THE GENESEE FARMER. 



161 



Agejcct i-V New Tork. — C. M. Saxton, Agricultural Hook Pub- 

 liitlier, Xo. 152 Fulton street, New York, is agent for the Gen'ksi:k 

 Farukr, and subscribers in that city who apply to him can have 

 fheir papers delivered regularly at their houses. 



AcTsrjrcY ix CinxiX-Vati.— R. Post, No. TO West Tliird street, Cin- 

 cinnati, is agent for the Genesee Farmei:, and subscribers in that 

 city who apply to hira can have their papers delivered regularly at 

 their houses. 



Agricultuue as a Profession. — Thousands who have 

 long thought of nothing more than to pur.sue farming as an 

 occupation, and submit through life to its dull, monotonous 

 drudgery, are now happily beginning to appreciate the 

 dignity and pleasures of Agriculture as a Profession. It 

 is a calling which admirably adapts itself to every taste, 

 and every capacity. The most stupid hind and thoughtless 

 dave find fitting employment in the unvarying routine of 

 the commonest field labor. Koman slaves, Russian serfs, 

 and English peasantry, have followed tillage and hus- 

 bandry for indefinite ages, and advanced scarcely one de- 

 gree in mental development. So uniformly dead-and-alive 

 have farm operatives been for five thousand years, that 

 many have afltected to regard agriculture as the mother of 

 Stupidity. Born on a farm, and nursed by the milk of its 

 gentlest kine, this insult stung us like the wound of a scor- 

 pion ; and if it were possible to lift rural industry above 

 such degrading imputations, we resolved that no ellort of 

 ours should be withheld from any friend of the great farm- 

 ing interest who was willing .to work for its immediate and 

 enduring elevation. The difficulty has ever been to reach 

 the millions who own and cultivate the soil ; and no one 

 has yet devised a plan which fully attains that object. 

 Exceedingly cheap periodicals, those that cost clubs only 

 diirty-seven cents a year, promised the greatest advantages 

 by universal circulation ; but their very clieapness, such is 

 the pride of the human heart, operates against their use- 

 fulness in some circles. Purse-proud men think it beneath 

 their consequence to teach their brother farmers, or be 

 taaight by them, throu;^!i the medium of a fifty cent paper. 

 T!ie good spirit of universal philanthropy is not in them. 

 They arrogate to themselves all the honors of advanced 

 agriculture as a profession, without performing any of its 

 higher duties. Such characters de.serve nothing but con- 

 tempt ; for while they do nothing to enlighten and benefit 

 mankind, they claim the consideration due only to the 

 faithful servants of the people. There is but one way for 

 a man to show that his faith in agricultural progress is 

 genuine, and that is by his works. If all who profess to 

 believe in the improvement of rural affairs would cheer- 

 fully lend a helping hand to make agriculture as learned 

 and honorable as it is useful, it might be raised in a few 

 years to the highest public honor, where it of right be- 

 longs. High elevation, it should be remembered, can not 

 be reached by any trick, clap-trap, or shallow advantage. 

 Empiricism is often clamorous, and full of oily-gammon, 

 but its labors always have selfish ends to serve. It belongs 

 to agriculture as a mere occupation, not to agriculture as 

 4 scientific profession. None but liberal minds devise 



liberal things. After four years' experience and observa- 

 tion at the federal metropolis, we do not hesitate to say 

 that the tone of j)ublic morals, and the spirit of patriotism, 

 have suffered greatly from the corrupting influence of 

 selfish, mercenary politicians. There is a lamentable want 

 of sound ngrirullural statesmen at Washington ; and there 

 is an equal lack of care among all farmers in selecting 

 men to represent them in Congress. Ameriorn statesman- 

 ship is not what it ought to be. Its most prominent feature 

 is a degrading strife for the spoils of office. Educate and 

 elevate the industrial classes, and thereby form a more 

 patriotic and a purer public opinion, and all parties will be 

 compelled to serve the country more, and individuals less. 

 It is a perfect misnomer to call a majority of our state and 

 national legislators " public servants." Their principal 

 labor is to serve themselves, their personal and political 

 friends — not the community at large. This defect must be 

 remedied by intelligent farmers, who control the ballot box 

 in every State in the Union. They are the true conserva- 

 tive power of tl'.e republic ; and so regarding them, we 

 esteem their professional standing and intellectual attain- 

 ments as matters of the highest public interest. They 

 should not feel the necessity of sending so many lawyers 

 to fill all the important oflices at Washington, because 

 farmers and mechanics are too poorly educated. The pro- 

 fession of agriculture is not what it ought to be in a free 

 country. It .should be the nursing mother of wise states- 

 men, instead of the pack-horse of itinerant demagogues 

 and political gamblers. Agricultural Statesmanship is al- 

 most unknown in a land where farmers themselves give a 

 large majority of the votes that make and unmake eyary 

 administration and every state and national legislature. 

 Let the talented youth who read this journal, and who 

 will soon have to discharge the responsible duties of popu- 

 lar sovereignty, think of these things, and study to be 

 worthy of the highest honors that freemen may confer. 

 Provide yourselves with good libraries, and read them 

 faithfully to some purpose. 



A Model Pcstmaster. — No other class of public ser- 

 vants have equal opportunities for promoting human 

 progress and elevation that the twenty-five thousand post- 

 masters in the United States enjoy. They operate a 

 government machine of almost unlimited power for good 

 or for evil. It would be saying too much in praise of 

 fallen humanity to assert that all postmasters labor for the 

 advancement of whatever is good, and for tlie suppression 

 of whatever is injurious to the public. A large majority 

 of them, we are happy to believe, do .sympathize with 

 those who devote their time and best energies to the in- 

 struction and improvement of mankind. It is in this way 

 only that so many excellent religious, educational and in- 

 dustrial journals obtain millions of readers. We honor 

 postmasters of this stamp as the salt of the earth. With- 

 out their influence and a.ssistance in behalf of the Agricul- 

 tural Press, the circulation of jiapers devoted to the great 

 farming interest would be diminished one-lialf, if not three- 

 fourths, in the country. Postmasters generally appreciate 

 the importance of giving to every cultivator of the earth 

 a cheap common medium, through which they may both 

 teach one another and Itarn of one another. WhereTer 



