in a level direction; then the logs will roll together; but if the trees are felled down hill, all the logs must be turned round before they can be rolled, and there will be stumps in the way. 4th. By following these directions, two men may readily heap and burn most of the timber, without requiring any team; and perhaps the brands and the remains of the log heaps may all be wanted to burn up the old, fallen trees. After proceeding as directed, the ground will be clear for a team and sled to draw the remains of the heaps where they may be wanted round the old logs. Never attempt either to chop or draw a large log, until the size and weight are reduced by fire. The more fire-heaps there are made on the clearing, the better, particularly about the old logs, where there is rotten wood.
‘The best time of the year to fell the timber, in a great measure, depends on the season’s being wet or dry. Most people prefer having it felled in the month of June, when the leaves are of full size. Then, by spreading the leaves and brush over the ground, (for they should not be heaped,) if there should be a very dry time the next May, fire may be turned through it, and will burn the leaves, limbs, and top of the ground, so that a very good crop of Indian corn and pumpkins may be raised among the logs by hoeing. After these crops come off, the land may be cleared and sowed late with rye and timothy grass, or with oats and timothy in the spring. If what is called a good burn cannot be had in May, keep the fire out until some very dry time in July or August; then clear off the land, and sow wheat or rye and timothy, harrowing several times, both before andafter sowing; for, after the fire has been over the ground, the sod of timothy should be introduced as soon as the other crops will admit, to prevent briers, alders, fire-cherries, &c. from springing up from such seeds as were not consumed by the fire.
‘The timothy should stand four or five years, either for mowing or pasture, until the small roots of the forest trees are rotten; then it may be ploughed; and the best mode which I have observed, is to plough it very shallow in the autumn; in the spring, cross-plough it deeper, harrow it well, and it will produce a first rate crop of Indian corn and potatoes, and, the next season, the largest and best crop of flax that I have ever seen, and be in order to cultivate with any kinds of grain, or to lay down again with grass. These directions are to be understood as applying to what are generally called beech lands, and the chopping may be done any time in the winter, when the snow is not too deep to cut low stumps, as the leaves are then on the ground.By leaving the brush spread abroad, I have known such winter choppings to burn as well in a dry time in August, as that which had been cut the summer before.’[69]