SOUTHERN CUUTiVATOR. 
5 
FAKiVIERS, DIGNIFY YOUR PROFESSION. 
“ But no one knows 
How oats, peas, beansand barley grows.” 
[Old Song. 
Mr. Editor— '^diy'xn^ been silent a long time, by way 
of variety, I will endeavor to do something for your 
columns— I do not know what it will be, but v>^e shall see 
when we get through. 
For some thousands of years, the husbandman has been 
putting seed into the earth, and weeding and turning the 
soil, and anxiously Avatching the result. He has been 
trying to pry into the arena or secrets of nature. The 
strongest motives— self-preservation, duty, and even 
pride, have actuated him. His calling is the foundation 
on which civilized society rests, and he is conscious of it. 
Is he, then, the foremost man in society does he fill the 
high places'? does he have the largest share of honors^ 
Nothing of this. He is still “the hewer of wood and car- 
rier of water” for the rest of mankind. He sees combina- 
nations forming all around him to clutch the profits of his 
toil, and he doss not— perhaps cannot — resist. Is this his 
lot by an inexorable fate 1 If so, he must submit ; he 
cannot help it. While others dance, he must pay the 
piper ; while others sing, he cannot sing again in answer. 
But is this necessarily so, and is there no remedy '? The 
human mind is expansive and progressive. Look to the 
other departments of human labor: Mechanics build 
bridges, steamboats, railroads and palaces; spin textile 
materials, and weaves them into all kinds of fabrics, and, 
when finished, dye them with a thousand hues. Chemis- 
try and other sciences have lent them their aid, and they 
have received it. They have not turned away, or given 
them a cold and listless attention. They have paid them 
in honors, they have paid them in material substance. 
But the farmer turns away. He v/ill not prove the value 
of their suggestions by a practical test — by trying them 
fairly, and reporting success or failure. No ; he is, in his 
own conceit, too wise for that. He says, “no one knows 
how oats, peas, beans and barley grows.” “You can’t 
tell me” — and sings it, too. 
It must be confessed the old song is too nearly true. 
While all other callings are advancing, agriculture stands 
nearly still. It is doubtful whether, in practical agricul- 
ture, we have advanced far ahead of the Romans two 
thousand years ago. In fact, I fear we do not equal them 
in practical knowledge; and I am sure we do not attach 
the importance to the calling, nor dignify it as they did. 
Then Virgil, the greatest and sweetest of poets, sung its 
praises ; Cicero, the orator and writer, par excellence, de- 
lighted to do it honor; Cincinnatus, the dictator, left th^ 
plow and his farm to assume the supreme command, and 
after having been honored with a triumphant entry into 
Rome, as her savior, did not hesitate to return to his farm. 
They did not look upon the professions of law and medi- 
cine, or a clerkship in a store, as positions higher, and 
more dignified, than that of the farmer. They did not 
think the pursuit of agriculture disqualified the citizen 
from holding offices of honor and trust, nor degrade it by 
giving a preference to men engaged in the professions. 
Farmers and Planters, would you dignify your calling I 
Would you see it honored and prosperous^ Imitate the 
■Romans. Do not degrade yourself by making a low es- 
dmate of your calling. Do not consider scientific knowl- 
edge incompatible with your business. Do not suppose 
there is no call for knowledge and trained intelLct in the 
management of the farm. Be assured that what chemis- 
try and other sciences have done for mechanics, she will do 
for you. Do not turn away from her suggestions, but give 
them a fair trial. Everything is proved by well-conducted 
experiment — experiment is the test; “try all things, and 
hold fast to that which is good.” Build up an Agricultural 
'College, and prepare your sons, not for the professions, 
- 
clerkships, &c., but to be intelligent iarmers. Send a due 
proportion of farmers to your Legislature, and give them 
a fair share of the offices of profit. Show thus that you 
do not regard them as an inferior cast. If you will do all 
this, knowledge will abound, science will unfold hei' 
secret stores, and we may yet understand “how oats, 
peas, beans and barley grows.” Franklin, 
{in Laurensville Herald. 
THE SCIENCE OF BREEDING. 
Wb are induced to write out and pulblish the leading 
points of a lecture on the Science of Breeding, mainly to 
correct the mischievous errors which give rise to legisla- 
tion like the following: 
“Marriage of Kindred. — A bill has passed the House 
of Representatives by a vote of 36 to 52, prohibiting the 
intermarriage of first cousins under a severe penalty, and 
cutting off the inheritance of issue. The preamble of the 
bill asserts that many deformations of mind and of body 
are of congenital origin, from the practice of near kindred 
intermarrying with each other .” — Southern Recorder. 
Many a bill had a mistaken “preamble,” and served to 
perpetuate false views on the most important subjects. 
“The intermarrying of near kindred” is no worse now 
than it was when the first descendants of Adam and Eva 
married not only first cousins, but brothers and sisters. 
The whole teachings of the Bible in reference to the difi 
ferent species of animals springing each from a single 
pair, are false, or else to propagate and multiply the same 
from the blood of a single pair violates no law of nature. 
Truth is always consistent with itself; while error is ever 
forced to adopt conflicting principles. There is no evidence 
whatever that Providence was under the necessity of cre» 
ating two men and two women to avoid the deterioration 
of their offspring by too close intermarriage ; and yet 
their entire issue would contain only the seminal blood of 
four persons — compelling very close breeding in a few 
generations. Has this natural system of in-and-in breed- 
ing either emasculated or deformed any one species of the 
cVdzsT^^malta, to which man belongs? Certainly not. 
On the;contrary, the most vigorous and perfect herd of 
neat cattli^ known to civilized man is seen in Chillingham 
Park^^here all the alleged evils of the closest possible 
intermarriage of near kindred have preyailed for six hun- 
dred years. It was the wise and salutary instruction of 
Nature in matters purely physiological, in this, famous 
English park, that enabled nature’s, noblemen, the Messrs. 
Colling, George Culley, Bakewell, and others, to 
break the chains of an iron superstition, and by following 
nature’s laws, make the farmers of all Europe and America 
pay tribute to their skill in the improvement of domestic 
animals. Of course, defects and deformities may be pro- 
pagated through the agency of near kindred as well as 
^by the intercourse of sexes belonging to different families. 
In all such cases, however, the error lies not in the close 
relationship of parents, but in pairing individuals whose 
constitutions, physical and physiological developments, 
one not adapted to each other. To study and understanfi 
these in all their vital functions and relations, gives one 
that clear and systematic knowledge of the subject which 
makes him a scientific breeder of live stock. Hitherto 
lha world has produced but few such breeders; but BU)<^h 
