THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



215 



agricultural papers, and'contended that they, as 

 had oAen been declared by their editors, were 

 unable to collect the tacts from the various sec- 

 tions of the commonwealth. To elicit the desired 

 information (iom every neighborhood, the system 

 of farming prevalent in each division of the state, 

 to get at lacts which the practical farmer will not 

 come (brward toy've to the community himsell, 

 is essentially the design of a board of agriculture. 

 The Legislature was in the habit of legislating lor 

 every interest and on all subjects. Yearly laws 

 were enacted to take careof the terrapins, oysters, 

 fish and wild-fowl of Virginia ; should it be said 

 that we could and would do nothing for the great 

 cause of agriculture 1 



Mr. Crutchfield admitted the subject before the 

 House was important, and a'consumption ofsome 

 Jitlle time in its discussion was excusable. He 

 would, therefore, say a ihw words, though he 

 despaired of carrymg a majority with him in 

 opposition to the measure. Agriculture, he ad- 

 mitted, was an important interest — the most im- 

 portant in the state — and if he could be convinced 

 that it could be benefited by this measure, he 

 should cheerfully go lor it. As it was, he must 

 call on his common sense to guide him in his con- 

 duct towards the propriety ol it. He did not see 

 why gentlemen should object to the ryder, by 

 which the fiiture operations of the board were to 

 be discontinued. It so much benefit was to result 

 from the board, why was it so slow to be perceiv- 

 ed I Had not an etibrt to establish it been made 

 year after year, and without success, until last 

 winter, when it never could have passed, had pro- 

 vision been then made to pay its members 7 In 

 former times, when there was a surplus in the 

 treasury and when a majority of the legislators 

 were farmers, all efforts to establish a board vvere 

 useless. Last winter it passed without provision 

 being made for pay, and without calling the ayes 

 and noes. Years ago, the ayes and noes were 

 always called successlully against it. 



Mr. C. reminded gentlemen of the voluntarj' 

 boards and societies which had been formed for 

 agricultural purposes in different parts of the state. 

 They had all ffourished lor a lew years. There 

 was one in Albemarle — where was it nov/ 7 

 There was one in Spottsylvania, but it was wan- 

 ing away. These societies had given many spe- 

 culative reports ; yet Mr. C. said, that after a 

 while they degenerated, and became like the re- 

 ports of many of the school commissioners — a 

 column appropriated for " remarks," and the 

 whole of it blank, except the words, " nothing 

 lurther since our last report." Mr. C. said he 

 opposed the further continuance of the board, be- 

 cause he was convinced it would render no service 

 to the slate. Could he bring his mind to a differ- 

 ent conclusion, poor as the treasury was, he 

 would vote 8500.000 to aid the cause. The 

 proposition to pay the board for past services was 

 a draft on the honor of the Legislature, which he 

 could not consent to protest. He was willing to 

 pay the board, and let it cease lor the future. 



Mr. Kinney said he was opposed to the ryder. 

 The Legislature had done much for every other 

 branch of knowledge but agriculture. It had 

 established professorships of law, of medicine, 

 and a military institute. Did the state of Virginia 

 look now as she did formerly 1 We all knew her 

 condition, and it was lime that we should be 



awakened. We now saw the old commonwealth 

 — once the first and foremost in the union — sink- 

 ing lower iiiid lower every day ! Was it not time 

 that we were tracing the cause of her decay, and 

 if it were lound to be her agricultural condition, 

 to endeavor to revive that, drooping interest ? 

 The proposi'ion belbre the House was not new. 

 it had been ^iiaied lor years. Several sessions 

 ago, it was lost by the vote of one of the dele- 

 gates from Albemarle, (Mr. Gilmer,) who there- 

 by nearly lost his seat on this floor. The gentle- 

 man from Spottsylvania had referred to the Agri- 

 cultural Societies in dillbrent parts of the state, and 

 had supposed that like that in his county they 

 were all declining or dead. He (Mr. K.) took 

 pleasure in bearing his testimony to the benefits 

 they had conferred, particularly those of ilock- 

 bridge and Albemarle (which, he said, was not 

 dead, as the gentleman Irom Spottsylvania had 

 stated,) with whose operations he was somewhat 

 acquainted. As such good results had been com- 

 passed by county associations, he augured that far- 

 ther and still more important advantages would 

 be derived from a state institution. 



Mr. K. said he would read from a valuable 

 work which he held in his hand (the New Eng- 

 land Farmer) to show what other states had 

 done to promote the interests of Agriculture. In 

 Maine, ^70,000 was paid in one year for bounties 

 on- wheat. In New York, an appropriation of 

 ^120,000 was made to it. In Indiana, a Scientific 

 and Agricultural College was established. In 

 Georgia, a Board of Agriculture was incorporated. 

 Massachusetts had encouraged it by causing an 

 agricultural survey to be made, and by bounties 

 on wheat, &c., Maryland, /{entucky and Michigan 

 had all acted on the subject. Maine gave a 

 bounty of 3 cents on cocoons, and 50 cents per 

 pound on reeled silk ; Vermont 10 cents, and 

 Pennsylvania 20, Mr. K. then proceeded to 

 speak of the culture of silk and the advantages 

 which the state would derive by encouraging it. 

 At present we imported largely from France, 

 when we had a soil and slave labor which was 

 peculiarly adapted to its cultivation. 



AVherever, Mr. K. said, encouragement had 

 been given by a state to agriculture, that state 

 went ahead of its neighbors. He trusted, there- 

 fore, that gentlemen would not refuse this impor- 

 tant interest the poor pittance of three or lour hun- 

 dred dollars. 



Mr. Crutchfield said that the gentleman, who 

 had just spoken, had referred to the prosperity of 

 other states, and attributed it to the Boards of Ag- 

 riculture. Now, he had often heard other gen- 

 tlemen say that their prosperity was attributable 

 to their internal improvements. This argument 

 had been frequently used by the friends of inter- 

 nal improvement. Mr. C. said he was informed 

 that there did actually exist at one time in this 

 stale a Board of Agriculture, with John Taylor at 

 its head. That Boar.i, thus constituted, was suf- 

 fered to go down, when there was a full treasury. 

 He would leave this fact with gentlemen to make 

 their own application. 



Mr. McRae protested against the ryder as in- 

 congruous and unfair. He trusted the House 

 would vote down this insidious effort at the defeat 

 of the bill. He bore his testimony to the advan- 

 tages of an Agricultural Board, and of voluntary 

 associations, aa exemplified in his own county. 



