94 [Senate 



ages been his chief means of subsistence ; it still continues to furnish 

 employment to the great majority of the human race. It is truly the 

 great art of peace, as during wars and commotions it has languished 

 and declined, but risen again in strength and vigor when men have 

 lived at peace with each other — it has then flourished and spread, 

 converted the wilderness into life and beauty, and refreshed and 

 adorned nature with embellished culture. For its calm and tranquil 

 pleasures — for its peaceful and healthful labors — away from the fret- 

 ful and feverish life of crowded cities, — " in the free air and beneath 

 the bright sun of heaven," — many, who have spent the morning and 

 noon of their lives in the anxious cares of commercial life, have long 

 sighed as a scene of peace and quietude for the evening of their days. 



JEFFERSON COUNTY REPORT ON FARMS. 



The following remarks are from the report of E. Kirby, Esq., 

 chairman of the committee on farms, to the Jefferson county Agri- 

 cultural Society : 



If they have seen much to approve and admire, so, also, have they 

 seen much, far too much, of slovenly, wasteful husbandry, which lead- 

 eth not to wealth or comfort. They have seen fertile fields disfigur- 

 ed by hedge rows of briers and thistles and other noxious weeds. 

 They have seen the same thing, in many places, along the road sides, 

 in utter defiance of the law of the land, as well as of the common 

 law of self-preservation, for it is vain to expect exemption from dam- 

 age to our crops from these pests, if we allow their seed beds to 

 flourish in such close proximity to them. They have seen barn-yards 

 encumbered with masses of manure, wasting under the influence of 

 summer rains and summer heat, which should have been applied to 

 the spring crops, or summer fallows. They have seen at one place, 

 leached ashes in great quantity, applied to the novel purpose of road 

 making, the owner, from the appearance of the neighboring fields, 

 obviously in blissful ignorance that these same leached ashes are 

 charged with highly fertilizing properties, and that they have a me- 

 chanical as well as chemical action upon the soil most beneficial. 

 This want of appreciation of leached ashes as a fertilizer is much too 

 common, for the committee found numerous heaps of this valuable 

 manure on the sites of old asheries, which have lain for years without 

 being applied to the purposes of agriculture. They have seen poor 

 crops, poor cattle, bad plowing, fences in a condition to invite even 

 orderly cattle to trespass, and farm houses and barns in a state of di- 

 lapidation not creditable to Jefferson County farmers. 



These are some of the blemishes which it has pained the commit- 



