476 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



The taverns and country stores are filled with 

 young men, apparently half educated, and alto- 

 gether unused to personal labor — not brought 

 up in a fondness for books, and with no means 

 at hand to indulge it, apparently' the genteel but 

 impoverished descendants of opulent and hon- 

 orable ancestors — men of high cultivation and 

 chivalrj', with whom tliese old States so abound- 

 ed before and at the time of the Revolution. 



A dlGerence in estimating the vahte of time 

 seems to constitute the great distinction between 

 Northern and Southern men. Here time seems 

 to press like a burden, and the question is, not 

 how it shall be turned to account, and how much 

 can be made out of it.bj- the most incessant and 

 sagacious exercise of all our faculties, but how 

 the burden shall be thrown off, or made to sit 

 lighter ? For that purpose recourse is had to 

 small gatherings in stores and taverns, and to 

 frivolous amusements. There they soon form 

 the habit of smoking and of drinking without at 

 first perceiving the destiny to which they lead, 

 until at last they are caught like \hcjly in the 

 spider's web ! Then, alas ! when too late, their 

 fate is revealed — their doom is sealed, and there 

 remains no possible means of escape. This is 

 the result of defective education. Be it your 

 duty, then, Mr. Editor, to inculcate upon every 

 farmer's son that notliing is more honorable than 

 labor, and nothing so precious as time. How 

 much more honorable would it be, to a young 

 man whose family has been reduced from afflu- 

 ence to poverty, to seize the handles of the plow 

 by daj-, and devote some hours at night to in- 

 creasing his store of knowledge than to be riding 

 about the countrj-, running away from himself 

 and from listlessness ! Talk of labor, either of 

 the body or the mind, as degrading or dishonor- 

 able ! Is it degrading to be able " to adorn the 

 earth and to bring its productive power into 

 action — to apply the material substances of the 

 earth to reasonable use, convenience and orna- 

 ment — to expand and improve the human mind 

 — to cultivate and strengthen the moral power ? 

 No product of the vineyard, the field, or the sea. 

 however aided by inventive art, will furnish a 

 welcome repast to one who sits in listless idle- 

 ness, on a downy cushion, from breakfast thue 

 till dinner. The day laborer who sits down to 

 his coarse meal, has a pleasure to which the 

 listless idler is a stranger." 



Virginia can never be regenerated tmtil these 

 principles are taught in ike schools. Educa- 

 tion must have a practical direction. Farmers 

 must force legislators to look less to party ob- 

 jects, and more to the bearing of the laws on the 

 formation of the character and the development 

 of the capacity of the rising generation, for prac- 

 tical purposes. Is it not self-evident that no idle 

 white population can prosper 1 To induce white 

 men to labor, you must cause labor to be es- 



teemed honorable. The public sentiment must 

 so pronounce it — that public sentiment is formed 

 by education. " As the twig is bent, the tree 's 

 inclined.' Moreover, though labor may be es- 

 teemed honorable, that is not all : to make it 

 profitable, you must give it iiUpllig'-nce. True, 

 the labor of the ox is profitable, but what would 

 it avail if man were not at the handles of the 

 plow ? But how much depends on the man's 

 mind, whether it be rude and boorish, or spirit- 

 ual and cultivated ? For an illustration of the 

 difference, see the difference between the 

 houses, the tools, implements of war, and the 

 means of conveyance used and enjoj-ed by the 

 savage and the civilized man. There is some- 

 thing of all this difference in the growth and ei- 

 ficiency observable between die people of dif- 

 ferent States. In Massachusetts, where the 

 whole mass of the population is educated, and 

 where not to labor usefully, and efficiently, and 

 steadily, is deemed dishonorable, the land which 

 here is worth S3 an acre, would be worth $100 

 an acre. Look at the progress of population, 

 and of actual power in the iJovernmeut as be- 

 tween Virginia and Pennsylvania ! In Virginia, 

 education and the circumstances under which 

 they are reared, (which may truly be said to 

 constitute one's education,) lead young men, 

 naturally and wthout any fault of their own, to 

 be ashamed of personal labor in the fields. In 

 Pennsylvania, a young man who does not labor 

 at something useful loses caste. Well, with these 

 opposite moral systems, these two common- 

 wealths start together in the great race of devel- 

 opment and growth, say in 1790 — Virginia v/ith 

 her broad territory, her fine climate, her water 

 power, her mines, her numerous and long naviga- 

 ble rivers, her fine scholars, her brilliant orators, 

 her ardent patriots, her gentlemen of truest chiv- 

 alrj% and ladies with their fine silk stockings and 

 charms that would melt the heart of stoicism 

 itself! — And where do we find these two States 

 at the expiration of half a century ? They begin 

 — Virginia with a population of 74?, .308, and 

 Pennsylvania with 434,373, and in 50 years they 

 end with, Virginia 1,'.239,797 and Pennsylvania 

 with 1,724,033 — where will they be in half a 

 century more, unless by some more enlightened 

 system of legislation, Virginia should do some- 

 thing to bring her immense resources into play? 

 These resources are not unknown to the peo- 

 ple of other States, but there is obviously some- 

 thing which resists the force of her natural at- 

 tractions. What is it ? A sign, however, has 

 arisen in the East: Xew-Jer.iey farmers, and 

 what is still better, Quaker farmers, are in- 

 quiring for lands in Virginia, in the neighbor- 

 hood of Petersburg, a place which possesses 

 great advantages in its water power and its vi- 

 cinity to the Chesapeake. The Agricultural 

 Society of Petersburg, animated by a few en- 



