THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



163 



are as a grain of wheat hid in two bushels of 

 chaff. So slowly have our discoveries in the 

 application of the sciences to the art of agricul- 

 ture progressed, that in our opinion Professor 

 Liebig possesses in this respect very little supe- 

 riority over a distinguished farmer of Goochland, 

 who perhaps never read a work upon botany in 

 his life, and who is entirely ignorant of even the 

 nomenclature of chemistry. The little that is 

 really known of the science of agriculture, is 

 readily and easily obtained and quickly dissemi- 

 nated j as far, therefore, as our observation has 

 gone, there is no great difference between the 

 scientific knowledge of one farmer and another. 

 And yet there is undoubtedly a great difference 

 between the results of different agriculturists : 

 one grows rich and his land improves, whilst 

 the other and his land grow poor together. — 

 What occasions this difference if it be not a su- 

 perior knowledge on the part of the one of the 

 science of his profession ? We will tell you 

 what we think it is owing to, superior industry 

 upon the part of the successful farmer, and 

 hence a superior knowledge of the manipula- 

 tions and tools required in the practice of his 

 art. Do not let us be misunderstood ; we re- 

 verence learning and information of every kind, 

 but in the present state of things, we believe 

 that Mr. Richard Sampson, of Goochland, or 

 Mr. Hill Carter, of Charles City, can furnish 

 examples of industry and personal attention to 

 business, that are infinitely more valuable, and 

 more wanting to the farmers of the South, than 

 all the modern theories of ammonia, geine, and 

 humus, put together. This w r e know, that with- 

 out industry and personal attention, all the scien- 

 tific knowledge in the world is of no avail, and 

 that with it, a very small modicum of science 

 will serve to make a farmer independent, and 

 his family happy and comfortable. When the 

 two are thoroughly united ; when knowledge 

 and industry go hand in hand, then shall we 

 have the perfection of agriculture. 



Another important element, perhaps, as we 

 have said upon a former occasion, the most im- 

 portant element in successful farming, is the 

 practice of economy. But this sometimes de- 

 generates into penuriousness and narrowminded- 

 ness. A farmer will frequently refuse to lay out 

 five dollars in an improved implement, that would 

 return him tenfold its value. He never buys an 

 agricultural book or takes an agricultural paper, 

 although the statement of a single fact in the 



latter, may be worth to him twenty times the 

 amount of his subscription. Thus the extreme 

 desire to make money, frequently defeats the 

 very object of the miser. But such a man by 

 the practice of economy gets rich — not in con- 

 sequence, but in spite, of his policy in this re- 

 spect. The world looks on, and says, here is 

 Mr. A. who never reads an agricultural paper, 

 that has gotten rich by farming, whilst Mr. B. 

 who has had a collegiate education, and takes 

 the Cultivator, and the Farmer, and the Planter, 

 &c. &c., is ruining himself by book farming ; 

 therefore, a man is better without an agricultural 

 paper than with one. We do not mean to say 

 that this is always the case, that a man who 

 takes an agricultural paper is necessarily ruined. 

 God forbid ! But we think that a large majority 

 of the readers of agricultural papers, are liber- 

 ally educated men, who, from the luxury to 

 which they have been accustomed, have a dis- 

 taste for the drudgery that is absolutely neces- 

 sary to the successful pursuit of agriculture. — 

 They too often endeavor to substitute scientific 

 investigation, which is much more congenial to 

 their habits, for indefatigable labor, and the failure 

 which must follow any such attempt, too often 

 brings book farming into disrepute. This is the 

 way in which we account for the fact, that nar- 

 rowmindedness and ignorance so often, in farm- 

 ing, get ahead of liberality and education. But 

 if every man who takes our paper, will exercise 

 a sound judgment in rejecting what is false, 

 availing himself of what is true, and will at the 

 same time resort to the same economy and an 

 equal degree of application with his neighbor 

 who does not read at all, we will answer for it, 

 that the difference in the result will be too ma- 

 nifest to go unobserved. We have, we know, 

 many warm friends, and we are deeply thankful 

 for it ; if they are desirous to extend the circu- 

 lation of the Planter, let them follow our advice 

 in this respect, and we will have no more diffi- 

 culty about subscribers. 



CURIOSITY AT WINDSOR CASTLE. 



A very extraordinary and interesting natural 

 curiosity has lately arrived at Windsor Castle, 

 w T here it has been placed upon a large pedestal 

 in the grand vestibule (leading to the Waterloo 

 Chamber,) to which the public are admitted. It 

 was recently in the Royal Conservatory at Kew, 

 (having been sent as a present to the Sovereign 

 from this country from China,) whence it has 



