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ICAN HERD-BOOTi' 



DEVOTED TO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



Perfect Agriculture is the true foundation of all trade and industry.— Liebio. 



Vol. VIII.-No. 4.1 



11th mo. (INovember) 15th, 1843. 



[>Vhole No. 106. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY, 



BY J O S I A H T A T U M, 



EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 



Price one dollar per year. — For conditions see last page. 



Address, 



Delivered by Peter A. Browne, Esq., at the Exhibition 

 of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, 

 at the Lamb tavern, on the 5th ult. 



The first occupation of civilized man was 

 agriculture. In his natural state he roamed 

 about, depending for a precarious subsistence 

 upon hunting the wild beasts of the forests, 

 upon ensnaring a few fish, or upon gather- 

 ing the wild fruits and berries that grow 

 spontaneously. But no sooner did the light 

 of civilization dawn, than he betook himself 

 to the earth, stirred the soil, scattered a few 

 seeds, tended them from day to day, and, in 

 due time, reaped a scanty but permanent re- 

 ward. 



It was not only the earliest, but it is the 

 most health fill employment of civilized man. 

 The farmer rises with the lark, issues out 

 into the fields to inhale the fragrance of 

 blossoms and flowers, and of the new-mown 

 hay, or the no less healthy smell of the 

 newly turned up earth. By that moderate 

 labour for which man was by nature des- 

 tined, he gains an appetite for his simple 



Cab.— Vol. VIIL— No. 4. 



ibut wholesome food, and insures a sound and 

 invigorating sleep, when the toils of the day 

 are passed. How often do we witness the 

 necessary visits of recruit to the country, on 

 behalf of those who live in the less whole- 

 some atmosphere of a densely populated 

 city ! The student forsaking, for a season, 

 his midnight lamp — the mechanic his bench 

 — or the manufacturer the contamination of 

 air poisoned by a hundred breaths. These — 

 all these, fly to the neighbourhood of forests 

 and cultivated fields ; where, according to a 

 jjwise and benevolent law of nature, the at- 

 mosphere has had restored to it, by a profu- 

 sion of vegetation, that vital principle of 

 animal life of which it had been deprived by 

 respiration. Health soon revives — strength 

 is quickly restored; but, alas! the poor dys- 

 peptic must return to his study, his work- 

 jshop, or his manufactory, to renew his cares, 

 and waste his renovated strength in the con- 

 fines of a city life. 



Agriculture is the most useful employ- 

 ment that any one can pursue. Without 

 agriculture there could be no commerce : 

 for if we had nothing to offer in exchange 

 with foreign nations, they would soon cease 

 to furnish us with their productions. Be- 

 sides what is consumed at home, at least 

 three fourths of all the exports of the United 

 States are furnished by agriculture. With- 

 out agriculture, there could be but few manu- 

 factures: for it is the farmer who raises the 

 cotton, the flax and the hemp — the raw ma- 

 terial indispensable to the manufacturer's 



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