Page 28
History of Orange County
Town of Montgomery
Page 28
In our notice we must not omit to slate that our subject was a practical farmer, and in his neighborhood did all that he could to advance that interest by testing various agricultural theories. His lands were among the most beautiful in the county, and laid on both sides of the road leading to Goshen, between the village of Montgomery and the Walkill. This gentleman was an early friend of agriculture, arts and manufactures; for by looking into the old act, passed 1793, incorporating the Society instituted for the State of New York “for the promotion of agriculture, arts and manufactures,” he was one of the petitioners asking for the act of incorporation. Some of these gentlemen were Robert R. Livingston, Samuel L. Mitchell, Ezra L’Hommedieu, James G. Graham, Matthew Clarkson, George Clinton, Egbert Benson, Richard Varick, with several others from various parts of the State, and John Nicholson, Andrew King, John Barber, Joseph Barber, Johannes Miller and Wm. Thompson, from Orange County. This was the earliest attempt made in this State by individuals to promote the subjects above mentioned, and the beginning of those public acts subsequently passed by the legislature to cherish and more firmly promote the same great interests.
At one time he was carried away with the theory that all the food of plants was in the atmosphere, and the earth imparted nothing and that all that was necessary to ensure abundant crops was to stir up the land frequently and make it fine as possible, that the atmospheric gases could penetrate it. This was pretty well tested for several years, and until the increasing poverty of the land and its dwarfed products admonished that it was best to fall back upon the old custom of manuring; the atmosphere alone being too ethereal to produce and support heavy vegetation. On this point, however, he was not alone for he erred in good company, by following the lead of great and learned men, whose theories are in the books. Mr. Miller’s error was principally injurious to himself, for we do not recollect a farmer in his neighborhood who had any faith in the doctrine. L’Hommedieu, Livingston and Dr. Mitchell of this state were of this agricultural school, but the flood of light which has, within a few years past, been shed upon the nature and relations of organized and unorganized matter, the constitutions of animals, plants and soils, has exploded the aerial theory, and driven the farmer back to consult the condition and quality of his soil.
Mr. Miller was the last, president of the Agricultural Society of Orange formed in 1818, and addressed Gen. La Fayette in Newburgh in 1825 on the subject of agriculture in a short and pertinent speech. This was appropriate, as the General was known, both at home and abroad, as a practical farmer. We were present and witnessed the transactions of the evening, and while responding to the address, the eyes of the old patriot Frenchman fairly danced and laughed in his head, as he spoke of the honor done him on a subject ever near his heart, and to which he had devoted years of application.
In this country there is no better test of a man’s patriotism than that he bore arms to defend her during the war of the Revolution. This evidence we refer to and claim for Mr. Miller. When asked and advised to share in the late, but well-earned bounties of his country, for military services performed in the militia during the war, he refused, and would not apply for a pension, on the ground that he was young when the services were rendered, the dangers and hardships of which were now unfelt and forgotten—that they were of little service to the country, and that while as well off in the world as then, he could not consent at so late a day to receive a compensation for them. This was high-minded and honorable in a patriot citizen. The soldiers of that war have not been, nor cannot be paid, by the pittance doled out to them by the government. Services in which men have to abandon their families and homes, fritter away by piecemeal, and finally break down their constitutions, in which they peril their lives every day in various ways, cannot be adequately compensated for money. The great principle of gratitude and patriot benevolence, warm gushing from the heart, must come in to swell the amount and perfect the payment.
In this connection it is proper to remark that the venerable and aged widow and relict of Mr. Miller, by the persuasion of friends, is now in the receipt of her husband’s revolutionary services, as they are meted out to her by the country.