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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



to the agricultural societies of far-off« 

 times? Or how much of that greatness 

 and social security we enjoy, to those who 

 held their meetings in troublous days, 

 with the sound, mayhap, of the war-shout 

 in their ears, or the crackling of blazing 

 roof tree and blackened house walls ? 

 And if there is truth in the doctrine of 

 him who was not wont to write genially 

 or kindly, that " He who can make two 

 ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to 

 grow upon a spot of ground where only 

 one grew before, will deserve better of 

 mankind than the whole race of politicians 

 put together" — let us not arrogate to our- 

 selves the boast of having done all the 

 good in this way. But with the recollec- 

 tion of our recent triumphs, let us, with 

 all humility, remember the claims of the 

 pioneers of the science. Nor will it read 

 us a useless lesson if we recall to mind 

 the truth, as we read — and reading, mix 

 pity with our wonder — of the state of our 

 science years ago, that the time may come 

 when some future agriculturist may pur- 

 sue with no less wonder accounts of what 

 we are doing now. When he will think 

 how little room there was for us to boast 

 of our nineteenth-century doings. For the 

 signs are now rising thick around us, to 

 warn us that we are about to enter on a 

 new field of discovery and mechanical ap- 

 plication ; and that however nobly our 

 mechanicians have met the requirements 

 of our improved field-practice, the time is 

 fast approaching — if indeed it has not al- 

 ready arrived — when more will be re- 

 quired of them. When new opportuni- 

 ties will be accorded them, of gaining 

 fresh laurels and making new triumphs. 

 We live, at all events, in a transition- 

 time. Already, in imagination, the sound 

 of the steam whistle drowns that of the 

 ploughboy ; the snort and puff of the en- 



gine mix mayhap, to ears sentimental, j proving : too much cannot be done in this 

 harshly with the sounds of rural'life, and j way. But if it is not, — an alternative 

 the black smoke cloud darkens the grain 

 fields or the shocks of smiling corn. In 

 many of our departments we have already 

 got to the ultimatum — to that point be- 

 yond which; with our present implements, 

 we can go but little further. Again, a 

 careful, a philosophical survey of the 

 whole range of our mechanism must force 

 the — to many unwelcome, but not less un- 

 important — suggestion, that much of it is 

 a mere necessity of a bad system of 



working. We invent an implement at 

 the expenditure of much thought ; and the 

 farmer at much cost of money uses it, to 

 get rid of an evil which, by going more phi- 

 losophically to work, we could prevent alto- 

 gether. We expend much time and money 

 in getting rid of effects and effects merely, 

 without bestowing a thought on the cause. 

 We would think little of the wisdom of the 

 manufacturer who would prefer to buy, 

 and keep working, at a costly rate, a ma- 

 chine to do away with certain prejudicial 

 peculiarities in his materials, the presence 

 of which could have been prevented by a 

 little expenditure of trouble at some cer- 

 tain stage of his proceedings. Yet this 

 is what many of us do in our field opera- 

 tions. We bring into use a complicated 

 array of mechanical movements or'tedious 

 processes, to undo evils, which if we do 

 not altogether cause, we do little to pre- 

 vent, while prevention may be, or is in our 

 power. And although able men and acute 

 thinking minds have been for some time, 

 and are A%w pointing the way to a more 

 economical, because more philosophical 

 way of working, such is the force of pre- 

 judice, and such the trammels of custom, 

 we are content to go on in the same path 

 which our fathers have trod before us, 

 and use our implement or implements — 

 we name no particular one just now, 

 though we shall hereafter — because it has 

 been used before us. " Our fathers did 

 it. Say, are we wiser than they ?" It is 

 not philosophy — nay, further, it is not 

 common sense, to keep perpetually striv- 

 ing to improve the construction or the de- 

 tails of an implement (mark here, again, 

 that we refer to no one particularly, but 

 take the question in its broadest phrase) — 

 without, in the first place, inquiring 

 whether its principle of operation is or is 

 not the right one. If it is, then go on im- 



•an 



worthy of consideration, truly — it is (not 

 to mince the matter, but to speak English 

 truth in an English way) but the greatest 

 folly to trouble ourselves further about it. 

 We may improve its details to enable us 

 tb do better work of such a class as it can 

 do, than we could do without such im- 

 provements. We may get better work 

 thus, but we can never get good. An im- 

 plement in its principle bad, can simply 

 from being bad, in nowise give 



us good . 



