THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
19 
the p.antation, to be set with the plum, peach 
andaiv.'le. tree, which, if judiciously selected, 
would furnish loodfor your hogs Irom. May un- 
til Isovember. 
Ufon most of our plantations timber for 
fencing has become scarce, and where it is plen- 
ty it .s'^inconv'enient. The repair of our fenc- 
ing has become one of the most laborious duties 
incur agricultural labors. The time that in- 
tervenes between the laying by and gathering of 
the crop, and between the gathering and the 
planti: g, which we should appropriate to the 
collection and making of manure, is devoted to 
the repair of fences. It has become to us highly 
desirable to adopt some system that will save 
labor in this department of our business. From a 
sugse^tion in the Cultivator, I am satisfied that 
a great deal of labor can be saved by ditching. 
The time employed in cutting, mauling and 
hauling rails to the places where wanted, would 
make .fitches which would be permanent, and 
require no repairs upon our descending grounds, 
as the rains would keep them from filling up. 
Ditches, with the embankments made with the 
earth taken from them, with half the railsaround, 
woui make a fence that would answer as good 
a purp. se as the best of fences, made in the usu- 
al mannei. 
I would suggest to every farmer the value of 
agricultural memorandums — such as a note of 
the time and manner of planting different fields; 
the quantities of manure applied; the character 
of the seasons, and their productions. Indepen- 
dent of the pleasure which we will derive from 
it as a paper of reference in after times, it will 
constitute a sort of agricultural thermometer, 
that will tell us at the close of each year, the 
progress we have made in the great work of re- 
novating our soils. 
Before we can make much progress in agri- 
cultural improvement, I consider it of primar}’’ 
importance to create in the mind of the land- 
holder, an attachment to the soil upon which he 
lives. The plan ■which I propose for its attain- 
ment, has been suggested b}" an act which you 
■will find in your own statute book. The mem- 
ber who introduced that measure is deserving 
of the highest commendation, and the act itself 
■vull be considered, in all time to come, as the 
brightest spot in the legislation of the State. 1 
allude to the act which exempts from sheriff’s, 
sale, the mamsion house of the debtor and 20 
acres of land. 1 unhesitatingly recommend to 
the agricultural class, a law exempting from 
sale all the lands of the debtor connected tvith 
his mansion, provided it does not exceed five 
hundred acres. To make it prospective, wfill re- 
move all constitutional objections. You need 
not shrink back, startled at the boldness of the 
proposition. It will be the law of the State 
■within a short period of tjine. It ■will receive a 
cheering response from every landholder in the 
State. The professional politician, who is al- 
ways upon the ■watch for the popular current, 
■will embrace it, and it will carry him into pow- 
er. It is a cord that will vibrate pleasantly up- 
on the feelings of every husband and father; it 
will smoothe their dying pillows, for the widow 
and orphan will have a home! It is a constitu- 
tional and inherent feeling of every man to de- 
sire a home; it is his constant aspiration. Who 
has not heard the .song, “Home, Sweet Home,” 
and not felt electrified at the truth and beauty of 
the sentiment, “Though ever so humble there is 
DO place like home!” What would so effectu- 
ally attach men to their lands, as the reflection 
that they have a home, a permanent home, a 
home that no vicissitudes can take from them; 
a home in old age; and, above all, a home for 
their destitute widows and helpless orphans? 
These considerations cannot fail to give them, 
hallowed as they are, an increased endearment 
that they never possessed before. In a politcal 
point of view this measure is deserving the most 
favorable consideration of the statesman. It 
will effectually arrest the decay of population, 
and we should no longer see the tide of popula- 
tion rolling out of our borders; it will invigo- 
fate and stinaulate the arm of industry. The 
"poor man of every pursuit will be encouraged 
to increased industry and economy, to procure 
the comforts of a permanent home. It will 
bring into action every motive and inducement 
that can prompt men to beautify their homes and 
ertilize their lands. 
It is the labor of the husbandman that fills the 
granaries from which all are fed. Depress his 
business, and the hammer of the mechanic be- 
comes silent for ihe want of employment; the 
machinery of the manufacturer ceases from Us 
labors; and the sails of commerce are no long- 
er unfurled to the breeze, but idly flap at their 
moorings. The manufacturer works short time, 
and no .serious inconvenience is felt by society; 
but let agriculture cease from her labors and 
what would be the consequence? Industry 
w’ould stagnate in all its branches; society would 
be overwhelmed wfith the distress of famine, 
and dessolatiou would overspread the laud. 
Judge Buel, in an address delivered before the 
Agricultural Society of Ne.v Jersey, expresses 
in beautiful and admirable style, the influence 
which agriculture exercises upon the political 
institutions of every country: — “I need not re- 
mind this enlightened assembly of the impor- 
tant bearing which the condition of our agri- 
culture, and our agricultural societies, have and 
ever must have upon our political destinies. — 
The farmers of our country will be the last 
cla.ss to be corrupted by the smiles and blan- 
dishments of power; the last class to part with 
republican habits, to degenerafe under the bane- 
ful and enervating influence of extravagance, 
di.ssipation and fashion. The higher the condi- 
tion of agriculiural improvement, the greater 
will be the intelligence and independence of the 
agriculturist, and the stronger his inclination 
and influence in perpetrating the virtues of our 
revolutionary fathers, and in maintaining in 
their purity the in.stitutions which they estab- 
lished, and in defending them, if need be, from 
foreign and domestic foes. Cherish their inter- 
est above all others; enlighten it, encourage it, 
honor and reward it, for it is the palladium of 
our freedom.” 
All must acquiesce in the correctness of these 
sentiments. Their truth is established by the 
history of every state of ancient and modern 
times.’ We all admire and adore oui form of 
government — it is the perfection of human wis- 
dom — w’e cannot improve it; but every patriot 
is anxious forits perpetual preservation. Amer- 
ican citizens should keep fresh in their recol- 
lections, the opinion of the philosophic hi.storf- 
an, that there was a point of elevation beyond 
which States could never go, and that when 
they reached that point, they could not remain 
stationary, but began to decline until they were 
finally blotted from the catalogue of nations.— 
The history of States would seem to establish 
the truth of the historian’s opinion. How mor- 
tifying to the patriot and statesman! All the 
republics and kingdoms of ancient times have 
passed awmy. “Where are their cloud caped 
towers, their gorgeous palaces?” Science and 
the arts are important to preserve them. No 
one can now" tell the spot where Demosthenes 
poured forth the thunders of his eloquence, to 
awaken his countrymen to a sense of their dan- 
ger from the usurpations of Philip. Where is 
the Senate and the Forum, where Cicero so re- 
peatedly, in strains of matchless eloquence, ad- 
dressed his enraptured countrymen. Many of 
the states of Europe are manifestly upon the de- 
cline, Spain is nearly consumed by those in- 
ternal fires that have been kindled and kept con- 
stantly burning by the collision of her domestic 
factions. France, after the battle of Waterloo, 
but for the jealousy of neighboring Slates, would 
have ceased to exist as a nation. History 
teaches us that science and eloquence, the arts 
of peace and war, cannot give stability to States; 
that the popular axiom in politics, that “intelli- 
gence is the life of liberty,” is not entirely true, 
if we are to understand from it, that it can es- 
tablish and preserve free institutions. It is au 
important auxiliary, but there is another ele- 
ment more necessary to the preservation of the 
public liberty than intelligence — it is public vir- 
tue. 1 do not mean public virtue as taught by 
some of the scuools, but virtue founded on that 
perfect and sublimated morality first proclaim- 
ed from Mount Sinai, and afterwards taught by 
the illiterate fisherman. Public virtue is parti- 
cularly necessary to give stability to free insti- 
tutions. In popular governments, w here every 
citizen participates in its administration, each 
should possess the qualification necessary for 
the performance of this high privilege — each 
citizen should be intelligent, moral and inde- 
pendent. 
You will never witness the mortifying spec- 
tacle at your elections, of seeing the unprinci- 
pled demagogue dragging up to the polls the in- 
dependent land holder. If the people of free 
States are virtuous and independeni, they need 
have no alarm for the elevati.jn or depression of 
particular parties. Confiding m the truth, the 
great republican truth, that man is capable of 
self government, it is immaterial to which poli- 
tical party the people confide its administration. 
Being virtuous and independent, they will ne- 
cessarily have faithful and capable agents, who 
will be hurled from power so soon as they cease 
to administer it in its purity. Agriculiure is 
particular!)" favorable to the improvement of 
these high qualities. The husbandman asks no 
favor but from his maker; he asks no favor of 
the government, but the protection of life, liber- 
ty and propeity. Interest makes him the friend 
of the law.s, and to him the most hateful and 
detestable of all despotisms is in the govern- 
ment where the law" is not supreme. 
Employment is the great preservative of mor- 
als. What gives so much employment to man 
as agriculture? Where there is plenty of em- 
ployment there are no paupers, and but little 
crime. Everything around ihe husbandman is 
calculated to improve and refine his virtuous 
feeling. He can make every thing in nature 
subservient to his moral improvemeni, “from 
the loud peal of thunder to the chirp of the in- 
sect; from the lofty oak to the spear of grass.” 
“He can find tongues in trees, books in mur- 
muring brooks, sermons in stones, and God in 
every thing.” Who can look upon the rich har- 
vest field, without having nis thoughts elevated 
to Heaven? Who can witness the ceaseless re- 
turn of the seasons, and mark their delightful 
influence upon the animal and vegetable part of 
creation, without feeling a sense of gratitude 
and love for that Being who has been pouring 
upon his creature, ever since the creation of the 
world, one continued stream ol mercies and 
blessings. These associations can but refine 
and purify their affections, and enforce the obli- 
gation of that great moral precept, the founda- 
tion of all public and private viriu.e, “love and 
good will to man.” 
The want of this great element is signally 
manifest in the history of the French E.evolu- 
tion. The reader of history, after he closes the 
last chapter of the French levolution, will in- 
voluntarily pause and inquire, w"hy a rev"olu- 
tion, kindled through the joint influence ol (>p- 
pression and the spirit of liberty, which pro- 
gressed so successfully, and promised so much 
for the liberty and happiness of man, should 
have terminated so disastrously. It was clear- 
ly not lor the want of intelligence, civilized re- 
finement, and capacity for war. At its com- 
mencement and during its progress, France was 
the great centre of politeness and refinement; 
she was illuminating the world with the brilli- 
ancy of her discoveries in chemisty and philo- 
sophy; the splendor of her military achieve- 
ments were electrifying and startling all Europe; 
the great genius of her captain prostrated and 
lev"eled mountains, and transferred his legions 
and munitions of ■w’ar from kingdom to king- 
dom, as by magic; he planted his standard in al- 
most .'.very state in Europe, and the French Ea- 
gle perched in triumph upon it. History has 
disclosed the cause without assigning it as the 
reason. Intoxicated with her success, France 
declared there was no God! All moral restraints 
were removed. The virtuous citisen was os» 
