SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
97 
tion. Jdckson, Clay, Marshall and Webster, were all 
very humble farmers’ sons, and the first lessons from which 
their greatness came, were taught them in the corn-field, 
without the light of many of the benefits that science now 
affords for correct and easy improvement. They were, 
emphatically, poor boys, of rustic toil, reared amid penury, 
and enjoying not ease; whose course of life was shaped by 
the plow and hoe. It was this early training that discov- 
ered to them their greatness, and taught them in after life 
what real worth and true dignity consisted in; how to 
respect the great multitudes, sympathize with them in the 
vicissitudes of life, study their wants, enlarge their happi- 
ness, and promote the interests of mankind. Franklin, 
Green, and Sherman, were humble mechanics. The first 
a printer, the second a tinner, and the third a shoemaker. 
The road that leads through the workshop, and passes 
through the corn-field, is the surest one to eminence, and 
\.\iQ shortest one to the capital. In the duties pertaining to 
the culture of the soil, the Americans stand preeminently 
practical. We have so vast a domain to move about upon, 
that the science of agriculture has, until recently, been 
but little thought of, and very negligently attended to. 
We buy new homes, not to adorn, make comfortable, live 
happy at and die there, but to abide at fora little while, 
until we can exhaust the soil by a rapid process of prac- 
tical tillage, and compel ourselves to move off again. 
Make haste and get rich ! is our motto, at the sacrifice of 
health, ease, and imminent hazard of wealth. Necessity 
has never yet forced upon us the study ofdomestic econo 
my ; hence, we would say, our censurable negligence of 
agricultural science. To penetrate the wilderness at the 
sacrifice of health and comfort, buy new ground, clear it 
up and fence it in, at a cost of SlO per acre, is an every- 
day occurrence, everywhere to be seen, but to enjoy the 
the comforts of an improved home, and reclaim partially 
exhausted soil at a cost of S5 per acre, but very rarely 
happens, and is but little practiced indeed. Time alone 
can correct this too often backward progress of pi’ogres- 
sion with us of the South-West. 
Nature says the old folks should stay at home and let 
the younglings go forth and provide for themselves. The 
“old homestead” should be held sacred, and cherished as 
the one fond spot of earth forever to be revered. The 
farmer’s interests are peculiarly identical with the soil. If 
any class of community may be considered the chosen 
ones for the accomplishment of universal good it is them 
They, it would seem, are the especial recipients of the 
favors of Providence. For them the dews more particu 
larly descend, the rains fall and the sun shines It is they 
who cause the wilderness to blossom as the rose, and fill 
the store house of plenty with the products of the earth. 
They are the strong pillars of our political fabric and how 
•important it is they should be informed be looked up to, 
instead of dmcn upon. With them rests the great majority 
— they are the sacred dispensers of liberty, and must ex- 
ercise this right for weal or for wo — each a sovereign in 
himself, invested with equal rights, having no superior in 
the eyes of the law. Their position as well as their pro- 
fession demands much learning, and they limited acquire- 
ments are to be deplored. Agriculture should be studied 
as our ''E Plurabus Unum,” but we act as if we thought 
it our '^multum inparvo that is to say, instead of mak- 
ing it our many in one, we make it our much in little, if 
we rightly interpretate our latin, of which we know 
.nothing. Agriculture is our cornucopia, but it should not 
only be a horn of plenty, but of peace too. 
A people agriculturally prosperous are rarely lacking in 
anything else. Where bread is plenty, prosperity dwells, 
and poverty is but seldom seen coming in at the door. 
We have thus endeavored to throw out some ideas 
broad-cast upon this important question for the consider- 
ation of our people. They are the seeds of the brain that 
should be planted in season and cultivated with care — 
commending not our own at all. Clinton, 
[in Arkansas State Gazette and Democrat. 
“BOOK FARMING.” 
The prejudice against book farming is fast being dissi- 
pated by hiffher intelligence. Mere book farming is very 
silly, but the experience of the best farmers, published in 
newspapers is quite another matter. On this topic, cor- 
rrespondent of the Rural New Yorker has some sensible 
remarks : 
It is gratifying to perceive, at the present day, that the 
old prejudices against books on farming and agricultural 
journals are fast giving way, and more just and enlighten- 
ed sentiments taking hold of the minds of Ihe American 
people. The country has no higher interests than those 
of the farmer. Whatever is written or spoken that tends 
to increase his knowledge of the various branches of his 
occupation, strengthens his judgment; and to diminish 
the most serious obstacles against which he has to con- 
tend, is a benefit not only to him, but to the whole coun- 
try, and in a measure, to the civilized world. And for 
him to reject valuable information, the result of long 
study and experience, because it comes in the form of a 
book, or in the columns of a newspaper, is as foolish as it 
would be to cast aside a modern plow because it has 
more polish than those which his father used before him. 
The welfare of a country depends almost wholly upon 
its farmers. If they are industrious and intelligent, the 
nation will be powerful and prosperous. Is it not the 
superior skill in agriculture and manufactures which has 
exalted England to her present power and grandeur, sup- 
plying her with money to carry on long and expensive 
wars, whereby vast territories were acquired, and danger- 
ous rivals checked in their career of advancement — build- 
ing her invincible navy, which time and time again has 
protected her against disastrous invasions, and sending 
foi th upon the ocean her ships, which encircling the 
globe, bring the wealth of every clime into the hands of 
her merchant princes I Witness, too, those countries 
where the culture of the soil is imperfectly understood — 
Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy — are they not poor, 
weak, and despised I Be alive, then, farmers, to your 
true interests. Let every succeeding year behold more, 
thorough and scientific tillage, greater ende avors to mas , 
ter every branch of your occupation, and more abundant 
harvests, and all the advantages that flow therefrom will 
surely follow. 
EXPERIMENTS IN AGRICULTURE. 
Well-conducted experiments are the most reliable 
sources of agricultuaal improvement. Indeed, in the 
present stage of those sciences which pertain to agricul- 
ture, theories, unsustained by experience, are to be re- 
ceived with great circumspection. On the other hand, ex- 
periments loosely made are arguments neither for nor 
against a theory ; and the spirit which condemns the de- 
ductions of science, upon the result of single careless ex- 
periments, is iust as unfriendly to the development of truth 
as that spirit which embraces too hastily the conclusions 
of science, unwarranted by the test of experience. We 
are yet but in the dim twilight of agricultural science, 
and its truths are too faintly ascertained to constitute the 
mere theory of the Professor a safe guide in the practice 
of the art; but when the deductions of the laboratory are 
confirmed by the results of the practical agriculturist, we 
may safely conclude that a reliable step has been made in 
the direction of true progress. It is cause of regret that 
so little effort has been made among us to secure the co- 
operation of these two sources of improvement in agriculj 
ture. 
