STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 45 



a small one." Thus it will bo seen that though in these modern days of 

 machinery, and our consequent ability to cultivate more land, our 

 farmers may take the hint, and whether they cultivate small or large 

 farms, be careful to cultivate them well, lest they risk their reputations 

 as good citizens, and live under the imputation of being dangerous to 

 the State. 



Among mauy of the great of modern times who have devoted them- 

 selves to farming, and whose names from their familiarity it is unneces- 

 sary to mention, in support of this branch of the subject, it would not 

 be well to pass that of him who was " first in peace " as in war. Few, 

 probably, ever possessed so keen a love for rural pursuits, and a more 

 unyielding pride in the profession of a farmer, than George Washington. 

 Alwaj'S an early riser, he was enabled to see that the day's work was 

 properly begun, and careful to exact the utmost accuracy and fidelity 

 from those he employed to manage his various farms. Before the war, 

 his name was known in London as the most reliable planter in Virginia, 

 and the produce of his plantation would command a better pi-ice than 

 those of any other in the Colonies. In the West India ports " the pro- 

 ducts of his estate also became so noted for the faithfulness as to quality 

 and quantity with which they were put up, that it is said any barrel of 

 flour that bore the brand of George Washington was exempted from the 

 customary inspection." 



In a letter to a friend, Washington relates in a few simple words his 

 experience of a farmer's life. " I think with you," he Bays, " that the 

 life of a husbandman of all others is the most delightful. It is honor- 

 able, it is amusing, and with judicious management it is profitable." 

 Such was the opinion, and we have seen what was the practice, of the 

 Father of his Country. If it be true, then, that the dignity of a calling 

 depends upon the character of those who pursue it, the status of an 

 agriculturalist has been fixed and ennobled from the remotest ages to 

 the present time. 



The history of ancient agriculture, imperfect as it is, shows that it 

 reached its culminating point as an art during the palmiest days of 

 Greek and Roman rule. With the darkness that enshrouded the world 

 upon the destruction of the Roman Empire, the farming interests of the 

 day partook of the general gloom ; and the impetus given to agricul- 

 ture by the intelligent cultivation that prevailed at the beginning of the 

 Christian era was mostly lost during the middle ages. For hundreds of 

 years the inhabitants of Europe were taught the science of war, to the 

 almost entire exclusion of the arts of peace. The raising of stock, 

 mostly, of an inferior kind, was about all the farming that was cazu'ied 

 on during these dark ages. 



In England, as late as the sixteenth century, the science of farming 

 was not understood ; as an art it was in its rudest state. But a small 

 variety of grains were cultivated, and even the names of some of the 

 simplest vegetables were unknown. The inhabitants, rich as well as 

 poor, lived mostly upon animal food, and that of the coarsest kind. At 

 an important feast it was customary to add poultry, game, and fish to 

 the usual variety of mutton, bacon, and beef. Vegetables are seldom 

 mentioned by the writers of those days, except as accompaniments to 

 their rarest entertainments. 



Of one of the wives of Henry VIII, it is related that she was obliged 

 to depend upon Holland for a supply of lettuce for her table, and the 

 King himself had never seen corn or potatoes, carrots, cabbages, or tur- 

 nips. In our time, these vegetables, esteemed in those days as luxuries 



