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THE ILLINOIS F^R]SIEIl. 



227 



the sake of saving their lives ; and ever 

 after they were required to pay to the 

 monarch one-fifth of all the productions 

 of the soil, for the privilege of cultivat- 

 ing the lands of their rulers. 



The ancient province of Attica, of 

 which Athens was the capital, is said to 

 have had a population of 5.*)0,000 people; 

 400,000 were deemed to be servants and 

 slaves, from whom were withheld the 

 rights of citizenship. 



The vast dominion of the Roman em- 

 pire is believed to have extended over 

 120,000,000 of human beings ; and Mr. 

 Gibbon, the historian of the "Decline 

 and Fall of the Roman Empire," informs 

 us that about one half of the whole pop- 

 ulation were slaves. 



In our time there is reason to believe 

 that more than one half of the ten hun- 

 dred millions of people who dwell on 

 the globe, are slaves to the remaining 

 minority. In such a condition of socie- 

 ty, where laborious industry is degraded 

 by servitude, what better can be expect- 

 ed but that the laboring classes, whether 

 in the field or the workshop, should be 

 held in odious disesteem, and doomed to 

 ignorance? When here in this boasted 

 "land of the free and home of the 

 brave," the enervating and degrading 

 influences of slavery are seen by com- 

 paring the healthy intelligence and pros- 

 perous activity of any of the free States 

 with any of the slave States. In the 

 slave portions of our country, even a 

 freeman who is obliged to labor, suffers 

 by the degradation to which his labor is 

 reduced by the slavery around him. A 

 freeman that toils by the side of a bond- 

 man is not as much esteemed as the 

 bondman. Such is the pitchy darkness 

 of this ruinous and dreadful evil among 

 men. If the tillage of the ground is to 

 be performed by slaves, then is tillage a 

 mean pursuit, dooming its pursuer to the 

 lowest ignominy which the heart of proud 

 man conceives. 



Nor is this all : Slavery has it grada- 

 tions, and is various in its forms. To 

 avoid the odium of maintaining it, men 

 sometimes change its forms. Abject 

 depenuence is servitude — it is slavery, 

 be its name what it may. 



Slavery, at the very first, gave to a 

 few over the many a monopoly in the 

 lands. That monopoly still abides, even 

 in countries where slavery in name is 

 not tolerated by law. A monopoly of 

 lands leads to slavery, as certainly as 

 does slavery, when it comes first, lead to 

 a monopoly of lands. The one, no mat- 

 ter which, is sure to be produced by the 

 other. 



In Britain, for example, there is 

 scarcely less degradation in labor than 

 there is among the slave territories of 

 the south; and no wonder it is so, for the 

 soil in Britain is not owned by the fam- 

 ilies who work it. Accordinsr to Mc 



Culloch, there are are 77,007,040 acres 

 of land in the United Kingdom, includ- 

 ing the small islands adjacent. In a 

 population of not less than twenty-eight 

 millions, the entire lands are owned by 

 only fifty thousand proprietors, eachone 

 having an average of a little more than 

 fifteen hundred and forty acres; so that, 

 in every community of five hundred and 

 sixty inhabitants, there is only one who 

 is an owner of lands, though there are 

 many pei'sons who are many persons 

 who are cultivators of it. Some of the 

 estates of the English aristocracy are 

 enormous, even to the extent of five 

 hundred thousand (500,000) acres. Nor 

 is this all; but "these large dominions" 

 says Emerson, "are growing larger. 

 The great estates are absorbing the 

 small freeholds. In 1786, the soil of 

 England was owned by 200,000 corpora- 

 tions and proprietors, and in 1822, by 

 only 32,000. All over England, scat- 

 tered at short intervals among ship- 

 yards, mills mines and forges, are the 

 paradises of the noble, where the livelong 

 repose and refinement are heightened by 

 the contrast with the roar of industry and 

 and necessity." 



Previous to the revolution in France, 

 two-thirds of the lands were owned by 

 the nobles and the church ; yet both the 

 nobles and the clergy were exempted 

 from several of the most burdensome 

 taxes imposed by th<» government. The 

 plea for this exemption was, " That the 

 nobles defended the State by the swords, 

 while the priests interceded for it by 

 their prayers." During the same period 

 of landed monopoly, not one in fifty of 

 the people was able to read ; and their 

 taxes were oppressive and degrading. If 

 the products of an acre, for example, 

 were worth $13,76, the portion taken by 

 the king was $8,40, and the proprietor 

 took $3,96, while the farmer, who per- 

 foi-med the labor, was compelled to be 

 contented with $1,40, not quite one-tenth 

 of the product of his own hard toil. Nor 

 in France only, but in all the despotic 

 governments of the world, labor has been 

 oppressed by exorbitant taxation to sup- 

 port the cunning fiction of the "divine 

 right of kings," while the laboring mill- 

 lions, both in the field and the workshop, 

 have been doomed to subjection. 



Perhaps in a future number of the 

 "Farmer," we shall attempt an additional 

 talk on Agriculture, intended to point out 

 more distinctly the means whereby this 

 necessary and noble pursuit maybe eleva- 

 ted to its rightful dignity among the call- 

 ings of men. 



-***- 



To Knit Heels — To knit beela of socks 

 double, so that they may thus last twice a<? 

 lonjj; as otherwise, skip every alternate Ftitch 

 on the wrong side and knit all on the right. — 

 This will make it double, like that of a duulle 

 ply ingrain carpet. 



The farmer a Learner. 



"What other worker in the wide field 

 of human industry is so fully dependent 

 upon himself in judgment, knowledge, 

 and practice as the Farmer. The me- 

 chanic can demonstrate by figures, illus- 

 trations and mathematical examinations 

 and a failure can generally be remedied, 

 by immediately repeated trials, — not so 

 the farmer; his labors are annual — in 

 spring he sows, and in autumn garners 

 the harvest. A failure generally ad- 

 mits of little additional experiment 

 until another revolution of the Great 

 Time Keeper proclaims the season of 

 active labor again at hand. While the 

 mechanics opportunities for improve- 

 ment of hand labor are frequent much 

 of the farmers recurs only at long inter- 

 vals. A power beyond the farmers 

 reach, is coworker with him — hence he 

 can make no previous, calculations as 

 to result of labor amounting to anything 

 more than estimates, as he is frequently 

 disappointed when he considered success 

 the surest.- 



The developments of every day af- 

 fects the farmer. — the passing cloud 

 — the falling rain — the smothering 

 heat — the pinching cold — the howling 

 blasts, all conspire to keep him on the 

 watch — to continue him in the harness 

 seat. 



More than for other occupations he 

 needs to be educated in all the senses. 

 That he may possess the fullest devel- 

 opment he needs the eye, the ear, the 

 touch, the nose and palate educated to 

 their highest point of detective skill and 

 appreciative power. As he fails in 

 these he falls below that higher law, 

 standard by which he is himself to be 

 tested, weighed and valued in the opin- 

 ions of others. - 



The avenues to understanding opened 

 to the farmer for the cultivation of the 

 above faculties are very numerous. The 

 eye is observing, the phenomena of 

 nature is perhaps the most fertile source 

 of knowledge and it is highly important 

 to his success that the farmer should 

 acquire a coiTect, farmer's eye — that is, 

 one in conjunction with the mind, will 

 practice in deciding quickly and cor- 

 rectly. No other occupation is so fertile 

 in rare opportunities, for at the same 

 time laboring, witnessing, enjoying and 

 laboring as the farmers. No other is so 

 dependent for success upon observa- 

 tion, v ^ .:: :^ 



The farmer's course of study compre- 

 hends more of science than is at pres- 

 ent covered by half a dozen parchment 

 rolls. The incomprehensible soil he 

 tends and tills — the implements and 

 machines of culture, — the clouds and 

 atmosphere over his head and waters at 

 his feet, all are more or less studied by 

 him with something of a knowledge of 

 physiology, reproduction and hygiene 



