384 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



to give three clan's to tins sort of sport, but their 

 rules required that there should be none of it 

 on Tuesday. 



So much for the exhibition. 



The proceedings of the Farmers' Assembly, 

 except the President's Report, whose length ex- 

 cludes it from our columns, will be found else- 

 where. We have no comment to offer on them, 

 further than to say that every resolution is good 

 or suggestive of good, and that the members 

 behaved, as was to have been expected from 

 such a body of gentlemen, with dignity and de- 

 corum. 



It will be seen that Col. Cocke has signalized 

 his retirement from the Presidency of the Soci- 

 ety, by an act of rare generosity and public 

 spirit. It is with pleasure that we record this 

 fulfilment of expectations which, from a know, 

 ledge of Col. Cocke's character, we felt authori- 

 zed to encourage nearlj- four years ago. Then, 

 in introducing him as the newly elected Presi- 

 dent of the Society, we said, and now repeat 

 with pjroof of the fact, '"he is a man of wealth, 

 munificence, public spirit, energy and system, 

 entirely devoted to Virginia and her institutions, 

 and thoroughly imbued with the spirit of rural 

 improvement.'^ Differing with this gentleman 

 as \%e have done, and still do, on a good many 

 questions both inside and outside the organiza- 

 tion of the society, we have never ftiiled to ac- 

 cord him the merit of the above characteristics. 



Of the importance of his donation of $20,000 

 towards the endowment of an Agricultural Pro- 

 fessorship, it is impossible to speak at present in 

 adequate terms. If this nucleus of agricultu- 

 ral instruction shall receive its due increase of 

 means, we shall expect the fiirming of thirty 

 years hence to be as far ahead of the present 

 process as general education now is in advance 

 of what it was when the University of Virginia 

 first dawned upon the State in 1825. Book farm- 

 ing will then be the rule and not the exception, 

 the pride and not the reproach, and all will then 

 admit what too few now know, that it is unwise to 

 esteem a man more ignorant because he is more 

 learned, and less fitted to apply principles to 

 details because he has learned them in the ab- 

 stract. Principle will then be to practice what 

 pure are to mixed mathematics, and necessary 

 to be learned as the readiest road to the accurate 

 knowledge of agriculture. 



In the remarks with which Mr. Ilarvie of 

 Amelia accompanied his resolutions on a perma- 



nent fund for the Virginia State Agricultural 

 Society, on that memorable first of Nove^nber, 

 1853, he said that the movement there commen- 

 ced would not stop there ; but that consequen- 

 ces would result which no man could foresee, 

 and whose benefits no man could estimate. 



This donation of Col. Cocke's is one of these 

 consequences, which like a grafted bough will 

 bear fruit of its own. 



Of the various agricultural addresses. Dr. 

 McGuffey's, Dr. Pendleton's and Mr. Franklin 

 Minor's, each was good of its kind. We regre* 

 that Dr. McGuffey's is not to be published. The 

 remarks of so just a thinker on the relation of 

 theory to practice, and the results of their union, 

 could not fail to be instructive. Mr. Minor's 

 and Dr. Pendleton's we hope to be able to pub- 

 lish. 



One of the most interesting features of the 

 gathering to us was the discussions at the meet- 

 ings of the second section, as it was called, which 

 took place every night during the exhibition. 

 The subject selected for the first night was 

 " wheat." The interest excited by the subject 

 and the mode of treating it was so great that no 

 other was pursued, and though the sessions were 

 protracted until eleven o'clock each night, there 

 was no sign of weariness among the members. 



A sketch of the discussion for t vo of the 

 nights will be found in another part of this pa- 

 per ; and we regret that the indisposition of the 

 reporter prevented his attendance at the third 

 meeting, when the discussion turned on peas as 

 a preparation for wheat, and, incidentally, as an 

 improver of the land. Tlie sketch is not full: 

 none but a practised reporter and short hand 

 writer could have followed the speakers, who in 

 an easy and conversational way stated their 

 views, for the most part in reply to questions 

 put to them by different persons for the purpose 

 of gaining further or more exact information. 

 Our own evenings were spent entirely at these 

 meetings when we had just people enough pres- 

 ent to make it agreeable. We do not remember 

 ever to have gained an equal amount of instruc- 

 tion in the same time. By all means let the 

 section meetings continue. 



MR. BRUCE'S DONATION. 

 At the late Fair of the Petersburg Union Ag- 

 ricultural Society, we understand that Mr. James 

 C. Bruce of Halifax county, the President of that 

 Society, agreed to- give it ten thousand dollars 



