762 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 12 



dant profit for the capital invested, labor and risk. 

 It is very true that, if considered alone, and as a 

 mere publisher's speculation, and not in its bear- 

 ing on any other business or capital of the actual 

 proprietor, this publication has been throughout 

 productive of good profits upon its cost. And 

 much larger have these profits been than the ear- 

 ly expectations of the proprietor, or those of any 

 of his friends, when he first proposed, and when 

 he commenced the work. No one with whom he 

 consulted then expected any considerable profit to 

 be reaped, and nearly all predicted that loss would 

 be the almost sure result of the undertaking. 

 This is certain— that not another individual in Vir- 

 ginia would have incurred the actual and great 

 risk of failure, and pecuniary loss, by making such 

 an attempt. The incurring of such risk should 

 not be overlooked in the estimate of what profit is 

 justly due to the adventurer; but it is not denied 

 that the pecuniary returns from the publication, if 

 considered alone, have amply compensated both 

 the risk and the expenses. II' the public pay a 

 Bufficient price lor the publica'ion itself, the pub- 

 lisher has no right to count on more, upon any other 

 account. He has no claim on the public for loss- 

 es incurred thereby in other things. But these 

 losses are not the less important to himself; and 

 he will presume here to say, that if he had attend- 

 ed properly to his private affairs and previous em- 

 ployments, (which have been necessarily and 

 greatly neglected,) and had never commenced the 

 business of editor and publisher, he would have 

 made much more profit and with much less toil 

 and difficulty. He vvill never cease to prize high- 

 ly the honor of having been the editor of the 

 Farmers' Register — nor to value, beyond any 

 amountof private profit, ihe public services which 

 that work has been enabled by its supporters and 

 contributors to perlbrm. But so far as money is 

 the value in question, the conducting of the Farm- 

 ers' Register has not brought enough profit to pay 



Rev. Sidney Wei.ler, Halifax, N. C. 100 

 William J. Dupuy, Petersburg, Va. 30 

 Committee to manage the Fund. 

 Edmund Ruffin 

 John H. Cocke 

 Thomas H. Pleasants. 

 The fund, to the extent received, will be dis- 

 posed of, without much more delay; and therefore 

 those who may design to aid the object, are de- 

 sired to act speedily. All contributions must be 

 placed in charge of Edmund Ruffin, Petersburg^ 

 Virffinia. 



legislative aid to agriculture. 



No. 3. 

 ^Agricultural periodicals and school books. 



According to the test which was adopted in the 

 first of these numbers, which merges all the pro- 

 per governmental action for aid of agriculture, into 

 the providing and conveying of instruction, there 

 can be few better modes than the causing the 

 publication and general diffusion of cheap books 

 and papers an agriculture. It is not designed here 

 to argue in support of the value of reading, to all 

 practical cultivators — nor to defend what is con- 

 temptuously called " book-farming." The obser- 

 vations which will follow are offered on the sup- 

 position that the value of the knowledge of agri- 

 culture to be derived from books, and the improve- 

 ment to be achieved by the aid of the press, are 

 fully acknowledged by all. The question is merely 

 as to the cost at which such advantages may be 

 conferred; and in this respect of cheapness, this 

 mode of governmental action will bear compa- 

 rison with any other. 



Most of the agricultural reading furnished in 

 this country is by periodical majjazines and news- 

 papers ; and this is decidedly the most attractive 

 and cheapest, and altogether the bestmode for the 

 small proportion of the aj/ricuitural community 

 who have enough of the desire to be thus inform- 

 ed, to pay even so small a price for the benefit. 

 But, in Virginia and the south, this demand is so 



pursuits. 



for losses in other business thereby neglected, and | |j,nited, that probably not three individuals in a 

 the waste of other funds, caused by the necessary j hundred landholders, either enjoy or have learned 

 chano-e of residence aftd of habits, as well as of 1 to appreciate this advantage, 'in the northern 

 _^^_^^^ states, the more general demand has rendered 



printing much cheaper than in the south, and the 

 consequent greater cheapness of agricultural pa- 

 pers serves to induce a greater number to buy and 

 to read. But here, there exists not enough public 

 spirit to cause a large demand, and without such 

 demand, no periodical publication can be issued at 

 less than double the price which would be ample 

 under opposite circumstances. If the slate ffov- 

 ernment could beneficially aid in producing here 

 the desirable results of a very cheap and very abun- 

 dant supply and wide diffusion of such works, 

 there would be few more efficient means lor 

 spreading the knowledge and stimulating the im- 

 provement of agriculture. A mere insurance 

 against loss for a year or two, might be sufficient 

 to induce a publisher to issue a journal at the 

 lowest price : and when the larjje issue was once 



RECEIPTS FOR THE SMITH FUND. 



The subscriptions already made towards the 

 " Smith Fund," proposed at page 500 of this vo- 

 lume, amount to about .^1200. The editor will 

 acknowledge in the Farmers' Register in the fol- 

 lowing manner, the several sums as received, and 

 for which he will be accountable, until expended 

 under the direction of the committee. 



Subscribed and paid by 



Ed. Ruffin, Petersburg, Va. ^100 



Gen. John H. Cocke, Fluvanna, Va. 75 



Thomas S. Pleasants, Chesterfield, Va. 100 1 taken up by subscribers and readers, the measure 



