406 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



CAPIT.\L NEEDED FOR AGRICULTURAL LMPROYBIENT* 



HOW IS IT TO BE PROCURED '—FARMERS EXHORTED TO UNTDERSTAND 



AND DEFEND THEIR RIGHTS AGAINST THE ENCROACHMENTS 



OF PRIVILEGED CLASSES. 



Among the variety of Banks vdth titles in- 

 tended to delude ignorant and credalous, and 

 sometimes corrnpt representatives of the farm- 

 ing' interest, such as Farmers' and Merchants', 

 and Commercial and Farmers' and Farmers' 

 and Planners' Banks, all of which have quicklv 

 gUded into the hands of speculators on the la- 

 bors of the farmer ; would it not be well to have 

 a Bank that should pay bills drairn on U ex- 

 pressly for Um£ and planter and clover seed, and 

 the necessary implements and buildings ? How^ 

 much the ■wealth of some States would be en- 

 hanced if some such arrangement for the accom- 

 modation of Lndostrious men could be made, and 

 could it not as well as the thousand associations 

 which are formed for the promotion of industry 

 and the security of propertj'. in all the toicns ? 

 In the cities, men of every trade and pursuit as 

 instinctively associate and club together their 

 means and their wits, for the common safety 

 and benefit of their respective classes, as you 

 will see a ganir of wild hogs, at the sight of the 

 sportsman's dog, run together in the form of a 

 wedge, with the old boar making the point of 

 it, to resist every attack. 



In towns, every separate business is formed in- 

 to, and its interests looked after, by a distinct or- 

 ganization. Hence there are banking and other 

 companies and incorporations of mercers, gro- 

 cers, merchant-tailors, iron-mongers, dyers, brew- 

 ers, leather-sellers, bakers, tallow-chandlers, cur- 

 riers, masons, coopers, blacksmiths, pla.sterers, 

 stationers, upholsterers, musicians, basket-mak- 

 ers, glaziers, apothecaries, shipwrights, specta- 

 cle-makers, clock-makers, comb-makers, soap- 

 boilers, cartmen. porters, watermen, and the 

 Lord knows how many more. By means of 

 such associations, all necessary information is 

 readily procured- The peculiar statistics of 

 each trade, its grievances, its wants, its rights, 

 are all ascertained and understood, and the 

 means of defence and aggrandizement defined 

 and provided for. At the first snufi"of " oppres- 

 sion in the tainted breeze," sagacious lobby- 

 members are despatched to attend the Legi.sla- 

 ture, (composed nominally of the representatives 

 of the farming interest,) with the needful to pay 

 their expenses, both direct and incidental ! It 

 is thus that agriculturi.sts. who constitute tlie 

 bone and sinew of the land, scattered without 



j concert, credulous and inert, ever have been, 

 i and ever will be, preyed upon by trading poli- 

 ticians ever watching the popular tide, to know 

 what side they shall take — 



" So some rats, of amphibious nature. 

 Are either for the land or water." 

 Thus has the farmer's substance always be^i de- 

 voured by idle, unproductive classes of men, 

 \s-hose personal aggrandizement and sinister ac- 

 quisition of power and privileges, are usually se- 

 ctired at a proportionate sacrifice of the general 

 welfare. 



How else but by indolence and credulity on 

 one side, and the mcessant encroachments of 

 particular and banded classes, with all their af- 

 filiated influences, could it have happened in 

 this isolated republican coimtry, that the landed 

 interest pays so many millions for the educa- ^ 

 tion and support of favored, unproductive, i 

 though honorable and high-minded men, | 



"Whose trenchant blades. Toledo trusty, ( 



For want of fighting have grown rusty, ( 



And ate into themselves for lack 

 Of somebody to hew and hack'' — 



classes that v^'ant nothing but the name, to con- 

 stitute a nobility, for in practice it is well known 

 that warrants and life commissions have been 

 often demanded and granted on the ground of 

 hereditary claims. 



But hoping nothing from Government not 

 even the release of the sum entrusted to it by a 

 generous foreigner, Smithson, for the diffusion 

 of useful civil science, we again invoke 

 the generous feelings and ingenuity of our 

 readers, to devi.se and suggest some means for 

 affording capital to be directly employed in the 

 improvement of the vorn-ont lands of the old 

 States, in cases where security can be offered, 

 that it wll be .«o employed skillfully and bona 

 fide by land-holders, so many of whom want 

 nothing but a helping hand in the beginning, 

 to do all and more than skill and industry 

 can efi'ect with equal certainty in any other pur- 

 suit. But no system of short credits will an- 

 STA-er in his case, as in that of the merchant or 

 trader. The ship may make her voyage and 

 return with her cargo, the proceeds be realized 

 and the notes taken up, another cargo shipped 

 and return cargo sold, before the fanner begins 

 to realize the benefit of his pla.=ter or his lime. 

 But give him time, and that benefit is more 



