SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
227 
governmental employees 416, and of sea faring men 282. 
This proportion occurs in an area of nearly 60,000 square 
miles and in a population of perhaps, one million. On 
this extent of surface and in this amount of population, 
we have not a single town numbering 30,000 inhabitants. 
The census returns of Georgia would bewilder a European 
statesman. To an American, they but illustrate the 
transcendant excellence of the governmental system which 
works perfectly with an army of 18 and a commercial 
marine of 282 men. 
The contrast between our condition as to the employ- 
ment of our population, and that of some of the other States 
of the Confederacy is very striking. In Massachusetts 
about one-fifth of the males are employed in agriculture; 
Connecticut about one-third; Pennsylvania on e- third ; 
New York a little more than one-third. Yet each one of 
these States have felt bound to sustain the industry of the 
third of its population by Legislative aid. In Georgia, 
where two- thirds ot the whites and nearly all the blacks, 
representing the great bulk of the property of the State, 
are engaged in agrirulture, we might naturally expect that 
our Legislature would foster, in every conceivable way, 
the employment of the great mass of its citizens. What 
are the facts in the case 1 We have before us a very bad- 
ly executed volume of the Acts of the General Assembly 
of the State of Georgia in 1858. Those Acts are 223 in 
number. Of these 223 acts, 20 relate to the creation of 
new counties and changes of county lines; to Banks, 
3; to Railroads and joint stock companies, 9 ; to the ju- 
diciary, 30 ; to cities and towns, 22 ; to local and private 
subjects, 44. 
The above subjects cover more than one-half the Acts 
of the last Legislature. What was done by it for Agricul- 
ture '? The volume of Statutes commences thus : 
“PARTI. PUBLIC LAWS. 
TITLE 1. 
AGRICULTURE AND COMMERCE. 
No. 1. 
AN ACT to repeal an Act entitled an Act to prohibit 
non-residents from hunting, ducking and fishing with- 
in the limits of the State of Georgia, and assented to 
the 23d day of December, 1857. 
Section 1st.. Be it enacted, that said Act referred to be 
and is hereby repealed. Provided, That the counties of 
Chatham, Bryan, Liberty, McIntosh, Glynn and Camden 
shalll be exempt from the operations of this Act, and that 
aforesaid Act of 1857 shall be and remain in force and 
virtue in the counties above named and no others.” 
This important measure, whether of Agriculture or 
Commerce, or both conjointly, we are unable to say, re- 
ceived the signature of His Excellency, the Governor, on 
the* 9th of December, 1858. The Agricultural energies 
of the Legislature exhausted themselves in the passage of 
the above important statute, which announces to the 
world that people of all kindred and climes may shoot 
ducks or catch fish anywhere in this free and magnanimous 
State of Georgia, except in the counties above mentioned 
Tkere is nothing more in the volume of Statutes under the 
head of Agriculture. This fish and duck Act stands soli- 
tary and alone in all its grandeur, in the legislation of a 
body, nine-tenths of whose constituents are directly or in- 
directly connected with the cultivation of the soil. 
We are surprised at this result, inasmuch as Commit- 
tees were raised last autumn, by the State Agricultural 
Society, the Cass County and Hancock Societies, each 
to present memorials to the Legislature on the subject of 
the establishment of an Agricultural School and Experi- 
mental Farm. Did these Committees present their me- 
morials I If they did, the papers gave no account of the 
presentation. Did they undertake a grave duty and slight 
it I We hope the Societies mentioned will each require 
the Report of their Committees this fall. We were some 
time in Milledgeville during the session. We never heard 
the claims of Agriculture presented. Such was the tem- 
per of that body, it is our firm belief, that if the parties to 
whom this subject was entrusted had done their duty, 
liberal legislation might have been obtained in favor of 
any judicious plans for the advancement of the Agricul- 
tural interest. 
We have said that the Legislature ought to aid Agricul- 
ture, if it needs aid, and the reason given is, because the 
great mass of the people of Georgia are engaged in Agri- 
culture. 
But does it need Legislative aid'? Why cannot Agri- 
culture take care of itself I It can take care of itself. It 
has improved. It will continue to improve. It is impos- 
sible, however blind we may be to our own interest, how- 
ever parsimonious or unequal in our disbursements of the 
State funds, that we should be otherwise than favorably 
affected by the wise legislation which has occurred in 
other States, and whose every change in opinion or prac- 
tice we instantly feel, and in which, during the last 
thirty years, the agricultural advancement has been mar- 
velous. It is impossible that the influence of the Agri- 
cultural Press, and chiefly that of the Southern CvUi- 
vator, can have failed to create, in many minds, a desire 
for an improved agricultural practice. It is impossible 
that the example of a few distinguished agriculturists in 
our State can have been witnessed without salutary re- 
sults. It is impossible that our State and County Agri- 
cultural Societies can, for so long a time, have held their 
annual and almost festive meetings without good results 
to the agriculture of the State. We are improving. But 
it is slowly. We crawl when we should walk, we walk 
when we might run. We need assistance to bring us at 
once to a point at which we shall otherwise indeed arrive, 
but after the expiration of a long period of time, after 
much ill-directcd private effort, after great waste of money 
earnestly but ignorantly expended, and after ala'-ge por- 
tion of our soil has been scourged so severely that recov- 
ery has become hopeless. 
There are obstacles to rapid and extended improvement 
in agriculture which do not exist in many others of the 
most important pursuits of men. Commercial and me- 
chanical enterprise seeks the city. Organizations are 
easily effected. Intelligence is rapidly communicatnd. 
Ideas are freely and readily interchanged. Competition 
at once stimulates enterprise and directs its energies to 
wise ends. 
