230 MONTHLY JOUR\AL OF AGRICULTURE. 



man, who may be cited as a model of his class of intelligent, upright, independ- 

 ent working farmers, a fact which he related Avith evident chagrin and regret, 

 to the disparagement of his township; and I confess I heard it with surprise, not 

 to say disgust — for the whole township of Saratoga, containing 652 voters, of 

 which one-half are farmers, only six practical farmers — recorded be their names ! 

 Chaj)man, AVilcox, Olney, two Caldwells and Holmes — can be found to con- 

 tribute as members of an Agricultural Society, to which the annual contribution 

 is but fj'ti/ cents a year ! 



It seems that the Slate divides $10,000 annually among all the counties — $120 

 being the maximum allowed to Saratoga County, and that only on the easy con- 

 dition that it raise among its 5,256 practical farmers the like sum of $120 — less 

 if it raise less — and to make up tJiis appalling sum (not three cents a head), only 

 six can be found in Saratoga township to join the Society, on payment oi fifty 

 cents ! " Tell it not in Gath! publish it not in the streets of Askelon !"* Is it, 

 sir, to be wondered at that a class of people so insensible, so dead to the advant- 

 ages of association of mind and means for the exchange of information, and co- 

 operation for the improvement and protection of their common interests and pro- 

 fessions, should see the landed interest made a stalking-horse, as it ever has been, 

 on which all others do ride? — that it should pay annually many millions for the 

 dissemination oi miUlnry knowledge, and for providing the art and the means of 

 manslaughter? — for the establishment of arsenals — the building of armed ships 

 and fortifications — the opening of military roads — the manufacture of guns and 

 all the implements and munitions of war and destruction ? — that it should pay 

 $400,000 a year for military men '■'■ icaituig orders,'''' while not a dollar can be 

 had to open a canal or remove a bar — no, not to make one link to fill up a gap 

 in a chain of 2,000 miles of railroad, for the transportation of agricultural produc- 

 tions, nor a single dollar for agricultural academies ? 



But why dwell on the fatuity of men who gtand thus in their own light — 

 doomed to be forever used and abused by the selfish and the cunning, as assuredly 

 the men will be who prefer base lucre to knowledge — who, instead of imploring 

 knowledge from the God of light, worship mammon as the heathen worshiped 

 the golden calf. It is only when Ave hearken to the injunctions of Solomon — 

 *' Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom," — that the day of re- 

 demption shall come for Agriculture, and the farmer shall cease to be, as he 

 has ever been — a "hewer of wood and drawer of water" for other classes of 

 society. 



Throughout this country it strikes me there is one defect in the'domestic man- 

 agement, about which public sentiment requires to be put right. Parents, with 

 the best feelings, are too grudging in the time which they allow to the education 

 of their sons ! True, it is the well-grounded boast of all New-England that ev- 

 ery mother's son can " read, write and cipher ;" and in this, merely, the educa- 

 tion of the masses too much and too often consists ; but this is by no means suf- 

 ficient to qualify the man, the would-be freeman of the country, to understand 

 what belongs to bis profession as a man, or to himself as a freeman. If reading 

 and writing only do not come " by nature," as Falstafl'says, they are not of them- 

 selves sufficient to a vigorous and' comprehensive understanding. In Gcoigia, 

 and other Southern States, you may find many men who cannot tell " B from 

 Bull's foot," and who yet possess a natural quickness of comprehension, a sort 

 of practical sagacity, sharpened 'ijy thought and experience, that qualifies them 

 to rough it, and go ahead in the world, in advance of him whose chief acquire- 

 ment and dependence has been to boast that he could " read, write and cipher.'''' 

 These simple ac(|uirements are usually made in a few month's schooling in dead 

 winter time, under instruction of men too often not well qualified, because, for one 

 reason, their occupation is not respected or remunerated as it ought to be. The 

 moment the frost rises out of the ground, even before the buds begin to swell un- 

 der the genial wacmth of the vernal sun, their sons are withdrawn from school, 

 to assist on the farm. Their books are consigned to dust and cobwebs; and the 

 lioe and the pU)W take their place, until grim-visaged Winter returns again to 



* The voluntary Mcicnnliln Association in Ncw-Yoili has provided for those who follow commerce for 

 a livelihood a librniy whii-li already numbers v.wnty-fonr tlwusand volumes .' How many volumes are owned 

 ■by any Agricultural Insiiiution, or Karmeri' Club, in America ( lEd. Farm. Lib. 



(170) 



