The Middlebury galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1848-1850, 1848-07-25
MIR. MARSH'S ADDRESS,
Delirered before the Agricultural Society o.
Rutland County, September so, 1S47.
(Concluded.l

III W luC
ty of our domestic animals. We are probably
acquainted with all the quadrupeds hitherto
domesticated by man, and of these, it is GER
tain that few not already introduced into Eu-
ropean and American husbandry can be profit
ably added TO the numbers we already pos
sess. The powerful elephant requires the
warm temperature and abundant vegetable
food of the tropics; the buffalo possesses no
superiority over our common black cattle, and
we have no localities suited to the curiuos-
" peculiar structure of the camel, though it is
possible that animal might thrive on the sands
of the South or the great prairies Of the South
west, and there is strong reason to suppose,
that the alpaca may be naturallzed and reared
with profit in many parts OF Europe, as well as
the American Union. The origin of our do
nestle fowls and quadrupeds is involved in
the same obscurity as that of our cereal grams.
Some of them are not known to exist, or to have
ever existed, in a wild state, and we are at lib
erty, even apart from the evidence Of script
ure, to suppose that newborn man found him
self at his first awakening surrounded by the
grain of our fields, and the sheep of our pas
lures. The variety of tame fowls, on the 9TH
err hand, might in all probability be considera-
bly, increased, and the success which has at
tended the domestication Of the turkey, gives
encouragement for trying the same expert
ment with other gallinaceous birds. 1t is OBJ
vious, however, that the chief Improvements
in husbandry are to be expected from the con-
tinued application of natural science to the
resolution of yet undetermined problems III
vegetable physiology, and from the employ
ment of new agents as stimulants Of growth.
Among these, are various mineral substances
and chemical preparations, and not least, the
electric fluid, which is known to exercise a
powerful influence upon vegetation, though
under conditions too obscure to be yet well ap
preciated. In these researches, the man Of
science must precede the operative farmer,
and theories must be digested in the clos
ct, before they are reduced to practice in
the field. But in. the mean time, there is a.
bundant room for improvement in the use Of
means already known and familiar. l may
mention the better economy of manures, and
particularly, the saving, for this purpose, ofthe
various highly fertilizing substances, which are
produced in our common household operations;
the introduction of improved agricultural i'm
plements the drainage of tie soil, which not
only restores waste lands to agriculture, but is
an important means of securing the farmer a.
gainst the great enemy of his crops, the frosts
Of autumn and spring; the extirpation of this
ties and other weeds, and the destruction Of
noxious insects; the boring of artesian wells
for supplying our dry pastures; the use of
hedges on some soils, and even of iron in 9th
err localities, instead of our common costly and
perishable wooden fences, and especially the
substitution of the cheap mechanical power Of
water and of wind for manual labor.
1t little to the credit of our agrcuturists that
the greatest progress in these and other mod
ern improvements should have been made by
persons not bred to agricultural pursuits, and
It has often been said that mechanics, mer
chants and professional men make in the end
the best farmers. If there is any truth in this
opinion, it is probably because these persons,
commencing their new calling at q period OF
life when Judgment is mature, tied down by
habit to no blind routine of antiquated prac-
tice, and ridden by no nightmare of heredita-
nv prejudice in regard to particular modes OF
cultivation, are conscious ofthe necessity of
observation and reflection, in an occupation,
the successful pursuit of which requires so
much of both, and feel themselves st liberty to
select such processes as are commended by the
results of actual experience, or accord with the
known laws of vegetable physiology. Under
such circumstances, judicioHs man, encour-
aged by the stimulus of novelty, would be like
" to study the subject with earnestness, and
to profit by his own errors, as well as by the
experience of Others,
There are certain other improvements con-
nected with agriculture, to which desire to
draw your special attention. One Of these IS
the introduction of better economy IN the
management of our forest lands. The increas-
ing value of timber and fuel ought to teach US,
that trees are no longer what they were in our
fathers time, an incumbrance. We have I'M
doubtedly already larger proportion ofclear-
ed land in Vermont than would be required,
with proper culture. for the support of a much
greater population than we now possess, and
every additional acre both lessons our means
tor thorough husbandry, by disproportlonate-
" extending its area, and deprives succeeding
generations of what, though comparatively
worthless to us, would be of great value to
them. The functions of the forest, besides
supplying timber and fuel, are very various.
The conducting powers of trees render them
highly useful in restoring the disturbed aqul-
Ibrium of the electric fluid they are ofgreat
value in sheItering and protecting more ten
der vegetables against the destructive effects
of bleak orparching winds, and the annual de-
post of the folipge Of deciduous trees, and the
decomposition of their decaying trunks, form
an accumulation of vegetable mould, which
gives the greatest fertility to the often origi-
nally barren soils on which they grow, and en-
riches lower grounds by the wash from rams
and the melting SHOWS. The inconveniences
resulting from want of foresight in the econ
omy of the forest are already severely felt IN
many parts of New England, and even IN some
of the older towns in Vermont Steep hill
sides and rocky lodges are well suited to the
permanent growth of wood, but when in the
rage for improvement they are improvidently
stripped of this protection, the action of sun
and wind and rain soon deprives them Of their
thin coating of vegetable mould, and this, when
exhausted, cannot be restored by ordinary hus-
bandry They remain therefore barren and
unsightly blots, producing neither grain nor
grass, land yielding no crop but a harvest Of nox-
ious weeds, to infest, with their scattered seeds
the richer arabic grounds below. But tins is
by no means the only evil rsulting from the
iniudicious destruction Of :he woods. Forests