F A K M J-: II S ' REGISTER. 



[No. 11 



most cas?e8, nuneare executed well, and generally 

 all very iniperi'ectly. What would have been the 

 condition of the now adniirahle and profitable 

 cotton factories of Virginia, ilTevv of'lheir processes 

 were planned, and none executed correctly — if 

 none of the machinery was of the best kind, or 

 in good order, and none of the laborers had skill 

 in their departments'? Add to this supposition, 

 that the proprietors, constructors, superintendents 

 and operatives had never seen any better works, 

 and the supposed case is then precisely parallel 

 to agricultural operations in general, and espe- 

 cially to those of Virginia. Every one knows that 

 in the manufacturing business, it is essential to 

 profitable results, that every material element, of 

 general plan, of construction, and of all the daily 

 operations, should be of the besl kind knovvn ; 

 and no ()ersons would be so foolish and regardless 

 of their interest, as to attempt the business with- 

 out first buying, at any price, all tlie benefit of the 

 experience and acquired knowledge of others on 

 the subject, and endeavoring to employ agents and 

 operatives who should be as skilful as those of any 

 other fiictories. And without such precaution and 

 measures of security, every one would predict that 

 the business would soon come to ruin. Yet the 

 course which all would condemn in this case, as 

 absurd and hopeless, and which would not be 

 adopted by the most careless and improvident pro- 

 prietors, is precisely like the general, almost uni- 

 versal, condition of agricultural operations. How 

 can it be otherwise? The proprietor usually has 

 either wrong rules of action, or none — the super- 

 intendent, or immediate director, is seldom other- 

 wise than profoundly ignorant of the science, if 

 not also of the art of agriculture — the implements 

 are defective — and the laborers unskihiil in their 

 use. Yet, under all such defects, which would 

 speedily make any other business bankrupt, agri- 

 culture in Virginia, in general, is as safe and pro- 

 fitable an employment of capital and labor, as any 

 other ; which alone suffices to prove that it would 

 be very far more profitable and productive of 

 wealth, both to the undertakers and to the com- 

 monwealth, if it were possible to add to the pro- 

 ductive power all that is offered by knowledge, 

 and all the lights of the experience of the better 

 instructed. 



According to the wretchedly defective mode of 

 education in this country, even the sons of the best 

 farmers, and who may be designed to pursue their 

 fathers' business, are debarred from all knowledge 

 of it, until they commence, as proprietors, to bear 

 the customary losses of ignorance and inexperi- 

 ence. If the father is wealthy, the son is kept at 

 school and college until arrived at manhood ; and 

 (hen if he becomes a farmer, he is almost as igno- 

 rant of the business as if he had never seen k in 

 operation. Every one, rich or poor, alike com- 

 mences farmin<r as head of the establishment, 

 utterly ignorant ; and the far greater number re- 

 main through life, without being much more en- 

 lightened. The first losses, of course, fall on the 

 particular individuals who are so illy qualified as 

 Jarmers ; but their loss is also the loss of (he 

 whole community ; and indeed no other indivi- 

 dual, however little connected with agriculture, 

 can miss paying some share of so enormous and 

 permanent a drain from the wealth of the nation. 

 Having attempted to depict and expose the ex- 

 isting evil, we will now proceed to consider the 



different means for remedy; the means by which, 

 it is believed, the knowledge of agriculture would 

 be widely diliused and greatly augmented, and its 

 improvement and its profits be proportionately ad- 

 vanced. The instiiutions which are deemed the 

 besl to advance the great object in view would be 

 the following; which might be adopted altogether, 

 or but in part, according to the intention of the le- 

 gislature to operate either on a large or a small 

 scale. 



1. A state Board of Agriculture. 



2. County or district Agricultural Societies, to 

 be represented either in the Board of Agri- 

 culture, or in a general or State Agricultural 

 Society. 



3. A farm for experiments, which will also be a 

 school for practical instruction in agriculture, 

 in each of the four grand divisions of Vir- 

 ginia. 



4. Surveys and reports of the actual agricultu- 

 ral condition of the difierent districts of Vir- 

 ginia. 



5. A professorship of scientific agriculture, and 

 its kindred sciences. 



6. The estnblishment of cheap periodical or 

 other publications on agriculture, for jreneral 

 circulation; and cheap school books to supply 

 every pupil readinir English; and of which 

 the subjects should relate to agriculture, the 

 mechanic arts, or something useful and in- 

 structive in domestic economy, or the ordina- 

 ry business of the future lives of the pupils. 



7. The facilitating and encouragement of agri- 

 cultural apprenticeships, or practical and man- 

 ual instruction, on the fiirms and under the di- 

 rection of some of the most intelligent and 

 successftil cultivators. 



Let not the reader, even if a legislator, be 

 startled at the length of this list. It may be limit- 

 ed as closely as may be desired; and one measure 

 alone, and that the cheapest of all, may be car- 

 ried into useful operation, even if all the others be 

 postponed or rejected. But as we are not legisla- 

 tintr, but merely suggesting subjects for legislation, 

 each and all of the measures most likely to aid the 

 improvement of agriculture will be here consider- 

 ed, at more or less length, in proportion to their 

 supposed relative value and efficiency. 



Hoard of jlgriculture. 



The institution and proper working of a board 

 of agriculture would be the most simple, cheap, 

 and at the same time the most certainly ef- 

 ficacious, of all the means proposed in aid of agri- 

 cultural improvement. If operating alone, it 

 mi>iht produce results much less important than 

 other means; but it could not fail to do some good, 

 and could not possibly do any harm, beyond the 

 small annual cost of the institiition. 



The best manner of constituting (he board, or 

 of selecting the members, would depend upon 

 whether this measure stood alone, or in connexion 

 with agricultural societies. In the former case, 

 the appointment should be by (he execudve 

 branch of the government; in the latter case, it 

 miffht be well to give the societies, or their dele- 

 gates, the power of appointing some of (he mem- 

 bers of the board. In either case the number of 

 members need not exceed two or at most three, 

 from each of the (uur grand divisions of the sta(e, 

 or from eight to (welve members in all; and also, 



