1836.] 



FARMERS' R E G I S T l", R . 



547 



the Tartar line, have never hitherto dreamed of 

 forming these parks, still less the grandees, that, is, 

 the magistrates and the learned : such an idea 

 could never find place in the mind ol' a Chinese. 

 Even their country houses, and boxes of pleasure, 

 present nothing to the eye all around, hut useful 

 cultures airreeab!}' diversified. That which con- 

 stitutes their principal beauty, is their deli<rhtful 

 situation, judiciously improved •, where, in the dis- 

 position of the various parts which coiislitule the 

 whole, there every where reigns a happy imitation 

 of thai beautiful order of nature, frqm whence art 

 has borrowed all her charms. 



The most rorky hills, which, in France and 

 other parts of Europe, lliey turn into vineyards, 

 or totally neglect, are there compelled, by dint of 

 industry, to produce grain. The Chinese are in- 

 deed acquainted with the vine, which here and 

 there they plant in arbors ; but they consider it as 

 a luxury, and the wine it produces as an un- 

 necessary superfluit3^ They would imagine it a 

 sin against humanity, to endeavor to procure, by 

 cultivation, an agreeable licjuor, whilst, fl'om the 

 want of that grain which the vineyard mitzht have 

 produced, some individual, perhaps, might be in 

 danger of perishing of hunger. 



The steepest mountain^!, even, are rendered ac- 

 cessible. At Canton, and from one extremity of 

 the empire to the other, you observe mountains 

 cut into terraces, representing at a distance im- 

 mense pyramids, divided into different stages, 

 which seem to rear their heads to heaven. Every 

 one of these terraces yields annually a crop of 

 some kind of grain, even of" rice ; and you cannot 

 withhold your admiration, v.dien you behold the 

 •water of the river, the canal, or the fountain, 

 which glides by the foot of the mountain, raised 

 from terrace to terrace, even to the summit, by 

 means of a simple portable machine, which two 

 men with ease transport and put in motion. 



The Chmese nation is capable of the most stu- 

 pendous works ; in point of labor, I never observ- 

 ed their equals in the world. Every day in the 

 year is a working day. except the first, destined 

 for paying and receiving visits ; and the last, 

 which is consecrated to the ceremonial duties they 

 pay to their ancestors. An idle man would be 

 treated with the most sovereign contempt, and re- 

 garded as a paralytic member — a load to the body 

 of which he made a part ; the govermnent vvould- 

 in no manner permit it. How opposite from the 

 ideas of other Asiatics, where none are admitted 

 to any degree of estimation but those who, from 

 their situation in life, have nothinfr 1o do ! An 

 ancient emperor of China, in a public instruction, 

 exhorting the people to labor, observed that if in 

 one corner of the empire there was one man who 

 did nothing, there must in some other quarter, be 

 another who suffers on that account, dejirived of 

 the necessaries of lite. This \v\s?. maxim is fixed 

 in the breast of every Chinese ; and, with this peo- 

 ple, so open to reason, he who pronounces a wise 

 maxim, pronounces a law. 



From tlic Genesco. Farmer. 

 CURING CORIV. 



Farmers the present year have had a fine op- 

 portunity of testing the respective merits of the 



two modes of saving corn by topping, or cuttino- 

 up by the bottom, respecting which some diversi- 

 ty still appears to exist among those who are the 

 most interested. The frost of the fiilh of Septem- 

 ber was widely and severely fi;U ; and while some 

 adopted the old method of topping, others resorted 

 to cutting up by the ground, and when dried, set- 

 ting up in small stacks. Either course was un- 

 doubtedly preferable to letting the corn stand with 

 the dead tops adhering; but we think experience 

 will convince all who are carelbl observers, that 

 cutting at the ground, is greati)' to be preferred by 

 the farmer who wishes to make as much as pos- 

 sible of his frost-l)itten field of corn. We knew 

 of two pieces of corn, owned by the same individ- 

 uals, planted nearly at the same time, and both 

 equally promising, when their progress was stop- 

 ped by the fi'ost of the fif h. One of the pieces was 

 immediately topped, and the other was, as soon as 

 possible, cut up by the bottom and stacked. They 

 U'cre both husked a short time since, and the own- 

 ers assured us, that contrary to the expectation of 

 many who witnessed the different modes of cur- 

 ing, the}^ should get at leastone-third more sound 

 corn from t!iat cut up, than from that which was 

 tojT];ed and left on the hill. 



O. 



Cor.iminiicati^d Cor publication in tlie Farmers' Register. 



AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE AGRI- 

 CULTURAL SOCIETY OF ROCKBRIDGE, AT 

 THEIR ANNUAL MEETING AT FANCY HILL, 



OCTOBER L3ih, 1835. 



By Alfred Leyburii, M. D. 



Fellow Citizens and Farmers of Rockbridge : 



To-day I feel myself called to the discharge 

 of a duty not a little embarrassing, and the more 

 so to me, because I address many of riper years 

 than myself, and whose experimental knowledge 

 of farming fir exceeds mine. Tiie office, howe- 

 ver, which I now surrender into your hands, was 

 not of m}^ seeking. With a full knowledge of cir- 

 cumstancesj it was your pleasure, on your last an- 

 niversary, to elect me your President. As such I 

 now address you. And what shall I say on an 

 occasion like this, an occasion of itself well calcu- 

 lated to generate kindly feeling, and enkindle gen- 

 erous emulationl Shall I begin with the wood- 

 man in the fbrest, and follow him from the clear- 

 ing of his land to the seeding thereof", through his 

 various crops, and attempt to discuss the different 

 methods of cultivating the same, the timefbrreap- 

 ing, gathering or curintr, as the case may be — in a 

 word, through the various branches into which 

 the ac^t of farminrr ramifies? No, gentlemen, 

 time, and muph more the presence here of veteran 

 fiirmers, admonish me to abstain fi-om an underta- 

 kina: at once so tedious and difficult. 



Permit me then, during tiie \h\v moments I oc- 

 cupy, to call your attention to one princijial point, 

 to wit : the use of clover as the sheet anchor of 

 the farmer, and as forming the basis generally of 

 whatever beautiful and comfortable lie may have 

 have reared for himself. 



Scepticism lias had its place in all a^es, in mo- 

 ral as well as in physical sciences, in history, poli- 

 tics, medicine, and theology ; therelbre whatever 

 j evidence there may be to sustain a position, and 

 [ however full and clear that evidence may be as to 



