154 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



American soil;" for such is the object and aim of the 



"American Society of Agriculture," — "as I understand 



•i. >> * * * * 



An oasis in a desert! Not with greater pleasure did 

 ever weary traveler over burning sands, meet with an 

 oasis, a bright, green, shady spot, abounding in cool 

 springs, than I met with the letter of that good old Vir- 

 ginian, in your last number, just as I had written thus 

 far. His invocation shall not be entirely in vain — I will 

 "once more sound my trumpet," and before the echoes die 

 away, I will sound it again and again, until its blast 

 shall wake up "all the true lovers of American Hus- 

 bandry, to a cordial cooperation in the promotion of a 

 project, which I verily believe, if once achieved, would 

 become more and more popular with the American peo- 

 ple, in all time to come." 



How true it is, my worthy friends, that "the bonds of 

 that cordial brotherhood which should forever unite us, 

 would be strengthened, by annually bringing together the 

 distant members of our great agricultural family." How 

 much they have already been strengthened through the 

 columns of agricultural papers. How does my heart 

 yearn to take that good man by the hand whose letter 

 I have just been reading, and am now commenting upon. 

 There is no kinsman among my numerous clan, whom I 

 would sooner meet, or from whom I should expect a 

 warmer welcome, than from such a man, as his writings 

 indicate James M. Garnett to be. 1 If the perusal of a 

 letter from a stranger produces such feelings, surely 

 "our bonds of brotherhood would be strengthened," by a 

 closer communion. This alone should be cause sufficient 



1 Garnett's letter of November 9, 1840, to which Robinson refers, 

 appeared in the Cultivator, 7:190 (December, 1840). James Mer- 

 cer Garnett was born on June 8, 1770, in Essex County, Virginia, 

 and died April 23, 1843. He was a member of Congress, an agri- 

 cultural writer, and a promoter of agricultural societies. He 

 served as first president of the National Agricultural Society, 1841. 

 He established a girls' school and was active in educational im- 

 provement. See Dictionary of American Biography, 7:156-57. 



