s 3r ADDRESS t/ BENJAMIN HALLOWELL, (OF ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA,) AT THE MEETING OF THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, JMD., ROCKVILLE, MONTGOMERY CO., SEPTEMBER 9, 1852. PUBLISHED BY THE REQUEST OF THE SOCIF.TY. 5 WASHINGTON: PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 1852. v AGRI CULTURAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. At a meeting of the above Society at Rockville, on Thursday, September 9, 1852— On motion of A. Bowie Davis, Esq., it was unanimously Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be pre- sented to Benjamin Hallowell for the able, elo- quent, and instructive address which he has just delivered, and that he be requested to write it out for publication by the Society. Rockland, 9//i monih 13/fc, 1852. Esteemed Friends: I have endeavored to com- ply with the request you made to me personally, as well as the very flattering resolution of the So- ciety, to write out my address at Rockville on the 9th instant, which I herewith forward to you. It •will be found, I think, that I have embodied the substance of my remarks. Some things which I said may have escaped my recollection, and, in a few instances, the ideas may possibly be a little extended. I spoke from very brief notes, having the subject-matter only before me, and this being the first time I have ever undertaken to report my remarks, I have found it a much more difficult task to reembody my ideas in language than I had contemplated, and I have certainly been less suc- cessful than / thought I was under the inspiriting influences of the bright faces around me. I have done my best, however, in the very limited time I have had to devote to the subject; and if what I have done shall only prove satisfactory to you and to the other members of the Society, it is all I de- sire. Your sincere friend, BENJAMIN HALLOWELL. To Robert P. Dunlop, Francis P. Blair, A. Bowie Davis. ADDRESS. Worthy President, Members of the Agricultural Society of Montgomery county, Ladies and Gentlemen: Six years ago, at the first meeting of the citizens of the county on an occasion similar to the present, I had the honor to address you, and I have been led to contrast the present exhibition with the one we that day witnessed. The comparison is very favorable to the progress of agriculture in our county, and speaks well for the industry and en- terprise of its citizens. Upon the occurrence of the still deeply lamented death of the first president of the Society, (the late John P. C. Peter,) whose zeal and activity, connected with his practical ex- ample, did so much to arouse the dormant ener- gies, and induce a united effort to advance the agricultural interests of our county, among other causes of heartfelt grief for the loss we had sus- tained, all naturally felt an apprehension for the fate of this Society, but it continued to exist and to prosper — no doubt less than it would have done, but for this afflicting dispensation; but still it pros- pered. So, when one year ago, its late worthy president (A. Bowie Davis, Esq.) announced his determination to resign the office he had filled with so much credit to himself, and such great benefit to the Society, strong apprehensions were again felt, lest the interests of the Association would materially suffer. But what do we now see? Under the present efficient president, the Society gives evidence of greater prosperity than ever before; and I am led to infer, that its success is less due to the efforts of its presiding officer — useful and laudable as they may be — than to the growing energy and spirit, and increasing industry and zeal of the people — the masses — in this occupation of occupations — farming — the highest, the noblest that man can engage in. In order to obtain some notion of the high rank of farming among the business callings of men, let it be remembered that every animal on our globe, man included, is dependent for existence on the produce of the earth, either by feeding upon this Eroduce immediately, or upon those animals that ave been supported by it. Hence, as the fertility of the earth is increased by the farmer, and food rendered more abundant, animals multiply, and happiness is augmented, for "wherever there is life, there is enjoyment." The farmer thus comes, in measure, to cooperate with Deity in the diffu- sion of life and happiness around him, and he feels the noble dignity of his profession, and the felicity resulting from a conscious effort to perform a useful part in the sphere in which Providence has placed him. I have been to-day more impressed than ever before, with the advantages of such gatherings as the present. To see the venerable gentlemen near me,* who, in all probability, but for this Society, would have descended to their graves without having again the pleasure of beholding the smiles of each other's countenances, cordially shaking hands, with hearty congratulations for continued health and activity; and then the continual meet- ing of acquaintances who have not seen each other since our last year's gathering, and would not now have had that pleasure but for this Association, and the pleasant faces of old and young, indices of the joyous hearts within, and evidences that this is truly a jubilee to the citizens of Montgomery county, all this cannot fail to impress one deeply with feelings in favor of the source of so much manifest enjoyment. I have been , too, most highly delighted in witnessing the products of industry on exhibition, very especially with the contents of yonder tents, the ladies' department. The ladies, decidedly, carry off the palm to-day, and if a pre- mium is awarded for the comparative merits of sustaining this Association, the ladies are indis- putably entitled to it. What have the men been about? I have been unable to find any varieties of wheat, oats, grass, only one specimen of corn, and that from my own farm, very few hogs. Why have not more stock and farming utensils been brought? One gentleman of the county has, since last year, made a most ingenious and valua- ble improvement in an important agricultural im- plement, which, from all I have heard of its import- * Major Peter, G. W. P. Custis, and Roger Brooke were on the stand by the speaker. AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. ance, I wished to recommend to your attention: UOd on asking him where I should find it in the collectinn, lie said, " I really forgot to bring it." I am glad to say better things of the ladies. Their part is well performed. The specimens, and va- riety of specimens, too, of choicest bread, butter, preserves, such blankets, quilts, ottomans, &c, &C.| &C, ns are exhibited in those tents, it must delight every lover of his county to see. I have been reminded this morning by these interesting evidences of the ladies' industry, of a circumstance ; I have not thought of for a long time before. Some years ago I attended an agricultural exhibition for the State of New York, at Flushing, on Long Island. I was highly delighted to see such speci- mens of needle-work, both plain and ornamental, wearing apparel of different kinds, hats, bonnets, blankets, &c, &c, &c, as were on exhibition,, with the name of Miss one and Miss another on [ the cards attached, and remarked to thegentleman who was with me, " such young ladies as these are certainly worth having; how will we get some of them our way?" "Send your sons on," re- plied an elderly matron who heard me in the crowd. I am proud to-day to be able to feel, that | there is no occasion to take that advice — our sons might go further and do worse. There is a great individual advantage, too, from j these exhibitions, where we can compare our own Croducts with those of our neighbors. I remem- er well, when, one year ago, the person who so satisfactorily manages my farm, proposed to bring a favorite ram which I have to the Fair; I was much pleased with the proposition, having no doubt whatever, not only from my own observa- tion, but from the statements of others, that it was the best ram in the county, and that if there was a premium offered for such an animal, mine would certainly obtain it. Well, it was brought, and when I came to look it up in the collection, 1 found one belonging to my friend, Horatio Trun- dle, close by it, which, with all the natural preju- dice in favor of my own, I had to acknowledge was worth twice as much as mine. I was aston- ished ! I was mortified ! not only at my want of success, but at my want of knowledge. I had possessed a poor sheep, and did not know it, thought it a good one, found I did not know what a good sheep was, and probably never would have known, but for this agricultural exhibition. But it did not discourage me. I only resolved to try the harder to improve my stock. On one thing I determined, however, that is, not to bring a sheep to the exhibition again with the expecta- tion of its taking a premium, without previously making a visit to the fold of my friend Trundle. In nider to show that the cause of disappoint- ment was not so much the condition of my sheep as that of the one with which it was compared, I may mention, that during the fall I had the Eleasure of seeing a lot of sheep that were said to ave taken the premium at the " World's Pair" at London; they were subsequently purch by a young gentleman near Alexandria, (R. P. Dulany, Esq.,) ami brought over to this country. They were fine sheep, very fine, but no one was equal to the one of Trundle's just referred to, exhibited here last year. If we wish to have good stock, we must not only be careful in the selection of the breed, but we must raise good crops, that is, ice must be good farmers — treat the stock and the land liberally. In preparing for a crop, great care should be taken to have good and clean seed. Every farmer should save seed for himself. A little time spent in gath- ering from a field those stalks of corn that bear two or more large ears, and ripen early, or those heads of wheat that are long, well filled, and early matured, may be the means of adding much to the yield of the succeeding year. The grain that grows largest, and matures earliest, on any soil, is best adapted to that soil; hence, with a little trouble, in the manner just indicated, a farmer can obtain seed which is better adapted to his soil, than any he can obtain from abroad. In peas, cucumbers, &c, &c, the earliest sets should gen- erally be kept for seed, and not appropriated, as is too often the case, for an early dish for the table. By foregoing an early dish this year, you may have several as early the next, and every year after. Those sets of a vine, as cucumbers, cym- lings, and melons, should be left for seed, which ' grow on the main stem, not on the branches. So ■ of plants that bear seed on branched tops, as the parsnips, &c, that seed only should be planted that grows on the main stalk. Seed should be large of its kind, smooth, plump, and fully ripe. Before leaving the subject of the selection of seed, I may remark, that it is a question of in- terest, and one not yet fully decided, how smut is propagated. It is conceded that smut will not vegetate, but smutty seed wheat, even when the grains of smntare carefully separated, is very liable to produce a smutty crop. 1 would offer this sug- gestion: Smut seems to be the result of a defectivt vital power in the plant, in consequence of which ! an unhealthy or abnormal secretion takes place in those stalks, producing the form of a grain, but ; not possessed of nutrition or vitality. Now, while the deficiency of vital power in some stalks may i be so great as thus to produce a growth entirely destitute of a power to vegetate, may it not vary in degree, and in other stalks produce grains with a vital power so weak, that although they will vegetate and produce a stalk, they will not possess the vital power necessary to mature the grain, and will hence form smut? From the best judg- ment my observation has thus far enabled me to form, smut is the result of deficient vital power in the seed, which will, of course, be rendered more perceptible when the same lot of seed is sown, in , proportion as circumstances are less favorable to the growth of the crop: and thus it is impolitic to sow even apparently sound grains of a crop of wheat among which there has been much smut. A seed, however be its form, essentially consists of cotyledon and heartlet, or germ, and is prin- cipally composed of starch and gluten. When placed in circumstances favorable to germination, as in warm, moist earth, it passes from a farina- ceous to a saccharine state; the starch, which is insoluble, is, by a most interesting and mysterious natural process, converted into a kind of BUgU which is soluble, and adapted to the support of the embryo plant. The larger and riper the grain, the greater will be the amount of stanh it contains, the more saccharin- matter it will afford the young plant, and consequently the more vigorous will be its growth. Hence arises the stronger growth of the Mediterranean wheat, and the propriety of removing the small grains from the ear of seed corn, — and the advantage that would arise, were B. HALLOWELL'S ADDRESS. the practice general, of separating, by a sieve, the small grains, which are nearly as valuable as the large ones for bread, from seed wheat. Wipe grain, also, contains more starch than that cut earlier, and is hence better for seed. Wheat cut just as the grain is passing from the milky state, affords more gluten, the nutritive principle of wheat, and makes a better and whiter, though perhaps, to dyspeptics at least, a less icholesome bread. Now, it is interesting to examine a little into the process which we call growth. Microscopic ob- servation proves, that every germ is a single cell, \ of inconceivably small dimensions, endowed with that inscrutable power, denominated the Vital Principle. In the process of germination, a fluid matter, prepared in this cell by the agency of the vital principle, oozes through its sides, and forms another cell. Each additional cell performs a cor- responding part in the wonderful process, and thus, from these multiplied, diminutive, and singly imperceptible cells, the plant is developed in ac- cordance with the type of the species. In all this operation, that which nourishes the plant must be fluid, in order to admit of movement. Hence the necessity that the grain be placed in the ground at the proper depth. If not of sufficient depth, the heat of the sun will evaporate the watery part, and thus remove fluidity, and stop the circulation. To prevent this, is the object of covering corn and other grains. In a very wet time, they will grow and take root well, without any covering. On the other hand, if the grain is loo deep in the ground, it does not receive the requisite amount of solar heat and air for healthy germination, or to sustain vigorous subsequent growth, and the crown — that is the part which forms the junction between the plumule and radicle — is too deeply immersed. One advantage of the drill over other methods of putting in wheat is, that it affords a means of putting all the seed in at a proper depth. If a field of broadcast wheat be examined near harvest, a great number of half-grown stalks will generally be seen, which result from the seed being put in either loo deep or not deep enough. In drilled wheat the number of these short stalks is much smaller. The plumule and radicle, when developed, as just explained, immediately go in search of food for the growth of the young plant: the former into the air to abstract, by its leaves, from that element, carbonic acid, moisture, ammonia, and, perhaps, other volatile substances; the latter into the earth to take up, by the spongioles at the ex- tremities of the roots, not only the soluble prod- ucts of decomposed organic, matter, but also min- eral ingredients essential to the plant, as potash, lime, iron, silica, &c, all of which must be in a state of solution. Hence, we see that Nature works with two hands to supply the plant. If one is removed, the other must work the harder, and the plant, even then, will not be so well served. If the leaves are removed as soon as developed, as in pasturing close, the plant will not only thrive less, but the roots will draw harder on the soil, and the land be more rapidly impoverished. Pas- turing is very injurious to young clover, and par- ticularly to a young set, as in wheat stubble, and should, if possible, be always avoided. When the leaves are removed, new ones are developed at the expense of the root; the roots consequently become less extended, and enfeebled, and less able to endure the winter. In connection with the leaves, we are able to discern that double purpose so frequently manifest upon examining the works of Nature, viz: utility and beauty. Who has not admired the beautiful foliage of the forest and shade-trees, and felt how much the leaves, by their poetic motion, shade, and sofrening reflection of the illuminating ray, increased the comfort of rural existence? But to reflect that, at the same time, beautiful as they are, they are as useful as they are beautiful, can scarcely fail to add to the pleasure with which we contemplate them. Plants and trees take up their food at the ex- tremities of their roots alone. Hence, in manuring a tree, it is useless to place the manure near the body of the tree; it should be placed over the ex- tremities of the roots, the position of which can be nearly determined by the extremities of the overhanging branches, there being that wise and beneficent correspondence in the proportions of a tree, which enables the branches to intercept the falling- shower and conduct it down over the ex- tremities of the roots, where alone it can be ser- viceable in aiding nutrition. Those who wish to water trees or plants success- fully, must take a lesson from nature in this re- spect. The distance to which roots extend, even in grasses and plants, is much greater than is gener- ally supposed. My friend, Dr. Noble, of Phila- delphia, and Judge Longstreth, of Pennsylvania, measured a clover root, which was over six feet in entire length, and descended fifty inches below the surface of the ground. John S. Skinner, whose name can never be pronounced by any one inter- ested in agriculture, without feelings of grateful remembrance for his early, zealous, and long-con- tinued labors in the cause, mentioned, in one of the Reports of the Patent Office, that he and two of his friends measured the lengths of the different roots of one hill of corn, and found the whole lengths taken together to be over eight thousand feet, or more than a mile and a half. When we reflect that these roots are all formed by the con- tinued addition of those diminutive cells before alluded to, and grow in the short space of little over three months, we are made acquainted with some of the wonderful operations of nature par- ticularly exposed to the farmer, and see the neces- sity of deep plowing, and a large supply of food in the soil for a large crop of corn. I will here mention a fact stated by Dr. Lee in the Patent Office Report for 1850- '51: In Kentucky, in 1850, on nine fields of 10 acres each, making 90 acres, were raised 10,960 bushels of corn, being an aver- age of 121 bushels per acre. On two fields the average was 189 bushels per acre. Compare this with the yields of our best fields, and remember that this great produce results, not from climate, but soil and culture. Our soils must, be made richer, and worked better and deeper, and there is nothing to prevent them from yielding as much. I was highly pleased with the remark of an intelligent Maryland gentleman some years ago, to one who was lamenting; over the magnitude of the State debt. "Why, "says he " there is wealth enough in the two inches below seven of the soil, to pay it all." This is a great truth, and if only practi- cally believed by us, what advantages we would derive from it. Plants, in their growth, absorb from the atmos- G AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. phere carbonic acid, which they decompose, em- ploying the carbon in their solid structure, and tng pure oxygen to the air. Animals which are supported by these vegetables, reabsorb this .and re! urn it to (lie air from the lungs in the form of carbonic acid. The atmosphere then im- parts food to the vegetable, and receives the dead Or waste matter of the animal, or, in the expres- sive language of Professor Draper, " the atmos- phere is at once the grave of animal , and the cradle of vegetable existence." This wonderful round of mutations is beauti- fully pictured by the poet: " See dying vegetables life sustain, See lite dissolving vegetate ajjain ; All forms that perish, othei forma supply, By turns we catch tlit vital spark and die."— Pope. | On the formation of this carbonic acid in the j lungs depends, in a great measure, the warmth of the animal system. The first effort of nature is to maintain vitality. Hence, in cold weather, the J first employment of the food is to preserve the ! necessary temperature of the system by convert- j ing the carbon into carbonic acid, thus liberating the latent caloric to warm the body. When the | body is kept warm by artificial means much of the { carbon so employed is converted into fat. Hence the importance of housing cattle. All know how greatly unprotected milch cows "fall off" in a cold spell of weather — the materials which should form milk being employed in the animal economy to preserve the necessary temperature; and it is equally, though not so perceptibly, a loss to stock cattle and working horses. Have a shelter, then, for all your cattle in winter; if of nothing else, one of pine bushes will well repay in the improved condition of the stock in the spring all the trouble of constructing it. Hence humanity is economy, and contributes to our temporal interest, as does the practice of every other virtue. Again, pigs should be allowed to resort to a wet place in hot weather to keep them cool, else they lose in per- spiration a great amount of what would otherwise be converted into fat. The food of all animals consists principally of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. The first three alone constitute fat, sugar, starch, and resin, and vegetable and animal products generally, while nitrogen is essential to the formation of all cellular and muscular structure. Hence, food that contains little or no nitrogen will form fat and warm the system but will not strengthen the muscles, nitro- gen being necessary for this purpose. Grains used for food differ greatly in the amount of nitro- gen they contain in proportion to their weight. Corn, for instance, contains less nitrogen than oats. Hence corn will fatten a horse faster than the same weight of oats, but the latter, by nour- ishing his muscles, will give him much more strength. The varieties of coin differ in this respect. The more flinty and oily produce more fat and are more heating and are better for fatting an animal or feeding to milch cows to produce butter, while other varieties support the system belter under labor. Butter which contains no nitrogen but is composed entirely of carbon, hydrogen, and oxy- gen, while it produces warmth and fat, gives little or DO support to the muscles, and is much less nutritious than the same weight of cheese. Ani- mal fibre cannot be formed of butter or lard. This appears to be instinctively known to insects, which deposit their ova on substances adapted to the sup- port of their larva. We find worms in cheese, in buttermilk, in bacon, in apples, and in various other kinds of fruit, but never in butter, or lard, or tallow, because they contain no nitrogen, a ma- terial essential to the formation of all animal tissue. An apple or a potato gives more nourishment to the muscles, and is better to work on than butter. We find insects also guided by instinct in deposit- ing their ova on trees. The common pines which contain comparatively little nitrogen are seldom injured by insects — locusts, whatever other trees they may injure, never injure the pine. With the exception of a single species of fly — called the wood-fly — it is not known that any insect deposits its ova upon it. Trees are composed of root, trunk , and branches. The trunk of wood and bark. The wood is com- posed of alburnum or soft wood, lignin or heart- wood, and the medullar or pith. The bark is composed of the liber or inner coat, the corticle, and the epidermis. The sap, holding in solution the materials necessary for the growth of the vari- ous parts of the tree, rises to the leaves, where it parts with a portion of the water, which served as a vehicle for its conveyance, and becomes organ- ized, or converted into what is denominated the true sap. In effecting this organization, the cells of the leaf seem to act the part of a galvanic bat- tery, excited to activity by the solar ray, which is essential to its efficient action. And here let me remark, that solar tight is indispensable to vigorous animal or vegetable growth. Don 't be afraid of sunshine. They who shut out the sunshine, ex- clude their best friend. Sunlight and fresh air are the true promoters of health. Children raised , in cities, for want of sufficient light and exercise in the open air, as also good country food, seldom attain full size, so that it is very rare, indeed, to find a full grown person in large cities, unless he or his parents have been raised in the country or spent much time there. The race seems to deterio- rate in crowded cities, both in size and longevity* , especially among those who live with little bodily labor; so much so, that it is with me quite a matter of doubt whether, if the large cities were not con- tinually replenished from the country, and those in the upper ranks were not constantly giving place in business to the descendants of the laboring part of the population, they would not become ultimately depopulated ? I have been much pleased : with the accounts we have of the amount of r.i