202 



THE FARMERS REGISTER. 



the various branches oC husbandry than would 

 probably arise without them ; not, however, for 

 the special benefit oflhe individuals who may en- 

 gage in it, but more effectually to promote and 

 improve the particular branch, wherein the com- 

 petition is produced. This should always be borne 

 in mind by the competitors, and they should al- 

 ways deem it highly dishonorable to become, 

 what an old menr,ber of our Fredericksburg Ag- 

 ricultural Society has most aptly called ''prize 

 fighters,''^ that is, men who compete (or those 

 premiums solely for the sake of the paltry gain, 

 and who almost always withdraw, it disappoint- 

 ed in their eordid objects. 11' they do not take this 

 step, which at once displays the baseness of their 

 motives, they may always be known by the gross 

 abuse which they never fail to utter agamst the 

 committees that have decided against them. 

 This is an evil to which all agricultural societies, 

 that give premiums are constantly exposed ; and 

 there is none from which they should labor more 

 to free themselves. But nothing, 1 believe, would 

 do it, unless perhaps it were made a part ol the 

 constitution of every society to expel a member 

 for accusing any committee of partiality, in ful- 

 filling a duty which they can have no possible 

 motive to abuse. On the contrary, they have 

 every inducement which can operate upon men 

 in such situations to discharge this duty faith- 

 fully, since they cannot possibly gain any thing 

 by violating it. Possibly the disgrace of expul- 

 sion might deter these "prize-fighters" from 

 indulging their ribaldry, when disappointed in ob- 

 taining a premium, although such a remedy is at 

 least doubtful ; for the men who would be most 

 apt to offend in this way, have generally loo little 

 sense of honor and justice, to regard what a 

 truly honorable man would consider a disgrace. 

 The only thing which they really dread is either 

 corporal or some other punishment that would 

 take money out of their pockets. No agricultu- 

 ral society can ever derive the smallest benefit 

 from them, and none should ever be admitted, if 

 their characters could possibly be known before- 

 hand. 



I have said more, perhaps, on this subject, than 

 some of you niay think there was any necessity 

 for saying. But if you Ibrm a society, as I sin- 

 cerely hope you will, your members will be pe- 

 culiarly fortunale, indeed, if they do not soon find 

 among them some such disturbers of their peace 

 and prosperity r.s I have described. 



Let the foregoing remarks suflice to show how 

 we may iaiprove in our profession, by becoming 

 members of some agricultural society. But this 

 alone will be far, very far from making us good 

 farmers and planters. We must not only learn 

 all we can from our brother members, and be 

 always ready to adopt iheir practices, whenever 

 we see good reason to believe that ihey are bet- 

 ter than our own, but we should dread, as we 

 would poison, that pride and pertinacity of opinion 

 which all our brethren arc so apt to contraci, who 

 neither study their profession as a science, nor 

 seek any other means to improve in its practice, 

 than such as their own unaided thoughts may 

 possibly suggest. This entire self-dependence 

 lor an increase of knowledge, soon swells into a 

 degree of preposterous, arrogant self-conceit, 

 which as efiiectually shuts the mind against the 

 access of all truth, all improvement, as a good 



cork shuts a bottle from the admission of air. 

 With hearts and intellects properly prepared for 

 the acquisition of knowledge, by a proper distrust 

 in our own acquirements, and a desire to increase 

 them, both of which will be augmented by asso- 

 ciating with men better inlbrrned than ourselves, 

 we shall certainly be led to seek, not only this 

 source of improvement in our profession, but we 

 shall resort also to agricultural books. 



Some of these, in the form of periodical papers, 

 have now become so cheap, that every man who 

 is not actually a pauper may easily furnish him- 

 self with at least one of ihem. as the cheapest 

 costs only a dollar a year, although a single paper 

 will often be found to be worth many dollars to 

 him who will read it attentively. This remark 1 

 have very often heard, and from men too who 

 were once silly enough to laugh at every thing 

 in print, on the subject of husbandry, until they 

 became thoroughly convinced of their own folly 

 and obstinacy, in neglecting to ascertain for them- 

 selves, what agricultural books and papers really 

 were. They then discovered that they were pre- 

 cisely the same with oral communications on the 

 same subjects. The only difference being, that 

 the first IS the experience of farmers recorded 

 in print, and the latter the experience, often of 

 the same fiirmers, imparted by word of^nouth. 

 The lacts, communicated in either way, must be 

 exactly of the same value, as must also be all the 

 speculations, either oral or printed, which may be 

 blended vviih them ; and stupid, indeed, beyond 

 measure, must he be, who could not so distin- 

 guish between them, as to derive benefit from 

 the facts, if worthy of regard, and avoid injury 

 from the speculations, if they were either inconclu- 

 sive or utterly visionary. This matter is now 

 so generally and well understood, that the indi- 

 vidual who ventures to sneer and scoff at what 

 he is pleased to call " book-farming," will rarely 

 fail to be thought a vain, conceited ignoramus, 

 however he may escape being called so to his 

 fiice. He can no longer thus disguise his own 

 ignorance and aversion to learning, nor pass him- 

 self off, even among his most illiterate brethren, 

 for a farmer of superior knowledge and skill in 

 his prolession ; but must go for what he really 

 is, an arroganr, opinionative boaster, utterly too 

 lazy to study, too self-conceited to believe others 

 better informed than himsell, and far too proud to 

 confess ii, even if forced to see and to feel his own 

 inferiority. I have said the more on this topic, 

 because I verily believe that an overweening con- 

 fidence in our own knowledge is the besetting 

 sin of our clas.^, owing to so lew of us ever study- 

 ing our profession as a science, to the solitary lives 

 we generally lead, and to our consequent igno- 

 rance of the daily improvements which are con- 

 stantly making in all the various branches of 

 husbandry. Of these we must keep ourselves 

 well inlbrrned, either by reading or frequent in- 

 terchange of opinions, on all subjects connected 

 with our prolession, but both are best ; or we 

 must be content to suffer all the penalties and de- 

 privations of our wilful ignorance. 



Another method of improving in our husbandry 

 is one which liew, very ihw pursue, although it 

 really seems to me demonstrable that it would 

 greatly contribute, not only to our knowledge, but 

 to our wealth, it is, to lay out whatever clear 

 profit, (if any,) which we can make from our 



