Vot. n. • AUGUSTA,* GA., MAY 1, 1844. No. 9. 
AN ADDRESS, 
Pronounced before the Barbour County Agricultural 
Society, and the Public, on the Anniversary of the 
Society, being the Anniversary of the Birth-Dav of 
Washington— by John L. Hunter. 
Fellow Citizens : 
We are assembled to celebrate the Anniver- 
sary of the Barbour County Agricultural Socie- 
ty, on the very spot which, but a few years since, 
was the residence of the Indian savage. The 
land around us, a vast wilderness — devoted ex- 
clusively, save a few insignificant corn-patches 
to his hunting grounds — now blooming with all 
the beauty and loveliness of Civilization and 
Agricultural refinement. 
This rich and beautiful country, in the pos- 
session of an agricultural people, is going on to 
fulfil its destiny, and to carry out the will of its 
Creator — who makes nothing in vain — merci- 
fully consulting, in all his arrangements, the 
happiness of his creatures. 
Whatever may be said of other useful and 
honorable employments, Agriculture stands pre- 
eminent. Not only administering to the wants, 
and contributing to the prosperity of the com- 
munity, but it is the basis of civil society. 
“ Hominurn generi universe cultura agrorum 
saluta wis.” 
The cultivation of the Earth has ever, from 
the earliest period of the world, been held in the 
highest estimation, and has been the favorite 
pursuit of the wisest and best of men — and the 
field of the farmer has frequently furnished the 
field of battle with men on whom their country 
could, with safety, rely in the darkest days of 
distress and danger. Need I cite you to the far- 
mer of Mount Vernon, who lives in the affec- 
tions of his countrymen, and wants no monu- 
ment to perpetuate his fame, his epitaph being 
inscribed in indelible characters on the heart of 
every American patriot. 
Indeed, the cultivation of the Earth is most 
congenial to the lofty feelings and sentiments of 
our nature ; is well calculated to restrain and 
subdue the passions, and exhilerate the mind, 
and promote the health, virtue, and benevolence 
of Man. It brings him in closer connexion 
with his Creator; makes him feel more sensi- 
bly his dependence upon him who gives the ear- 
ly and the latter rain, and who, by his kind in- 
terposition, blesses his industry with, to us, mi- 
raculous results,* and fills his heart with fervent 
graiitude. 
When man was made most pure, and God 
had blessed his work, a garden was the resi- 
dence assigned him — where, but lor the tempter, 
he might have continued to enjoy undefiled in- 
nocence, and uninterrupted happiness. 
The American farmer has abundant induce- 
ments to stimulate him to enterprise and im- 
provement. He lives in a free ana liberal gov- 
ernment, under wise and wholesome laws of his 
own enactment — is the lord of the soil he culti- 
vates — knows no master but his own will ; how 
important that will should be enlightened and 
diiected by the rays of science now dawning on 
the world ; how encouraging to make those im- 
provements for his own comfort and independ- 
ence, and for the happiness of those who are to 
succeed him. 
And the farmer in our own section, in com- 
parison wiih other portions of our com mon coun- 
try, possesses no unenviable a situation ; blest, 
as he is, with a mild and genial climate, adapted 
t« the richest staple of the world, with a rich and 
virgin soil, and abundant materials round him 
to preserve its fertility. 
If the farmer would derive the greatest plea- 
sure, as well as the greatest profit from his em- 
ployment, let him use due diligence in seeking 
the advantages of science. He must not only 
be a practical, but a scientific farmer. Not that 
he should be a philosopher deeply versed in the 
sciences, but that he sliouldbe conversant with 
those principles that are particularly connected 
with his soil, its cultivation, and improvement. 
And this is greatly facilitated and advanced 
by the association of farmers, who have the 
pleasure of meeting together, to interchange 
sentiments, compare notes, and explain experi- 
ments, which will have the happiest effect to 
elicit investigation, promote an useful and hon- 
orable emulation, and arouse the talent and en- 
ergy of our country. 
With all that is said, says an English wri- 
ter, on the advantages that have been derived 
from the Highland Society, which may be ex- 
pected to be derived from the Royal English So- 
ciety, we cordially and entirely agree ; and we 
here repeat our firm conviction, that if Agricul- 
ture, as a science, is destined to experience a 
general and thorough revival, as we think it is, 
it will be mainly owing to the establishment of 
such an important and highly respectable an in- 
stitution, as the Royal Agricultural Society — 
supported, as it is, by a host of able and practi- 
cal writers, aided by such auxiliaries as the 
useful institutions, the Provincial Farmer’s 
Clubs— the discussions at which are, perhaps, 
more than any thing else, calculated to rouse 
and keep alive a spirit of enquiry, and a thirst 
after knowledge. What may not be expect- 
ed 'I* 
And allow me to add, it the State Agricultu- 
ral Society of Alabama, with its useful auxilia- 
ries, the County Societies, met with proper en- 
couragement and patronage from the people and 
their Legislatures, what might not be expected"? 
The blessings of a high and improved state of 
cultivation, and a spirit of enquiry, and a thirst 
after knowledge, that would call forth the ener- 
gies of the country and lead to a developement 
of her resources: for, let it be remembered that 
Alabama is not only a cotton growing country, 
but abounds in mines of gold and quarries of 
marble, t and coal. 
Such enquiry and investigation might lead to 
a diversion of labor from cotton, which would 
diminish the amount of production and enhance 
the price, giving profitable employment not on- 
ly to the cotton grower, but to those employed 
in the rich mines and quarries of the State. 
Alabama, important as she is in the confeder- 
acy, should not be devoid of an honorable pride 
and emulation, as to fall and remain in the rear 
of other States, in the march of improvement. 
Improvement of the soil is rapidly progress- 
ing — it has commenced where the land was 
most valuable and crowded with population ; 
where necessity, the first law of nature, urged 
and stimulated its inhabitants to improvement 
to avoid starvation, or an humble dependence 
upon other countries for the necessaries and 
comforts of life. In Europe, the land that pro- 
duced but a few bushels, is now made to quad- 
ruple its former productions. The soil that 
’Great improvement in Agriculture. 
tThe speaker was presented with a beautiful speci- 
men of marble from Talladega county. Coal used in 
Tuscaloosa. 
once but sparingly sustained a small population, 
is now made to supply bountilully a greatly in- 
creased population. It does appear the older 
the land grows the greater its production. And 
this all the result of science, skill, and good 
management; says an agricultural writer, 
“herein consists the pre-eminent superiority of 
modern agriculture, that under the disadvanta- 
ges of continued culture, the soil is thus capa- 
ble of maintaining its fertility.” In the old 
States, the planters have conae to the conclusion, 
from their various experiments on manures, that 
it is easier and more profitable to improve a par- 
tially exhausted soil, than to clear and put into 
cultivation new land; and lands which, buta 
lew years ago, were regarded as worn out and 
worthless, are now estimated at q high value. 
Long continued cultivation, particularly in 
Cotton, will, as experience teaches us, exhaust 
the richest and best soils. To preserve its fer- 
tility, ought to be the earnest and active desire of 
every farmer who would avoid a sacrifice of his 
property, with all expense, inconvenience and 
privations of emigration. Happily for us, we 
can now start with a soil fresh and productive, 
which will require less labor and expense to im- 
prove it, than to wait until it is exhausted or 
worn out ; and we are blessed with abundant 
materials easily procured for that purpose. To 
accomplish so desirable an end, the farmer 
should turn his attention to a rotation of crops, 
resting and manuring his fields. Nature, tired 
of one kind of growth, shows its strength and vi- 
gor in producing another kind. The soil that 
bore the Oak and Hickory, when cleared and 
cultivated, and then suffered to remain at rest, 
grows up in Pines — nature teaching man a les- 
son for his improvement in the rotation of his 
crops. Too long a continuation in succession 
of the same plants upon a soil, is said to poi.son 
it as far as that plant is concerned, by its final 
exudation, as well as its drawing f -om, and ex- 
hausting the soil of those grasses that the plant 
most particularly feedsupon orabsorbs — where- 
as the soil would be fresh and productive for 
another set of plants. 
It is hardly necessary here, to observe the 
propriety of an alternate growth of fibrous and 
tap-rooted plants — the former deriving their food 
from the surface, and the latter from a greater 
depth. To the former class belong our valua- 
ble Indian Corn, and to the latter our Cotton 
plant. Cotton always shows the benefit of a 
change from Corn, and Corn succeeding Cotton 
shows a still greater benefit, as though the land 
had been previously manured. In our rich bot- 
tom land repeated successions of a Corn crop 
poisons the soil with the insect called the bill- 
bug, which saps the young and tender corn 
plant, and renders it difficult, and often impos- 
sible to set the crop. A change to cotton is de- 
structive of this insect, and restores the land to 
its valuable property of again making an abun- 
dant yield. 
To rest a partially exhausted soil, protecting 
it by enclosure from the grazing of animals nev- 
er fails to produce the most fertilizing effects, 
most particularly in the culture of the cotton 
plant. Cotton, from our constant observation 
and experience, flourishes best upon a rested 
soil. It would, therefore, be greatly to the inter- 
est of the planter, to divide his arable orplanting 
land, so as to have a portion of it at rest and alter- 
nating with the balance, and plowing in such ve- 
getable matter, as has been accumulating on 
