1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



763 



miiiht be safely left to its own support. There 

 might, however, be dillicullies in adopting mea- 

 sures lor such a scheme : and there is an obvious 

 ditliculty in discussing them in this place. This 

 branch of the subject will iherelbre be disn\issed 

 from further notice. 



Uut there is another mode by which the state 

 might well and easily interpose, by spreading 

 abroad agricultural and other useful publications, 

 <o great extent, and with the most sure operation, 

 anil yet save money to the treasury, or to the fund 

 for education, by the measure, instead of paying 

 more lor the benefit so derived. 



For a long time there has been paid from the 

 Literary Fund, for the expense of tuition in the 

 primary schools, ^45,000 annually. More re- 

 cently, the annual appropriation lor this object has 

 been raised to §70,000, which sum is pledged to 

 be continued. The school commissioners are li- 

 mited to an expenditure of five per cent, of the 

 whole appropriation, lor the purchase of books lor 

 the pupils, which is S3500 a year; and, from that 

 limitation having been found necessary, it is fair 

 to presume that the whole of the five percent, has 

 been, and will be, generally so expended. Now 

 the books bought lor this purpose are, of neces- 

 sity, of the same kinds of northern publications 

 which are used to supply all the other schools of 

 Virginia — proceedinij from the ft'rtile sources 

 vviiich every year send forth new editions, (or at 

 least new title pages so marked.) and lor which 

 perpetual ciianges, as well as lor the distinct 

 woiks, every parent is taxed so heavily and inres- 

 sanily durinji the time of the tuition of each of his 

 children. These hooks must also be houyht by 

 the school comn)i-si(>ners at retail prices; and 

 these prices, as will be afterwards shown, are at 

 the least four times as high as the like or better 

 selected works could be printed and sold lor in 

 Virginia. This last assertion, will, at first, appear 

 incredible ; nevertheless, its truth shall be clearly 

 established. 



Of the .§3500 of the Literary Fund thus ex- 

 pended annually, one half may be sup[>osed to he 

 for books desijined for pupils to learn to read. 

 For this, the main object in view, they serve as 

 well as any would. But the subject matter con- 

 tained is generally useless, and in some cases 

 hurtliil; lor this is one of the channels throu<rh 

 which northern abolitionists have distributed their 

 false doctrines, and endeavored to impress them 

 upon the tender feelings and weak minds of young 

 children. But put aside this ground of objection, 

 and let it be supposed that no more evil than good 

 matter of instruction is conveyed by these books, 

 and that, in these respects, the opposite sides of the 

 account stand balanced ; still, their only gooa 

 purpose, thai of enablincr the pupil to learn to 

 read, could as well be effected throu2:h other books 

 which would also convey useful information, and 

 instruction. For example, suppose that all the 

 reading books used for the younger pupils in the 

 primary schools, were on subjects of practical ag- 

 riculture, the mechanic arts, and things useful in 

 domestic economy. The subjects read and stu- 

 died in books during childhood and youth make 

 the most lasting impressions; and while the boy 

 was learning to read as well as by any other 

 means, he would also be storing up information 

 which would be of value to him throughout his 

 future life and labors, and which might otherwise 



never come within his reach. But this would noj 

 be all. The attendance and devotion (o study o,' 

 the pupils who are sent to schools at the expense o.- 

 the slate are, unfortunately, very slight, and the 

 services very irregular and short. Their books 

 cease to be school-books as soon as the owner 

 leaves school; and this probably happens in every 

 case on the average, after one year's tuition. At 

 present, Ihe books are then useless; but in the sup- 

 posed case, they would continue to be useful, in 

 vvhosever hands they might fall. Even when 

 carried home by a diligent and continuing pupil, 

 the contents might attract the curiosity, and serve 

 to instruct the father, as well as the son. In this 

 manner, the waste and loss of the books so fur- 

 nished by the state, (and such waste and loss must 

 always be great under the very bad existing school 

 system,) would conduce much more to the general 

 good, than the direct and designed uses, as mere 

 school books, have ever done. If onl}' half of the 

 appropriation, orS1750,wereexpended in the kinds 

 of books recommended, small as that amount is, 

 it would be as the distribution of widely but regu- 

 larly dispersed seed, which would produce a future 

 growth of knowledge, (which is both power and 

 wealth,) exceeding in value a thousand Ibid, all 

 the cost of the sowing. Even the amount of agri- 

 cultural reading which this small annual expendi- 

 ture would pay for, when .'lilly used and well stu- 

 died, (which this mode of distribution would in- 

 sure,) could not fail to cause a great increase in 

 the spreading of agricultural knowledge. But 

 this gain will be the more highly appreciated, 

 when it is corisitlered that the whole of this new 

 supply of instruciion, would be furnished to a class 

 of cultivators who otherwise would read nothing 

 on the subject. In this manner, to create and 

 diffuse a new desire for such reading would be an- 

 other important operation of the plan ; lor when 

 an interest was once felt, and an appetite for infor- 

 mation excited in such readers, they would, at their 

 own cost, continue to seek and to profit by the in- 

 siruction which is to be gained from similar 

 sources, and at so cheap a rate. 



So much for the worth of the results of this 

 humble plan ; now for its exjjense and its econo- 

 my, considered merely in a pecuniary point of 

 view. 



Because books printed in the northern states, 

 especially school-books, almost exclusively supply 

 the demand of Virginia, and because the lew 

 books which are printed in this slate are usually 

 higher priced, and yet yield but little (if any) 

 profit to the publisher, it is therefore, and general- 

 ly inlerred and admitted that books cannot be here 

 printed and furnished with lair profits, as cheaply 

 as is now done by northern publishers. ' This is 

 very far from being true. The only rea.so'n vvhy 

 books are not printed in Virginia, at lower prices 

 than those of the like kinds sent here from the 

 north, is because there is not sufficionl sale to pay 

 for the enteiprise, whether at the lowest or the 

 highest prices. The principal publishing book- 

 sellers of the north pos.sess a virtual monopoly of 

 all the southern market — a monopoly, which, 

 though created by circumstances, and not by law, 

 is much more operative, and will be more difficult 

 to break down, than any made by legal enact- 

 ments and designed governmental policy. The 

 manner in which this monopoly is fixed and ope- 

 rates upon the consumers, has been already treat- 



