THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



361 



mense assembly — when we reflect on the in- 

 fluence that "association and combined effort" 

 have exerted on mankind — on the good they 

 have effected when rightly — on the evil when 

 wrongly directed, — when we remember that 

 our association had its origin but recently, that 

 to-day it numbers in its ranks thousands of our 

 people — that it commands and unites the sci- 

 ence, the learning, the practical knowledge, the 

 industry, wealth, zeal of the low lands and high 

 lands, the town and country, of all parties and 

 all creeds, of all sections and all classes in har- 

 monious and concerted council and action, to 

 improve and consolidate the wealth, happiness, 

 and grandeur of Virginia, — who is there that 

 does not acknowledge, that the agencies that 

 produce all this good — that have effected all 

 these important changes in our circumstances 

 and condition, are the great agricultural im- 

 provers of the age. 



These are some of the reasons on which I 

 rely when I affirm that the influences that have 

 hitherto retarded the increase of our popula- 

 tion, and impaired our agriculture, were tem- 

 porary in their character and are passing away 

 — -that in the future our advance in wealth, 

 prosperity and power, will be regular, steady, 

 and progressive. 



The improvement of a farm, or any general 

 improvement in the agriculture of a country is 

 the result of long, patient, persevering atten- 

 tion and labor. It cannot be accomplished 

 in one year or in two, or to any great extent 

 in a single generation. Hence one of the 

 most fatal of the consequences resulting from 

 emigration and the unsettled state of opinion 

 that attends it. During the period of their 

 prevalence in Virginia, the real estate was of 

 little value. Many desired to sell — no one 

 desired to purchase, and all were considering 

 the probable advantages that would attend 

 a change of residence. No improvement of 

 the soil, for it was uncertain whether the owner 

 would remain to reap the rewards. No drain- 

 ing, for that involved present expenditure 

 with promise of future benefit. No rotation of 

 crops, for none had fixed purposes or plans for 

 the future. No improvements in dwellings, 

 quarters, or stables, for they might all be 

 shortly abandoned — nothing permanent — no- 

 thing durable — nothing that did not promise 

 immediate returns, was undertaken. — The es- 

 tate itself became a mere marketable commo- 

 dity, to he sold, or traded, or parted with, as 

 an ordinary article of personal property. 



Consider for a moment the condition of ag- 

 riculture under these circumstances. What 

 think you of putting your farm under a four 

 or five years rotation, when you might aban- 



don it that fall ? building good houses to make 

 another man comfortable? erecting quarters 

 for other people's slaves ? analyzing your soils, 

 and ascertaining upon the most approved phi- 

 losophical principles, their constituent elements 

 and properties, to enable you to disclose their 

 merit to some speculator or trader in lands 

 that by accident might be thrown in your way 

 as a purchaser, — buying good ploughs, har- 

 rows and implements of husbandry, that when 

 you "traded" your land you might "throw 

 them into the bargain ?" 



Gentlemen, agricultural improvement only 

 begins when real estate is regarded as a per- 

 manent, fixed and unchangeable investment. 

 He only is prepared to aid in its advancement, 

 who regards his farm as his permanent home, 

 the spot he has selected for the labor of his 

 life, where the ardor of his youth, the en- 

 ergy of his manhood, and the wisdom of his 

 maturer years, are to find their attractions, 

 their rewards, and their honors, — elevated and 

 strengthened by the resolution to transmit it to 

 posterity, as the true record of what he was in 

 his day and in his generation. " The good 

 men do, is oft interred with their bones." 

 In agriculture, the good we do lives after us. 

 The fields we enrich — the lands we drain — the 

 spacious barns we erect — the comfortable 

 dwellings we build — the oaks we plant, or 

 preserve around it — the green grass we make 

 grow — the gardens we enclose and adorn — all 

 live after us, and in benefits and blessings per- 

 petuate our name. 



He who does this, has inscribed his name on 

 " mother earth," and the revolving seasons — 

 the chill winter, the bright spring, the warm 

 summer, the fruitful autumn — all come in their 

 order to revive and renew the memory of that 

 man who has left this record behind him — 

 "Agriculture has her triumphs no less than 

 war, and these are of them." 



" Nothing characterizes more strongly our 

 American industry or contributes in a greater 

 degree to give it superiority over that of the 

 old world, than the inventive genius that dis- 

 plays itself in the construction and use of those 

 labor-saving machines and implements with 

 which it has supplied itself." 



In no pursuit are there benefits more appa- 

 rent than in the art of agriculture, in the ad- 

 ditions they have made to power, the economy 

 they produce in time, and the effectiveness they 

 produce in human labor. " No where can 

 capital be so beneficially employed, as in aid- 

 ing and strengthening the productive power of 

 nature." 



What has produced more immediate and ob- 

 vious benefits to agriculture, than the improved 



