550 



THE SOUTHER 



N PLANTER. 



[September 



the earliest moment, and will yield soonest. 

 This can be sowed, or better, drilled ; and its 

 due use will save the condition and strength of 

 animals; increase the supply of milk, diminish 

 the cost of subsequent keeping, and so on. Later 

 in the season, sorghum, or corn put in later, 

 the Hungarian grass, clover, turnips, &c, will 

 come admirably in place. But in all our plans 

 for economy and profit through the raising and 

 management of animals, let us remember that 

 they are not like plants, fixtures to any spot; 

 that nature has fitted their functions to a state 

 of locomotion and activity, and endowed them 

 with feelings also of comfort or pain, through 

 which their well-being must be affected; and 

 that just so far, therefore, as we aim entirely 

 to shut them up and reduce them to the vege- 

 tative condition, we must impair their stamina 

 and damage, for our own purposes, the product 

 of food, for which a large share of them are 

 intended. — United States Stock Journal. 



Meeting of the Agricultural Society of 

 Virginia, June 18th, 1818. 



The President, John Taylor, Esq., [Au- 

 thor of Arator,] delivered an address, 

 of which the following is the concluding 

 part : 



ADDRESS. 



****** As every country must ac- 

 quire Agricultural knowledge by its own 

 exertions, or remain ignorant, it ought to 

 consider whether ingenious discoveries or 

 skilful experiments will not be generally lost 

 by changes of property, or buried in the 

 tombs to which their authors are devoted, 

 unless they are recorded and circulated by 

 the same means which have saved science 

 from oblivion, and spread civilization wher- 

 ever it exists. Is there a man who would 

 wish to carry out of the world, a useful dis- 

 covery he has made in it, or who would not 

 feel pleasure from the reflection that he 

 may be doing good to mankind after he is 

 dead? He who shrinks from publishing 

 whatever may have this effect, commits an 

 act he abhors and loses the satisfaction aris- 

 ing from disinterested benevolence. 



No censure of the genius of our country 

 is intended by the observation, that it does 

 not appear with much splendor in the 

 science of Agriculture; since the mind of 

 man is not constructed for the comprehen- 

 sion of abstruse subjects, without study, nor 

 for the attainment of skill without practice. 

 An incitement to exercise its powers, must 

 precede a display of its talents. The human 

 mind is enfeebled by idleness and rendered 



vigorous by exertion. By compositions con- 

 cerning Agriculture, the writer will improve 

 his own knowledge, awaken the understand- 

 ing of others, and cultivate the only mode 

 by which perfection is attainable. Without 

 them, whatever may be the genius of Vir- 

 ginians for the acquisition of accomplish- 

 ments by which they are adorned, it will be- 

 come dormant as those by which they must 

 live. 



The study of Agriculture, and a habit of 

 'writing upon the subject, will bestow upon 

 the wealthy farmers no small portion of 

 pleasure, by furnishing them with the means 

 of escaping from the irksomeness of too 

 much leisure, and from the regret of having 

 wasted time in unprofitable employments. 

 Those placed above the necessity of bodily 

 labour, must recompense themselves by 

 mental, or sink into a state of apathy, un- 

 friendly to health, happiness and virtue. 

 What subject can be better fitted for substi- 

 tuting activity for langour than one which 

 can gratify self-interest, provide for the 

 exercise of benevolence, and awaken the love 

 of our country ? 



The strongest reason which invites us to 

 become attentive to the encouragement of 

 Agricultural publications, remains to be 

 noticed. Agriculture, commerce and manu- 

 factures are the three great objects of indi- 

 vidual interest, and national solicitude. To 

 preserve them, each ought to understand its 

 own rights; to lose them, ignorance will 

 suffice for either. Though Agriculture may 

 need no charter, require no bounties, claim 

 no monopolies, and ask for no legal aug- 

 mentations of the prices of her commodities, 

 she may yet feel an unpropitious legal provi- 

 dence, and languish under injustice. Though 

 she may flourish in the enjoyment of equal 

 rights with her compeers, she may be stunted, 

 or even stifled by an unequal pressure. Com- 

 merce never confines her knowledge to the 

 structure of her ships and the properties of 

 the magnet; nor manufacturing to the 

 powers of steam and the fabrication of 

 tools. Both are politicians. Both write, 

 publish and petition, to gain improvement, 

 justice, or favor. Both sift the laws by 

 which they are affected. Why should Agri- 

 culture confine her attention to vehicles and 

 lose sight of cargoes? why should she be 

 careful of her lands and her tools, and care- 

 less of her crops ? Both her sisters shun 

 this strait road towards impoverishment, and 

 renounce the recreation to be expected from 



