April, 1842. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



57 



fletiial, every successive net of wliU-li requires 

 less effort, until, to use au Hilieniicisiu, selt-de- 

 iiial beromes a pleasure. 



The injunction imposed upon man that "he 

 should earn his bread by tlie sweat of his brow," 

 rightly viewed, will be considered a blessing, not 

 a curse. All Ihinf^s around us. are in a state of 

 progression to maturity or decay : man forms no 

 exception. The laws of chemistry and vitality 

 are at continual war during his physical existence. 

 ]n the end, the former gains the victory. Without 

 entering into any metaphysical abstractions one 

 great truth is plain, that his existence here is on- 

 ly preparatory to his spiritual existence hKreafler, 

 — and that however well he may provide for the 

 wants of the body he cannot enjoy happiness 

 without providing for those of the soul. The 

 same cruises that |irocure the former, assist in 

 obtaining the latter. 



High intellectual attainments can never confer 

 happiness U))on the possessor unless enjoined 

 with tnoral virtue. 



The early acquisition of correct and virtuous 

 principles of action is an object of the first im- 

 portance. 



To learn them requires not the labor of years; 

 in the plain and simple language of the New 

 Testament, they are so nicely adapted to the ca- 

 pacities of each and all, that "he who runs may 

 read."' 



The man who is intellectually great and mor- 

 ally vile is justly entitled to the appellation of 

 "scourge of God" to his fellow men, and enemy 

 to himself: he who make.s his faculties pander to 

 vice, entails upon himself misery and woe, and 

 subjects all over whom he may have influence to 

 the same evils. 



Men have obtained notoriety in the world by 

 the force and splendor of their talents,— have se- 

 cured a lasting fame by the miglityacts they have 

 accomplished^ but never have secured tlie es- 

 teemand love of their fellow men, only as these 

 acts have had for their end their good and wel- 

 fare. 



A misguided and blinded people may have 

 given their affections to one great in iniquity as 

 in person. 



The gift, however misplaced, was the result of a 

 conviction that lie was a bonelactor to his peo[ile. 

 Time rectifies all such errors: time, the avenger, 

 exposes the wicked piu-poses of his heart and 

 sulitracts from his character whatever of great- 

 ness he may have added to it Iiy such unhallowed 

 practices 



The page of history reveals the mournful trutli 

 that men have boi rowed llie garb of virtue and 

 of humanity to cover tliinr selfish and detestable 

 designs, anil by so doing have misled and decei- 

 ved n trusting people, — have gained the titles of 

 fathers and benefactors of their country, and died 

 in the full tide of worldly honors and pros[ierity ; 

 but the retributive hour arrived, and ample justice 

 is done their memories by their being held up as 

 objects of scorn and detestation to posterity. 



Who would endure the rankling mental ago- 

 nies of him who has proved a traitor to himself 

 and his professions, for all the worldly honor and 

 fame such a curse may confer? They who are 

 most guilty of such devices acknowledge the 

 sovereignly of virtue by stealing her livery. 



A man cannot succeed in any great underta- 

 king if he is openly and professedly bad. His 

 talents will avail him nothing — the world spurns 

 him from her concerns — avoids him as it would 

 an adder: he must seemingly acknowledge his 

 vassalage to her- must outwardly conform to her 

 requirements, or else public opinion ostracises 

 him. 



If their virtue is so essential to true greatness 

 of character — if the vicious are obliged to use 

 its counterfeit in order to attain their purposes — 

 how important it becomes that the young man 

 shall establish early virtuous principles of action 

 — that for his own hafipiness he should avoid 

 the spurious and seek the true. 



In selecting an employment for life, soine 

 adopt that of one of the professions or enter in- 

 to mercantile pursuits to avoid the labor imposed 

 by the mechanical trades and agriculture ; or 

 perchance the aristocratic idea that one business 

 is more honorable than another, determines their 

 choice. 



He who enters a profe.ssion for the sake of 

 ease, finds out his mistake in the chagrin and 

 mortification he meets with in his repeated fail- 



ures. The professional man must work equallv 

 with the fanner and the trieclianic, or else his 

 qualifications are useless; eminence, here as 

 elsewhere, is only attained by industrious appli- 

 cation. With regard to the latter, absurd and 

 anti-republican as it is, it has too much influence 

 with the young and giddy, and with children, 

 too, of a " larger growth." 



It has been said before, and we again repeat 

 it here, that profession or employment neither 

 adds to, or detracts from, true dignity of char- 

 acter. 



If the nobleness of occnpatioii is to be deter- 

 mined (as it should be) by the benefits it confers 

 upon mankind, Agricidture must take the prece- 

 dence ; and yet how greatly has this honorable 

 occupation been neglected ! 



While the Arts and Sciences and the mechan- 

 ical trades have been rapidly advancing — while 

 each year constitutes a new and important era 

 in the history of matiy of them, a Cliiuese policy 

 has been pursued in Agriculture. Until within a 

 few years, the son trod in the footsteps of his 

 fiither, and looked upon the slightest deviatiou 

 fi-om his practices as an alarming and dangerous 

 innovation. 



When a more enlightened and experimental 

 neighbor, by a new and more rational system of 

 I)olicy, produced double or treble the amount 

 from the same extent of surface and at the same 

 expense and labor, he listened to the account ap- 

 parently as much edified and convinced as he 

 would have been by a grave discourse upon the 

 same subject in the Choctaw language. Thanks 

 to Heaven, the prejudices to improvement in the 

 cultivation of the soil are rapidly passing away ; 

 it is taking its proper place among otlier pur- 

 suits, and the greatest intellects of the nation are 

 turning their attention to its interests. 



Already has a National Agricultural Society 

 been formed ; smaller societies are springing up 

 on every han<l, and agricultural papers are start- 

 ing in every Slate ; men of talent, disgusted with 

 the turmoils and intrigues of public occupations, 

 are engaging in this and giving it the aid of their 

 enlightened observations. 



We believe the day is not far distant when 

 agricultural schools will be permanently eslab 

 lished, and when ttie varied toils of the husband- 

 man will be greatly ameliorated, become more 

 [irofitahle, and reduced to a regular system. 



Agriculture affords an ample field for experi- 

 ment and oliservation worthy the attention of 

 the highest order of talent. The same prepara- 

 tory education given to the farmer that the law- 

 yer or divine enjoys, would enable him to pro- 

 duce results in his vocation equal in value. 



What, say you, cive the farmer a liberal edu- 

 cation ? Certainly, and why not? Oh, but it is 

 impracticable. liiipracticable is it? and why 

 more so than in giving it to a son designed for 

 a profession ; in incurring an equal amount of 

 expense during his professional studies, and fi- 

 nally in sU|.porting him afterwards through long 

 years of idleness ? 



Unnecessary then ; is it unnecessary ? Let us 

 examine this objection. The fiiriner has differ- 

 ent_ kinds of soil requiring diflTerent kinds of 

 treatment. Geology teaches him the differeiici: 

 between primary and secondary fbrniatioiis : 

 Chemistry their" constituent princi|)les. His 

 whole farm is a chemical laboratory, in which 

 chemical combinations and decompositions are 

 taking place, some of which enrich, others im- 

 poverish its siirfiice. How important it is for 

 him to know this, and to possess such knowledge 

 as to prevent the one and promote the other! 



Will not Natural Philosophy facilitate his at- 

 tempt at improvement? will it not teach him to 

 dig his ditches in his lowlands on iheir outer 

 borders, so as to cut off the cold springs which 

 flow in from the surrounding highlands and kill 

 out the more valuable grasses, in ])reference to 

 digging his ditches directly through their cen- 

 tres, according to ancient usage ? Will it not 

 aid him in the constrnclion of his buildings, his 

 yards, his water-works and his implements of 

 husbandry? Will not Botany afford him valua 

 ble aid by instructing him in the physiology of 

 plants, their pro]>er nutriment, and the soils to 

 which they are best adapted ? The whole circle 

 of the arts and sciences afford valuable aids and 

 help to the agriculturist. 



To the yomig farmer we would say, discard 

 the idea that because you have chosen agricul- 



ture as an occupation, education is unnecessary. 

 It is necessary ; it is a duty you owe to yourself 



and 



o your ( 



iuntry to obtain it. In your hands, 



as a class, rest the destinies of this nation ; in 

 the hour of her tribulation, in the moment of 

 her danger, whether from the attack of foes 

 without, or the corrupt and treasonable intrigues 

 of faction within, it is lo your hands of iron and 

 hearts of steel she will look for succor. Re- 

 member that " knowledge is power;" obtain it ; 

 allow no man to do your thinking ; allow no man 

 to prescribe your rule of conduct when you may 

 be capable of discerning it yourself. To be 

 truly independent you must be intelligent ; the 

 ignorant are always the tools of the designing, 

 however honest their purposes. Removed by 

 occupation from the corruptitig influences of one 

 extreme of social life, and comparatively inde- 

 pendent of cabals, you will be enabled to judge 

 more impartially, and act more correctly in po- 

 litical affairs than those engaged in other em- 

 ployments, and congregated together amid the 

 deiise population of large towns and cities. But, 

 gentlemen, I must draw to a close. 



New England is the birthplace of J\/'ahire's 

 noblemen. The enterprise, energy and genius 

 of her sons are everywhere present: in track- 

 less seas and distant oceans, in remote nations 

 and in strange countries her commerce every 

 where penetrates. The benighted Pagan re- 

 ceives at her hand the words of instruction nnd 

 life ; she raises her voice against the desolations 

 of intemperance, and surrounding nations Uike 

 the alarm ; she applies the correction— they fol- 

 low her examjde. She proclaims and vindicates 

 the rights of man to listening millions. At the 

 south, in the regions of the fiu- west, her sons 

 like so many stars in the firmament are dispen- 

 sing the ray's of light anil truth to a varied popu- 

 lation. The stern and rigid morals — the uncon- 

 quered and unconquerable spirit of liberty of 

 the pilgrim.? descend to the children : wherever 

 they go, wherever they settle, they infuse and 

 propagate their same traits and feelings around 

 them. 



New England is a jewel — yes, a mother of 

 jewels ! Her gems dot the whole surface of our 

 beloved country, sparkling throughout her great 

 and increasing" population and assimilate them 

 to the principles which constitute her own great 

 character. New England, the home of industry 

 and enlerprisp, "the land of good morals and 

 steady luiliits," a light of hope to the oppressed 

 — a polar star to the wandering — "a hand wri- 

 ting on the wall" lo tyrants— the mother of sons 

 as mighty and free as the wild waves that breaU 

 upon her shores. New England, God bless her; 

 iriiiy slio hold on jn her onward course until ihe 

 sceptres of all tyrants shall he broken — until the 

 oppressed shall go free, until mankind shall he 

 reclaimed from Ihe tliraldoin of vice and the 

 rays of truth and knowledge shall burst upon a 

 darkened world. 



American Institute Premium Reports. 



We subjoin some extracts I'loiii the manuscript 

 reports of the American Institute of New York, 

 on the exhibitions of products of Aineiican art, 

 li-oiii stateineiits ofTercil at their Annual Fair, 

 October, 1841.— ./?m. .iirricutiurist. 



Silk. — "It is a subject of regret that among 

 ihe large nniiiber of silk growers who aic now 

 producing the raw material in considerable quan- 

 tities, the competitors should be so few in num- 

 ber. They, however, take great pleasure iu 

 statins that some very handsome and interesting 

 specimens have been exhibited at the [iresent 

 fair, and indulge u hope that ihe number may 

 be greatly increased iu time lo come, for there 

 is no doubt hut a nnich larger assortment could 

 easily have been sent to the Fair from the differ- 

 ent sections of our country where attention has 

 been devoted to the producing the raw material 

 and manufacturing it into sewings, hosiery, 

 shawls, handkerchiefs, dress patterns, ve.stings, 

 velvets, &c. &c. which your commitlee is in- 

 formed is now done to considerable extent in the 

 United States. The silk business seems to have 

 obtained a footing here. It is satisfactorily ascer- 

 tained that it can be conducted so as to afford 

 females and children, who from their situation 

 are incapable of performing hard -labor, an easy, 

 |)leasant, and profitable employment. 



One of Ihe specimens offered for exhibition 

 has afflirded great satisfaction. It was produced 



