1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



625 



tirely to check this loss, (as legislative aid to agri- 

 culture must do,) would be more beneficial in pro- 

 portion to us than to them. We suggest this ar- 

 gument, not from envying their flourishing condi- 

 tion — Heaven forbid, since our unalterable attach- 

 ment to the union, which we anxiously hope may 

 survive all the fearful conflicts of party politics, 

 will always lead us to rejoice in the prosperity of 

 our confederate sisters, however we may lament 

 our own short-sighted policy in failing to profit by 

 their wiser course in matters of state legislation. 

 So long as we continue a united people in honest 

 and zealous efforts to maintain our federal union 

 in all its purity and unrivalled excellence, so long 

 will it be vitally necessary that we should both be- 

 lieve in and act upon the principle of each state's 

 having a deep and abiding interest in the welfare 

 of every other state. If one should happen to 

 prosper more than the rest, either from superior 

 natural advantages, or wiser and more beneficent 

 laws, the true patriots and statesmen of the others, 

 instead of fomenting causes of jealously and ill- 

 will, should be continually cheering their fellow- 

 citizens, in the noble race of national improve- 

 ment, with the animating exhortation of — "go ye 

 and do likewise." State influence in our confede- 

 racy may justly be the aim of each; but just means 

 alone should be pursued to attain it: and these are 

 ■gust, ivise and patriotic state laias; just, wise and 

 patriotic state policy; but above all, great talents 

 and incorruptible virtue in the representatives of 

 the state, in our national councils. 



Deeply impressed with the truth of the forego- 

 ing views, and thoroughly convinced of their ten- 

 dency to arrest, or at least to alleviate, most of the 

 evils under which all the best interests of our be- 

 loved state are now, and long have bien suffering, 

 3'our memorialists most earneslly and anxiously 

 pray, that you will give them your immediate and 

 most deliberate attention. Our case, we consider 

 one of life or death — a case wherein the patient 

 must inevitably die, unless the family physician 

 acts with skill, promptitude, and decision. 



Your memorialists farther beg leave respectfully 

 to solicit your attention to several plans for the benefit 

 and improvement of Virginia agriculture, either of 

 which, in our opinion, would soon cause her poor 

 and desolate fields to assume quite a new aspect. 

 Were one or more of these plans adopted, you 

 would inspire hope where none now exists — you 

 would revive that which is nearly extinct, and 

 would call forth, by the certainty of legislative aid, 

 that enterprise and exertion which alone arc wan- 

 ting to accomplish a great and most salutary 

 change- This, if any thing, would effectually 

 check the desertion of our fellow-citizens, now so 

 rapidly leaving us forever. Many, without doubt, 

 would still seek distant lands to mend their ruined 

 fortunes; but more, we verily believe, would at- 

 tempt to ascertain, with greater certainty than 

 they have done, the chances of disappointment, 

 while still a greater number would cordially em- 

 bark their all with that patriotic band who have 

 pledged themselves never to give up the good old 

 ship Virginia, while there is the most distant 

 hope of rendering her once more sea-worthy, but 

 to sink with her, (if sink she must,) rather than 

 sutler her to be wrecked, merely for want of a suf- 

 ficient number of strong hands and resolute hearts 

 to man her in the hour of distress, and save her, 

 if possible, from utter destruction. Must true it 



Vol. Ill— 71) 



is, that formidable dangers threaten her from va- 

 rious quarters; alarming breakers and whirlpools 

 appear on almost every side, and steer as she may, 

 escape seems hardly practicable. But with so 

 gallant and skilfui a crew as she tmce had, in rev- 

 olutionary times, and as she might have again, (for 

 their indomitable spirit still animates many of their 

 descendants,) she may yet resume her place, and 

 hold on her course amidst the bravest and the best, 

 after weathering all the storms aha has had, or may 

 have to encounter. 



To some of your honorable body j this may possi- 

 bly papearto he the pitiful language of political cow- 

 or the still more despicable slang of selfish alar- 

 mists, who will address you in any terms, what- 

 ever, that may subserve their own exclusive inter- 

 ests. But confident as we are in your (.bility to 

 discriminate, and in the unalloyed patriotism of our 

 own vieios, we will most cheerfully submit to your 

 determination in regard to the prayer of our me- 

 morial. 



One of the plans which we beg leave to pro- 

 pose, is the. establishment of an agricultural pro- 

 fessorship in eur University, never to be filled by 

 any but a scientific and practical agriculturist, with 

 a salary of §1,500, to be paid out of the unappro- 

 priated balance of the literary fund; and in con- 

 nexion with this, an experimental farm of one or 

 two hundred acres, to be purchased with the same 

 fund; upon which farm the pupils of the professor 

 should be required, as a part of their duty, to la- 

 bor a certain number of hours every day. Such 

 an institution would furnish, in a few years, a body 

 of hardy young men, skilled both in the theory 

 and practice of agriculture. They would be 

 qualified, at once to become proprietary cultivators 

 of farms, or managers of them for others, instead 

 of spending a large portion of their lives in acquir- 

 ing the little knowledge they usually possess of such 

 matters, when, by our plan, they would have 

 ready for use, all that was necessary, the moment 

 it was called for. 



Your memorialists further suggest, that should 

 the experimental farm be established, a fine op- 

 portunity would be furnished to redeem the pledge 

 given at the creation of the literary fund, which 

 was, that a youth of good moral habits and intel- 

 lectual promise, but too poor to educate himself, 

 should be selected from each senatorial district by 

 the entire delegation in both branches, and placed 

 at the University, as the adopted children of the 

 commonwealth. These youths, together with the 

 other pupils of the professor, would furnish all 

 the labor necessary to conduct the (arm, and yet 

 have ample time to acquire great literary attain- 

 ments. By this course, such a number of young 

 men would be redeemed from ignorance, and pos- 

 sibly from vice also, at the same time they would 

 be, rendered virtuous and intelligent, as greatly to 

 add to the general intelligence, and prove invalua- 

 ble in disseminating agricultural knowledge. By 

 such a feature in the administration of the Univer- 

 sity you would at once, destroy the chief ground 

 occupied by its enemies, that it is an aristocratic 

 institution; and in relieving it from the prejudices 

 excited against it by this outcry, you would unite 

 both high and low, rich and poor, in its cordial 

 support. 



Another plan is, to establish a state agricultural 

 society, or board of agriculture, somewhat similar 

 to that in New York, to consist of one member, a 



