FARMERS' REGISTER— COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY. 



239 



tion tlian it will be during tlie ensuing course. Nor is 

 tliero any reason to anticipate a falling off from this 

 condition. THe main causes for the decline of William 

 and Mary, it is hoped, are at an end. Its interests will 

 no longer sutler from the neglect of a majority of its Vi- 

 sitors and Governors, nor from the discordant views 

 which have unhappily been'fentertained and acted upon 

 by the most zealous friends of the institution: and all 

 now concurring in sentiment and zeal to promote its 

 prosperity and restore its usefulness, we cannot but an- 

 ticipate results corresponding to such operating causes. 



A SUGGESTION THIS PINK TIMBER T5UG TO- 



. HACCO VLANT BEDS CROWS— SASSAFRAS, 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. • 



Granville, N. C. July 17, 1834. 



Enclosed you will find five dollars, iny subscrip- 

 tion for the current volume- of the Farmers' Re- 

 , /.„ 1 u i, • i * c r. u + gister. Accept w^ith it a iarmer's thanks lor the 



viously been filled by the appointment of Robert j ° 1^.^^,^^^,^^ already reaped from its puhUcation, and 

 Saunders, Esq. This is not an occasion to discuss the | j^jg v/armest wishes ibr its increased usefulness 



COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY. 



At the late meeting of the Visitors of William and 

 Mary College, the vacant Professorship of Law was 

 filled by the appointment' of Judge N. B Tucker. 

 Tlie l-d\v lectures will now be extended to the full 

 length of the general scientific course, which had been 

 prevented heretofore by the circumstance of the Law 

 Profes'Jorship being always held by an acting judge of 

 the General Court, whose other duties made it neces- 

 sary to reduce the time of delivenng~his lectures to 

 about five months. This limitation greatly impaired 

 the value- of that professorship — and the change offers 

 advantages to young men who wish to receive scientific 

 instruction in general, as well as to attend law lectures, 

 which the institution has never before offered, and 

 which it is believed are equal, considered in every as- 

 pect, to what are to be found any where else. 



The vacancy in the Mathematical Chair had pre- 



causes of these vacancies having been previously per- 

 mitted to remain, nor to trace the injurious effects of 

 this neglect of the Board of Visitors on the prosperity 

 of the College. It is enough here to say that the Col- 



and consequent favor Avith an intelligent public. 



By way of rendering my mite towards eflecting 

 these objects, I will offer the following suggestion, 

 which T think if adopted, will prove serviceable tt 



thing or scheme recommended. It is but too true 

 that very many things and plans are advocated 

 with a great degree of confidence and plausibility, 

 which, Avhen adopted, prove seriously huitiul io 

 the credulous and inexperienced farmer. Your 

 own character as an enlightened and successliil 

 agriculturist is known I presume to most, if not all 

 of your subscribers; and the adoption of this lue- 

 thod, which will add scarcely any thing to your 

 labor as an editor, will give us the advantage of 

 all the vaKiable experience j^ou have acquired. It 

 will enal)!e you to act without labor or trouble, as 

 the special guardian of each of your inexperienced 

 subscribers. I know no post or station in society 

 more honorable or useful than this.* 



lege is now fully and ably supplied with professors, that : ^^'^ry ^^^Y. of your subscribers. It is that you 

 ./^ „ , . , , -. . .... .should devise and ahix to communications Irom 



its funds are in good and improving condition — and i , „^.^.^,„,-,,i;„„, „. ,. 4u;^.,r. „- .,.,,, 



'^ ^ .* ! correspondents recommending an\ thing or anv 



that steps have been taken and are in progress, which , pj^„^ certain marlcs or symbols by which we may 



the friends of William and Mary hope will restore the | understand your own individual opinion of the 



institution to the high reputation which it has enjoyed, 



and deserved, and to the state of extended usefulness 



which it is capable of maintaining. 



Political Economy, (the statesman's science, of 



which he who is uninformed ought to be ashamed to 



aspire either to' legislate or to govern,) has long been 



an object of peculiar care at William and Mary> That 



Virginia has been the firm and resolute opposer of pro- 

 tecting duties, and monopoly in trade, and that we 



may now hope to be ultimately freed from -the fetters of 



the restrictive system, and from the ignorant prejudices 



which forged them, is in no small degree owing to the 



Hght that has unceasingly been shed by this school on 



those who afterwards formed a large proportion of the 



distinguished statesmen and legislators of our country. 



The want of proper instruction in this subject alone, 



has permitted so far the reign of those false doctrines 



of national economy, which during their continuance 

 have been a far heavier tax, than all the private and 

 public expenses of education in all our colleges. 



We consider our public institutions for the instruc- 

 tion of youth as among the first and most valuable of 

 internal improvements, and heartily rejoice at the suc- 

 cess of each and of all, without the slightest disposi- 

 tion to exalt any one, by the depression of another. 

 Especially do w'e rejoice in the present unprecedented 

 prosperity of our principal institution of learning, the 

 University of Virginia. But there are enough youths 

 in Virginia who want a liberal education, and whose 

 parents are able to pay the cost, to furnish students 

 for every college — and the low country alone (if 

 sectional lines must thus be drawn) is well able to sus- 

 tain William and Mary: and this institution was ne- 

 ver in a better stale to confer the benefits of educa- 



* The plan proposed by our correspondent, or any 

 other for the same object, would be found very objec- 

 tionable. In the first place he attaches far too much 

 value to the opinions and judgement of the editor as a 

 farmer — and even if this error did not exist, no editor 

 ought to be permitted thus to pass so hasty a sentence 

 on every piece which he published. Such decisions 

 would (even under the most favorable circumstances) 

 serve to check that freedom of discussion which an ag- 

 ricultural journal ought to maintain, and besides, would 

 be so often erroneous, as to impede, leather than ad- 

 vance the developement of sound doctrines and valua- 

 ble facts — and would soon bring the self-constituted 

 judge and his decisions into deserved contempt. 



The same view bears, though not to the same ex- 

 tent, on the republication of selected articles, the sound- 

 ness of the opinions and the truth of the statements of 

 which we have been considered by some of our read- 

 ers as endorsing, unless accompanied by some mark of 

 editorial dissent. We deny the correctness of this in- 



