THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 29 



Greeley by stage, on horseback and on foot, made his overland 

 journey to California. At the time of setting out the editor of the 

 Tribune had a better knowledge of the composition of soils and their 

 adaptation to the growth of this and that crop, than perhaps any 

 man of his day and generation. Profoundly believing the way 

 would be ultimately found to make the desert to blossom as the rose, 

 Mr. Greeley, before starting on his journey, during a most interest- 

 ing conversation on the subject of reclaiming desert lands, said to 

 us that he would not think of going were it not for an irrepressible 

 desire to see and determine for himself whether there existed, in 

 fact, an American desert. On his return, meeting our friend and 

 Mentor at Hornellsville by appointment, he said : 



" I want to see and talk with you, Cole, and tell you all about 

 what I have seen. Let me say to you now that Clark, Lewis and 

 Fremont were greater discoverers than Christopher Columbus. Col- 

 umbus found a new world, albeit his discovery was made at a time 

 when navigators of a half dozen nations were finding their way in- 

 to distant and unexplored seas and oceans, and he only followed in 

 the track of predecessors, though more adventurous as he was braver 

 and more intelligent and intuitive, than others of his clay and genera- 

 tion. But, my dear fellow, this new world that Columbus discover- 

 ed is about being rediscovered; and these Horatios all about us, 

 are to find out there are millions of things in heaven and earth they 

 have never dreamed of in their philosophies. The South is a great 

 country, cursed with madmen, fancying themselves statesmen and 

 sages, men who cannot be convinced that the fetters forged for 

 their slaves, and the chains about the bodies of their bondsmen are 

 not those of iron, but of flax and toe, which, at the touch of fire are 

 bound first or last to turn to ashes all, and the places knowing now 

 the oppressed and oppressor to know them no more forever. 



"I have made a long journey, and seen more, and learned more 



