1839] 



F A R M i; R S ' REGISTER 



751 



again. If they have been long absent, they find, 

 on cominjT back, a new condition of tilings, in 

 many parts of tlieir beloved old slate. Improved 

 modes of culture, and zealous, active ellorts, in 

 various ways, to restore the I'enility of our soil.-:>, 

 are causing our much abused and neglected fields, 

 once more to " smile and blossom," as in the 

 olden time ; whilst the class of planters and liirm- 

 ers is fast rising, in public estimation, to that rank 

 in society to which the pre-eminent imporiance of 

 their prolessioii to our national prosperity and hap- 

 piness so justly entitles them. They themselves 

 evidently beujin to I'eel it, and conse(^uently to 

 cherish a lau<lable pride in theirown improvement 

 in agriculture — not only as an art, but a science 

 also ; for there are iiundreds of books and papers 

 on the subject, now read and studied, for one that 

 was even looked at, a It-vv years ago ; so that the 

 few individuals who, in these times, are silly enough 

 to expose theirown ignorance and self-conceit by 

 declaiming against what they call " book-larm- 

 ing," are iiist, becoming objects both ol' pity and 

 contempt. These, my irood liiends, are ail cir- 

 cumstances truly well calculated lo encourage 

 every man among us, who is a real friend to his 

 own native state, never to weary in his efforts for 

 her welfare and happiness, as long as there is a 

 single shot in the locker. But they are especially 

 encourairinff to the whole body of our yeomanry, 

 by the proof they afford, that the abandonment of 

 our homes, kindred, and i'ricnds is far — very fiar 

 from being at all nece.-sary lo secure every enjoy- 

 ment that a rational man ouglii to desire in the 

 present lite. 



So far ior our encoura<xemcnts to live in and die 

 by old Virginia. But now coine the cautions and 

 warnings to which I beg leave to call your atlen- 

 lion ; lor unless they are duly regarded, none of 

 these encouragements can be rendered available 

 to any great extent. First then, beware of adopt- 

 ing the conceit, which is so common, that we al- 

 ready know enough of any branch o!' our profes- 

 sion to supersede the necessity of striving to know 

 more; for it certainlyproduc.es the practice, (if 

 standing still can be so called,) of stopping short 

 in all efforts at improvement ; whereas, there is no 

 calculating the extent to which this may be car- 

 ried, if we would only act with the same common 

 sense that we do in regard to the preservation of 

 life. This we anxiously endeavor to proloni;, as 

 well as to increase the means of enjoying it, not- 

 withstanding we are perfectly certain that all must 

 die, althouijii we know not when. Why, there- 

 fore, should we not also strive to increase the 

 means of improving our prolession as one of the 

 chief sources of our pleasures, since every one be- 

 lieves this 7}iay be done, although all are equally 

 ignorant of the extent to which these means may 

 be carried ; and none can tell but that there is a point 

 of improvement far beyond any thing ever yet at- 

 tained, even by the most skilful and best iniijrmed 

 agriculturists of the world ] Would we constantly 

 act under a thorough conviction of this fact, our 

 liusbantlry would soon reach a deirree of perliiction 

 which the most sanguine amongst us have hardly 

 ever yet formed, even a liiint conception. 



Another caution which seems every day, to be- 

 come more and more necessary, is, to o;iiard our- 

 selves most anxiously, against that inordinate pas- 

 sion for the rapid accnmulation of wealth, which 

 tempts us to rush headlong into new modca lur ac- 



quiring it — modes of which we are utterly igno- 

 rant although we often suffer ourselves lo be se- 

 duced into tliem by humbugs — so excessively ex- 

 travagant, that we could not fail to see them in 

 their true light, if the banefiil lust of wealth did not 

 make us slone-blind to their absurdity. 1 would 

 here quote that wisest of men, king Solomon, 

 ajjainst those who ^^ hasten to be rich j^'' but it 

 seems hardly worth while ; lor as most of his ad- 

 mirable lessons of wisdom have generally been 

 disregarded, for more than two thousand years, it 

 is hardly probable that we, of the present day, 

 should obey them any better, than the millions 

 upon millions who have lived and died before us. 

 But there is one argument, I think, in support of 

 my caution, that comes home to the selfishness of 

 us all, and is so plain that he who runs may read 

 If. Let us ask ourselves what proportion of our 

 brethren has ever become rapidly very rich bycul- 

 tivatinir the soil in any thing whatever? Is it one 

 in a thousand, or one in ten thousand? If not, 

 ought any man in his sober senses, to venture in a 

 lottery where the blanks to a prize are ten thousand 

 to one? Common prudence and common sense 

 would, at once, answer no — never. The worst o{ 

 it is, that as high seasoned viands and stronjr li- 

 quors, if long used, create in our stomachs a dis-. 

 taste for plain, wholesome food ; so these enor- 

 mous profits, although only in expectancy, by an 

 almost countless majority, excite in their vdnds a 

 similar distaste for the comparatively slower, but 

 far surer profits of our ordinary husbandry ; al- 

 though this, if judiciously and industriously pur- 

 sued, will, more- certainly procure us all the conve- 

 niences, comlbrts, and rational enjoyments of life, 

 than any other enifdoyment that we can possibly 

 pursue. Even in aijes ioni^ past, when husban- 

 dry was, almost, in its infancy, one of the best and 

 most celebrated ol the Roman poets — in his enthu- 

 siastic admiration of our profession, exclaimed — ■ 



"Oh! fortunali nimium, si sua bona norint !" 

 — Oh! too fortunate, if they were only conscious 

 of their own good !" 



The inconteslible proof that this is generally 

 deemed the best of all profi^ssions, is, that all men, 

 (with very few exceptions,) strive to become, ulti- 

 mately, owners and cultivators of the soil. This 

 was man's first occupation, and reems lo be des- 

 tined by God hiinsellj to be estimated, throughout 

 all ages, as the chief source for supplying his 

 wants — augmenting all his innocent pleasures, and 

 ministering to his happiness, so lar as the things of 

 time and sense can contribute to promote it. 



I could here give a most edifying history of the 

 latest of our humbugs. But loo many of our 

 shoulders have been recently wrung by it, and the 

 galled places are still smarting too much, for the 

 recital now to do any good, I therefore forbear, for- 

 the present; but will|Certainly give it, (if alive,) 

 upon the earliest threatenings of a similar visi- 

 tation. 



The last of my warniniis and cautions which, 

 above all others, I would most earnestly press 

 upon your attention, is ai^ainst a moral disease of 

 such universal prevalence, thar it afiects every 

 class in societ}', but ours, I think, most injuriously ; 

 for I consider it the chief cause of the numerous 

 cmisrations heretofore made bv our brethren to 

 the new states and territories. In a word, it is the 

 disease of extravagance — of c.rpendiivrc hcijond 

 income. It may perhaps, a[)poar both IboIis;h and 



