428 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



have pleasure in adding that the Belgian Government is giving evidence of its 

 high appreciation of the policy of rewarding improvements in the great Art by 

 which all others live, and move, and have their being. Alas ! that we should be 

 driven, for the most gratifying proofs of the auspicious change which these 

 things all indicate, not so much to the chief magistrates and legislators of our 

 own boastful Republic, as' to the princes, potentates and noblemen of European 

 monarchies ! But, friends of the land, be of good cheer— better times are com- 

 ing. At this moment ("Oth Nov.), watching eagerly for every good sign, we are 

 anxious to see what was said at Charlottesville last week, by Hon. Andrew Ste- 

 venson, for in him, we know, the landed interest will ever find a swift witness 

 in its behalf. The papers speak of his performance with sentiments of the high- 

 est gratification, and hopes of its good and lasting effects. " In the fullness of 

 the heart the mouth speaketh," — so it was with him. 



And why, has it been well asked in reference to the measures so creditable to 

 the Belgian Government, should not these honorable marks of distinction be be- 

 stowed upon those who have evinced talent and ability of a high order in the 

 practice of that occupation, upon the economical and skillful conduct of which 

 a cheap and bountiful supply of the necessaries of life depends ? But look at 

 all our Executive Chambers, and Halls of Legislation, and Museums— do you 

 find on their walls the portraits of any of the great benefactors of a Pursuit in- 

 dissolubly connected, throughout the world, with the welfare if not the very ex- 

 istence of society, and the highest condition of which everywhere indicates the 

 highest state of civilization ? Have Societies, or Institutes, or public bodies, in 

 Virginia, or New- York, or Massachusetts, caused the portraits to be exhibited, in 

 their Halls, of John Taylor of Caroline, or Ruffin, or J. M. Garnett, or Judge Buel, 

 or Mitchell, or Wadsworth, or Livingston, or Van Rensselaer, or John Lowell, or 

 Elliot, or Pickering, or Deane, or Wilder, for their services to Agriculture and 

 Horticulture ? Alas ! honors are most easily won from a perverted public sen- 

 timent, by distinction in any other line of art or industry than in that one which, 

 beyond all comparison, is the most useful of all ! 



The Belgian Minister of the Interior has just addressed the following Circu- 

 lar to the Provincial Governors : 



•' The Agricultural Exhibition offers an occasion of which the Government is happy to 

 avail itself, of granting special distinction to those cultivators whose eminent merit and use- 

 ful works render them worthy of being recompensed by the State. I therefore request you, 

 M. Governor, to second these benevolent intentions, and to point out to me those cultivators 

 of your Trovince whose intelligent activity and honorable conduct appear to you worthy of 

 being marked to the country, and of serving as an example of emularion to their fellow-citi- 

 zens. I have no need to infomi you that your information need not be confined to the great 

 proprietors and the farmers who were able to proceed upon a large scale ; you need not feai- 

 to go into the lowest ranks, where you will jirobably find men who are the most to be com- 

 mended, because with very limited means they effected ameliorations which are profitable 

 to all. I request you to be exceedingly careful in your investigation, and to send me the 

 result by the 20lh of tins month, adding every detail which may put me m complete knowl- 



•^.edge of the case. 



(Signed) '• The Minister of the Interior, Edgier." 



While we are noting these monarchical honors to the Plow, let us add that 

 an Agkicultural Congress was lately held at Stockholm. It consisted of 420 

 members, and held twenty sittings, at all of which the King was present. On 

 'one of the days the members of the Congress all dined together, and the King 

 •and Queen and Prince Royal took part at the banquet. 



Since the above was in type, we have met with the following. On reading it 

 we could not help thinking how the Member of Congress would be laughed out 



(828) 



