34 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
ESSAY ON AGllICUETURE. 
Science and Art, which are designed by nature as twin 
sisters, for the mutual benefit and support of each other, 
have been from time immemorial alienated and estranged 
by the artifices of designing man ; but, I thank Heaven, 
they are becoming happily reconciled. Science, tired of 
spinning hypothetical cobwebs in secret, has at length 
found out that she is indebted to her long despised sister, 
not only lor the comforts of life, but even for the instru- 
ments with which she makes her discoveries ; and Art, 
finding herself no longer insulted, instead of grouping in 
darkness as heretofore, is now making rapid advances, 
in the prosecution of her labors, as she pursues them by 
the light of Science. Every branch of the useful arts is 
now assuming an improved character, as it begin? to be 
conducted upon scientific principles; but in no branch 
whatever is the knowledge of these principles of more 
importance than in Agriculture. 
The Art of Husbandry is unquestionably the most an- 
cient of all. Scripture informs us, that Adam was sent 
from the garden of Eden to labor or cultivate the ground. 
From the earliest accounts of the nations of the East, Ag- 
riculture was carried on by them to considerable perfec- 
tion - 
As soon as the descendants of Abraham were settled 
in Palestine, they became husbandmen, from the highest 
to the lowest ; high birth and rank made in this no dis- 
tinction ; for Agriculture was considered the most honor- 
able of all employments. Of this the history of Gideon, 
of Saul, of David, furnishes illustrious examples. The 
Chaldeans, who inhabited the country where Agriculture 
had its birth, carried that art to a high pitch of in>prove- 
ment. The Egyptians, from the fertility of their soil, en- 
riched by the overflowings of the Nile, raised vast quanti- 
ties of grain, for the use of other nations, as well as for 
their own wants. In the purest days of the Roman Re- 
public, to be called an industrious husbandman, was the 
highest encomium that could be bestowed on an illus- 
trious character — as witnebS Cincinnatus, who was taken 
from the plough to command the Roman legions. Hon- 
orable mention could be made of Cato, of Phocion and 
others. It was the practice among the ancient Persians, 
for their Kings, once in every month, to lay aside their 
grandeur, and eat with husbandmen ; the precepts of 
their religion included the practice of their agriculture ; it 
was even a maxim in their sacred books, that he who 
sowed the earth with diligence and care, acquired a 
greater degree of religious merit, than by the repetition 
of ten thousand prayers. The ceremonious respect be- 
stowed on Agriculture, in China, is well known : there 
the husbandmen enjoys many great privileges, while the 
tradesman and mechanic are held in comparatively little 
esteem. In the beginning of the spring of every year, 
the Emperor in person, attended by the chief men of the 
State, repairs to a field prepared for the purpose, an J 
there with his own hands holds the plough, and turns up 
several furrows ; the Princes and Nobles do the same af- 
ter him, according to their rank ; then the Emperor sows 
the seeds of wheat, rice, millett, and beans, and covers 
them over with the soil. Even in England, to this day, 
they have ploughing matches, and the honor of bearing 
off the trifling prize of a silver cup is boasted of from fa- 
ther to son. 
The prejudices of farmers against all innovations upon 
their established habits, are as old as Agriculture itself 
In the dark ages of superstition, a man who by any im- 
proved method, continued to grow larger crops than his 
fellows, was supposed to use supernatural means, and if 
he escaped prosecution as a wizard, was at least shrewd- 
ly suspected of dealing with a power, whom his pious 
neighbors carefully avoided. Why should the light of 
Science be hidden from the husbandman, and applied to 
the more learned professions, when Agricul ure requires 
its aid, and has more imperative claims upon the sublime 
mystery, than all the professions besides'? Farmers have 
to make more use of the powers and laws of nature, than 
other professions: they have to use the elements tor tools ; 
they are, indeed, practical chemists, for they have to make 
use of the various substances which nature has given 
them ; they have to combine, separate, modify and change 
both simples and compounds ; their firm is at one and 
the same time a laboratory and a workshop, and in pro- 
portion as they operate in such a way, as to afford the 
several elements, of which the substances are composed, 
and upon which they are operating to disunite and to 
combine, will be their success ; they depend upon the 
vegetable world for a subsistence; their labor is upon 
and among the plants on the earrh ; they have to change 
the state of it and adapt it to the seasons and the crops ; 
they have to “ discern the face of the sky,” and watch 
the changes of the weather, and regulate their movements 
accordingly ; they must use tools or implements of labor ; 
they must take advantage of the principles of mechanics 
to practical life; and in this country they have to contri- 
bute largely to the support and formation to the govern- 
ment, for upon them depends the election of rulers and 
law-makers; they have to administer to the sickness of 
animals under their charge, heal wounds and restore 
health. Indeed, so wide is the field of his labors, so nu- 
merous the subjects with which he is connected, so va- 
rious the operations which he has to perform, we verily 
think the farmer ought to be the most le.arned man upon 
earth, for his* whole business o; life is a series of illustra- 
tions of the principles of science, and his whole estab- 
lishment is a scientific laboratory. 
You will not object to giving learning to the man who 
labors for our spiritual good — to the lawyer who settles 
our temporal disputes, or to the physician who heals our 
maladies; then why in the name of common- sense is it 
not equally necessary for the farmer I 1 would not dis- 
pute with either ol these professions for the monopoly of 
the dead languages, but for the ever-living Sciences, for 
mathematics, mechanics, chemistry, botany, zoology, 
and their subordinate branches, I contend, that where a 
clergyman, or lawyer, has one professional occasion for 
their use, a farmer has fifty. By botany and chemistry, 
he learns the physiology of his plants, the nourishment 
and treatment they require, and by analysing the soil, he 
discerns what is neces.sary to maintain and increase its 
fertility. Zoology and natural history teach him the 
characters and constitution of his animals, and mechan- 
ics the structure and use of his instruments. There is no 
doubt but those who have no faith in book farming will 
smile at the idea of a college learned farmer; but how 
many things have been smiled at as ridiculous at one pe- 
riod, and at a subsequent time hailed and applauded as 
wonderful improvement '? The clergyman, lawyer, and 
doctor, by common consent, are made learned profes - 
sions; but poor Agriculture, whose hand sows the seed, 
ind whose arm gathers the harvest and the vintage, on 
which all our earthly conuorts, and indeed our very exis- 
tence depend, she can’t be allowed to teach her sons the 
most valuable of all arts! No matter; we are nothing 
but ‘ clod-hoppers:” if we have learnt our letters, and 
can read our bibles, what more can we want to knowl 
Let the disciples of the old school ridicule “ book-farm- 
ing,” and laugh at the idea of our sons being sent to col- 
lege to learn to hoe corn ; but, as I have intimated, the 
spirit of improvement is abroad. Ii we are charmed upo n 
viewing a garden upon a small scale, the worn, perhaps, 
of a single but skilltul individual, how infinitely more 
charming must be the view of three or four hundred acres 
planned and laid out with the accumulated skill of ages, 
and viewed by the broad light which Science has thrown 
upon the subject, with all the beauties of the vegetable 
