THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMY. 



Vol. 1. 



Pliilatlelpliia, August 15, l^'iH. 



Rio. 3. 



PablisHed 1>y 

 MOORE Jt W.VTEKHOUSE, 



jYo. 67 South Second St. Pliila. 



One Dollar per year. 



Agricultural Papers. 



While contemplating the immense and in- 

 calculable benefits which must necessarily 

 result not only to the farmer and planter, but 

 to the public in general, and to every class 

 of the community in whatever occupation en- 

 gaged, from the general improvement of ag- 

 riculture and the powerful tendency of agri- 

 cultural papers to produce such improve- 

 ment, the man of reflection, who loves his 

 country and who feels any regard for the 

 happiness of his fellow men, cannot but be 

 struck with astonishment, not only at be- 

 holding so many of those who are devoted 

 to the 'profession of agriculture, and who are 

 entirely dependent on it for the supply of all 

 their wants, voluntarily debarring themselves 

 from the easiest, the most agreeable, the 

 cheapest, and the most effectual mode of ac- 

 quiring knowledge in their profession — but 

 at the short sighted views ot those who are 

 obviously not less deeply interested than 

 the farmer himself, in producing that state 

 of improvement, on the production of which 

 the prosperity of all is alike dependent. Let 

 every man but ask himself, what would be 

 the effect upon the public prosperity, and on 

 that ot every individual of which society is 

 composed, whatever may be his occupation, 

 were the fertility of the land and the quan- 

 tum of his annual production to be doubled, 

 trebled or quadrupled — all must see at a 

 glance, that the national wealth and resour- 

 ces would be in the same degree enhanced. 

 The government would be enabled, with far 

 less inconvenience to the people, to raise dou- 

 ble, treble or quadruple the revenue which 

 can now be collected, either for the purpose 

 of defending the country against foreign ene- 

 mies, improving it by roads, canals, &c., or 

 for what is of still greater importance than 

 either, the establishing and sustaining a sys- 

 tem of Universal Education, by which, and 

 by which alone, liberty can be perpetuated, 

 the people elevated to that dignity and worth 

 of which they are capable, and which it 

 should be considered the first duty of every 

 Republican Government to confer. 



Vol. L— C 



The farmer and planter would be benefited 

 by receiving a treble, or quadruple reward lor 

 his labor, to be expended in supplying his 

 wants, increasing his wealth, or promoting 

 his comfort. The merchant, the lawyer and 

 the mechanic, will be benefited by a double, 

 treble, or quadruple ability in their custom- 

 ers to purchase their goods, or to reward 

 them for their services; and above all, the 

 laborer of every description, would be bene- 

 fited by constant employment, and good wa- 

 ges paid in ready money. In a word, uni- 

 versal prosperity would overflow the land, 

 and universal intelligence and increase of 

 virtue, would enable and dispose the people 

 so to use it, as to banish from the country by 

 far the largest portion of that nii=ery and 

 distress under which mankind, in all ages and 

 countries, have heretofore groaned, and which 

 must continue to be their lamentable lot, un- 

 til by an elevation of the intellectual and mo- 

 ral character of the mass of the people, they 

 shall be qualified so to improve the recources 

 which a benignant Providence has placed at 

 their command, as to enable every one, by 

 moderate labor, to acquire the necessaries 

 and comforts of life. That such would be the 

 ultimate effects of doubling, trebling, or 

 quadrupling the products of the earth by the 

 industrious exertions of the agricultural com- 

 munity, if guided and directed by intelligence, 

 is too plain to require proof. 



Would the general circulation of agricul- 

 tural papers, by diffusing knowledge, and by 

 continually presenting to the eye of the agri- 

 culturist, clear, unequivocal and demon- 

 strative proof, that great and ample rewards 

 are the sure and certain consequences of such 

 exertions, have a tendency to stimulate the 

 community to active and intelligent exer- 

 tions? He who doubts this, must believe 

 the gross and palpable absurdity, that the 

 greater the knowledge a man possesses of the 

 business in which he is engaged^ the more 

 will he be disqualified to pursue it with ad- 

 vantage, and that the more clearly and dis- 

 tinctly ihe prospect of reward is held out to 

 the farmer for his labor, the greater will be 

 his indolence. 



With those who can believe these propen- 

 sities, if any such there be, it would be vain 

 and idle to reason — they can believe any 

 thing which they wish— their error proceed* 



