736 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 12 



I 



the svvamp, and his visits were always made in 

 the night. Many fruitless attempts have been 

 made to secure him. On some occasions fl-om 1.5 

 to 20 persons, together with a number of dogs, 

 have given him chase. His speed was very 

 rapid, and his strides vvould measure six leet up 

 hill ; he would leap over a wall 3|- feet high with 

 perfect ease. 



From the Farmer and Gardener. 



PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MARY- 

 LAND, FOR AID TO AGRICULTURE. 



[We insert witji .pleasure the following memo- 

 rial to the General Assembly of Maryland, and 

 hope that may have the efi'ect oi" eliciting the at- 

 tention of that body to a too long neglected inter- 

 est. There is no question in our mind, but that 

 the time has arrived for action, and that, unless 

 something be speedily done to arrest the down- 

 ward course of things, this state will, ere many 

 years shall have elapsed, present a spectacle as 

 humilating to the pride of her citizen as it will be 

 fata! to their prosperity and happiness. 



The memorial is, we learn, in a course of circu- 

 lation in the several counties for signatures, and 

 we hope those friends of agriculture who may 

 have charge of it, will lose jio lime in discharoing 

 the imjioitant irust conflded to them. — Ed. Far. 

 & Gard.] 



To the Honorable the General j^ssembly of Mary- 

 land. 



The memorial of the undersigned, • farmers, 

 planters, and those friendly to the pursuits of agri- 

 culture, most respectfully beg leave to represent to 

 your honorable body : 



That they have, lor a length of time, viewed 

 v/ith feelings of profound regret and mortification, 

 the very depressed condition of the agriculture of 

 the state ; nor have they with emotions of less 

 pain seen a portion of her population, urged by dire 

 necessity, abandoning the homes of their parents, 

 and the birth places of themselves and children, 

 and seeking new residences in the far west and 

 south-west. Believing, as your memorialists do, 

 that the strength and wealth of the state consist 

 in the prosperity and welfare of its population, 

 and that it behoov^es a wise and paternal govern- 

 ment, so far as in its power lies, to husband, ])ro- 

 mote, and protect, the interests of its people — and 

 believing, also, that by devoting a portion of the 

 now ample funds of Maryland to the furtherance 

 of objects in which every agriculturist has a deep 

 and lasting interest — na}', in which the jjride, hon- 

 or, and well-being of the stale itself is vitally con- 

 cerned — your memorialists would beg leave to 

 make an appeal to your honors in the hope, that 

 in your wisdom and patriotism, you will see the 

 propriety of granting such relief, as will tend to in- 

 spire the husbandmen of this good old member of 

 the confederacy, with renewed energies, and a de- 

 termination to improve the soil, which must be 

 dear to us all. Thus confiding, they approach 

 you with the firm conviction that it will be only 

 necessary to make their wishes known, to ensure 

 the success of their f)rayer. 



It is known to every well infjrmed citizen of 

 Maryland, that most of her soil was originally 

 fertile, and yielded generous returns for the labor 



bestowed upon its culture — that her climate is 

 highly favorable to the growth and maturity of al- 

 most every species of products — that she is bless- 

 ed with numerous bays, rivers and tributary 

 streams : but while the undersigned are grateliil 

 lor those blessings — while they turn upon the past 

 history of the agricultural results of the industry 

 and enterprise of the landed interest, the sad spec- 

 tacle which is presented by contrasting it with 

 their present disastrous condition, but serves to fill 

 them with the unmingledllgelings of the profound-' 

 est sorrow. By a course of injudicious cultiva- 

 tion, that soil once so bountiful of the products of 

 the earth, has, to a great extent, been reduced to 

 a state of poverty, which almost forbids the hope 

 of remuneration; and industrious and enterprising- 

 cultivators, in innumerable instances, have been 

 compelled to seek compeicnce, in far distant pla- 

 ces, ibr themselves and offspring ; for the sad re- 

 alily of exhausted fields, have convinced tliem, 

 that in the old pursuits of husbandry they can no 

 lono'er find it at home. 



While all parts of the state have suffered more 

 or less from emigration, your memorialists have 

 been credibly informed that from Charles and St. 

 Mary's counties alone, property and money to 

 the amount of nearly one million and a half of 

 dollars, have been within eighteen months re- 

 moved to the fi-ontier states; and that, in many 

 instances, proprietors have carried off their slaves 

 and other transportable means, leaving their 

 estates not only undisposed of, but absolutely 

 untenanted. The consequences, attendant upon 

 such a disastrous state of things, need not be all 

 enumerated by your memorialists, as they must 

 be as obvious to our honors, as is the fact, that, if 

 this spirit of removal should not be stayed, lauds 

 must continue to decrease in value till they shall 

 have reached a price which will prostrate the 

 landed interest — fields which once blossomed with 

 luxuriant vegetation, and rendered their proprie- 

 tors prosperous and happy, will become forests' — 

 our population will be so lessened as to deprive 

 Maryland of her political importance in the sccde 

 of states — and when it shall be too lat« to remedy 

 the evil, we shall have to deplore the melancholy 

 effects of our lisflcssness and indifference. 



Your memorialists would respectfully ask — is 

 there no remedy for this cruel evil? They think 

 there is. It is known to your honors, that the atten- 

 tion of the agricultural community has been, for the 

 last Itjw years seriously called to the importance 

 of cultivating the mulberry with a view of feed- 

 ing the silkworm, and more recently to that of 

 raising beets with a view of making sugar. For 

 the cultivation of both the mulberry and beet, the 

 soil and climate of Maryland, are most happily 

 adapted. Of the profitableness of the first of 

 these pursuits, France and Italy bear the most 

 eloquent proofs — their husbandmen, from the 

 wealthy land-holder to the more humble peasant, 

 have each found in it asource of great profit; and 

 of the advantages of the culture of the sugar 

 beet, the successful enterprise of thousands of the 

 agriculturists of France and Germany, is the 

 strongest evidence of the truth of the fact that 

 could be desired. 



Already the culture of silk, under the auspices 

 and patronage of the govermnents of the eastern 

 slates, has assumed an importance, as an item of 

 agricultural products, that promises to be produc- 



