No. 6. Life in the Country. — St. George's Ploughing Match. 183 



Life in the Country. 



We make the following extract from the Address 

 delivered a month or two since, by C. T. Botts, editor 

 of the Southern Planter, before the Henrico Agricul 

 tural Society, Va.— Ed. 



"Nature is not so very bountiful, even 

 in the country, as to require nothing of man. 

 There, as elsewhere, every thing- depends 

 upon the manner in which he performs his 

 part. If he can convert the wilderness into 

 a garden, so also can his evil passions and 

 bad habits lay waste the kindest gifts of 

 Providence. I recollect, that during the 

 last summer, I had occasion to make a little 

 excursion into the country; and one day 

 about noon, suffering from the oppressive 

 heat of a burning sun, I sought at a little 

 farm house, that refreshment to which a tra- 

 veller is always welcome in this hospitable 

 region of Virginia. As I approached the 

 house, I met the ploughmen with their 

 teams coming in to dinner. The style of 

 the harness, the leather eked out, with a 

 string here, and a grape-vine there, would 

 have been sufficient, if the straggling fences 

 had not already told the tale, to assure me, 

 that the proprietor was, what is emphatically 

 called, a had tnunager. The yard was un- 

 enclosed ; the house, ignorant of paint, was 

 propped on one side, and much needed prop- 

 ping on the other; the porches were dilapi- 

 dated, the blinds slouching, the panes broken, 

 and the whole premises wearing an air of 

 intolerable discomfort. The proprietor him- 

 self was sleeping on a plank, under the 

 shade of a large tree, with his hat drau-n 

 over his eyes, and was the only thing upon 

 the premises that seemed to be at its ease. 

 I was received with the warmest hospitality, 

 and kindly made welcouie to every thing 

 that the house could aflbrd. I found that 

 mine host was a shrewd, intelligent, lazy, 

 goodnatured, good for nothing fellow. Al- 

 though living almost without the comforts 

 of savage life, he was still what might be 

 called a man of substance — that is, he owned 

 seven or eight hundred acres of land, such 

 as it was, and twenty or tiiirty negroes — in 

 short, his goods and chattels, if reduced 

 to money, could not have yielded less than 

 fifleen or twenty thousand dollars. If po- 

 liteness had permitted, I should have liked 

 to suggest to him, how much a little repair 

 and paint would have added to the comfort 

 and convenience of his family; how many 

 elegant pleasures and delight^-, the work of 

 his own hands could have afforded them, if 

 he had only employed, in ornamenting and 

 adorning his homestead, those hours he had 

 spent upon that plank. But he, wise soul, 

 had found out "exactly how it was," "no- 



thing was to be made by farming in this 

 country," and he had determined, as a pana- 

 cea for all the ills of life, to remove to the 

 West. My poor friend may change his cli- 

 mate, but I much fear lie will never get rid 

 of the bad habits which made the change 

 necessary. This unfortunate gentleman was 

 only the type of a class, that was formerly 

 much more numerous than it is now, in Vir- 

 ginia. Indeed, a new source of extinction 

 has lately appeared, which threatens to dissi- 

 pate entirely this ancient and venerable race 

 of farmers. Our Northern neighbours, with 

 that sagacity for which they are remarkable, 

 have discovered that there is no portion of 

 the country, that offers such inducements to 

 speculators, as the ancient seats of these old 

 Virginians, whose sloth and extravagance 

 force them to sell their birthrights for a 

 song. Tiiese new comers have discovered 

 the grand secret, which modern improve- 

 ments in agriculture have revealed, that it 

 is easier and cheaper to renovate an ex- 

 hausted acre, than to bring a new one into 

 cultivation. With this knowledge, with 

 which their superior intelligence has ac- 

 quainted them, they are well content to pur- 

 chase the pleasant homes of the former oc- 

 cupants, and send them forth, wives, little 

 children and all, to encounter the hardships 

 and privations of a life in the wilderness. 

 We welcome those enterprising strangers 

 amongst us, for they make the wilderness to 

 blossom as the rose, and set an example in 

 husbandry, worthy of all imitation. Yet, it 

 is a melancholy reflection, that for every re- 

 cruit we gain in this way, some old settler 

 has been driven from the home of his child- 

 hood, and forced to yield his household asso- 

 ciations to stranger hands. May he prosper 

 in foreign lands, and be taught that industry 

 and economy, the want of which drove him 

 from his own." 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 St. George's Ploughing Match. 



Mr. Editor, — [ consider the report of the 

 St. George's, (Del.,) committee on plough- 

 ing — see p. 152, of Cabinet for December — 

 by far the strongest recommendation of the 

 Centre-draught plough of Prouty &. Mears, 

 that has yet appeared. Here was a congre- 

 gation of ploughs, bright and sharp as file 

 and grindstone could make them, all pre- 

 pared for a start, on the broad ground of 

 fair competition ; but not one of them could 

 be brought to face the Centre-draught 

 plough until she had been crippled — per- 

 fectly stumped up with long service ; with 

 the coulter, perhaps, about an inch out of 

 place and as thick as one's finger. There 



