624 



FARMERS REGISTER. 



\o. 10 



been spreading desolation over the land, and emp- 

 tying our towns, villages, and the country at 

 large, not only of those who might justly be called 

 the warts and cancerous ulcers ol" the body politic, 

 but of thousands of our best and most valuable 

 citizens. Whether the. fear of poverty or the lust 

 of riches contributed most to produce this effect, 

 it is now useless to inquire, since to whichever 

 cause we ascribe it, the consequences have been 

 alike fatal to our state influence in the union — 

 alike fatal in tearing asunder all the natural ties of 

 home, nativity and kindred. 



During all this depopulating and portenlous pe- 

 riod, what, (we beg leave to ask) what have our 

 legislatures done towards the cure or mitigation of 

 this truly alarming slate malady, so far as enact- 

 ments to promote agriculture generally throughout 

 the state could aid in supplying a cure? Why, 

 they have appointed a committee of agriculture! ! 

 And what has that committee done? The answer 

 possibly may be found in some of our legislative 

 journals; it is no where to be seen in our laws; for 

 the volume which contains them is silent as the 

 grave in regard to all agricultural interests. This 

 seems the more strange and unaccountable, when 

 we reflect on the undeniable fact, that a very large 

 majority of every legislature, since the establish- 

 ment of our state government, has consisted of 

 planters and farmers. Incompetent we cannot 

 believe they were, nor are we willing to pronounce 

 them guilty of treachery to their own class. But 

 we must either do this, or suppose they must have 

 thought agriculture not only capable of flourish- 

 ing without legislative aid of any kind, but, in the 

 exuberance of their generosity, must have deemed 

 her followers (to borrow the comparison of an 

 English statesman,) like sheep, always ready and 

 willing to be sheared, even to the skin, for the ex- 

 clusive benefit of others. This is a kind of quixo- 

 tic patriotism, to the motives of which we are wil- 

 ling to accord all the praise it may deserve, when 

 tested by the true principles of sound political econ- 

 omy; but we cannot go farther, and must protest 

 against its adoption, as the rule of legislative ac- 

 tion for any of our immediate representatives. If 

 any sacrifice of agricultural interest be proved to 

 be essential to the general welfare, let it be made; 

 not a man of us will say nay: all we ask, and that 

 we have a right to require, is, that the case be 

 clearly, indisputably made out; that we who pay 

 all the taxes, either directly or indirectly; ive who 

 thus defray all the necessary expenses of the gov- 

 ernment under which we live, should enjoy at least 

 such a share of its protection, its care and pecuni- 

 ary aid, as our relative importance to the general 

 good unquestionably entitles us to expect. 



Under these circumstances, we will not permit 

 ourselves to doubt, that you to whom we look up 

 for all the good which wise and salutary laws can 

 procure for us, will immediately apply every means 

 in your power to remedy the omissions and neg- 

 lects of your predecessors in regard to the great 

 agricultural interest of Virginia. 



If any examples were wanting to prove that, 

 legislative aid may rightfully be given to these in- 

 terests, we could confidently appeal, not only to 

 several of our sister states, whose wise law-givers 

 have been content toad, while we have been con- 

 suming months and years in fruitless debates about 

 the right and the mode of acting; but we could cite 

 the history of every civilized country under the 



sun. Not one of them, we believe, can be named, 

 which has not established cither agricultural pro- 

 fessorships, or agricultural schools, with experi- 

 mental farms attached to them, or state societies, 

 or boards of agriculture, or some public institution 

 of similar character, demonstrating incontestable 

 that in all these countries it is deemed a long set- 

 tled, wise and highly essential part of nationl poli- 

 cy to legislate for the promotion of husbandry in 

 each of its branches, but especially of agriculture. 

 Even Scotland, that country which it has been the 

 fashion of some narrow minded people to ridicule 

 lor its poverty, has distributed in the course of half 

 a century half a million of dollars to the tillers of 

 the soil, in the form of agricultural premiums, 

 thereby augmenting her agricultural products to 

 the amount of several millions of dollars. Within 

 that, period, Virginia has distributed not one solitary 

 cent! in any way whatever, for the promotion of 

 her agriculture, although until very lately, she has 

 been almost exclusively an agricultural state. 



What have been the consequences in all the 

 countries referred to. of this parental, legislative 

 care of agricultural interests? Why, that in every 

 one of them, without a single exception, however 

 inferior to Virginia in soil and climate, the condi- 

 tion of its husbandry in general, and especially of 

 its agriculture, has been and now is far, very far su- 

 perior to ours. From these facts, the incontestable 

 inference is, that legislative aid is absolutely essen- 

 tial in every country, whatever may be its natural 

 advantages, to the most prosperous condition of its 

 agriculture, and that the connexion of this vital 

 art with science, and its necessary dependence 

 thereon, to reach its highest state of improvement, 

 are quite as demonstrable as in the case of any 

 other art whatever. The truth is, that this con- 

 nexion between science and art — this mutual de- 

 pendence upon each other, has existed since the 

 world began, and must last to the end of it, how- 

 ever the pride of ignorance, and the obstinacy of 

 folly may strive to represent the two as separate 

 and distinct in some instances, and in the case of 

 agriculture, as warring against each other. That 

 such preposterous fatuity should stiil find any abi- 

 ding place in Virginia, may be justly attributed to 

 the absence of all legislation on the subject; for 

 had there been any, it is scarcely conceivable that 

 it would not have recognized the essentiality of 

 science in agriculture, and thereby have had a 

 most salutary effect in extirpating the contrary 

 most pernicious belief from the agricultural portion 

 of our community. 



In our own confederacy we have the highly 

 praiseworthy example of our sister state of New 

 York to prove how greatly agriculture may be ad- 

 vanced by legislative aid; for all who have taken 

 pains to inform themselves concur in ascribing the 

 rapid improvement, in every branch of her husban- 

 dry, to the establishment and operations of her 

 state agricultural society. Might not we Virgin- 

 ians hope for atleast equal advantages from a sim- 

 ilar state institution? That we should derive still 

 greater, we deem almost certain. First, because 

 the interests of commerce and manufactures bear 

 a much less proportion to those of agriculture in 

 Virginia, than they do to the same interests in 

 New York; and secondly, our sister state is daily 

 gaining most rapidly, while we are losing in pop- 

 ulation, wealth, and federal influence. Conse- 

 quently, any measure would tend to retard, or en- 



