THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
171 
in^ up by piejudice. Agricultural writers and 
Societies make, sometimes, it is true, mere 
suggestions — they are tested — it found to be 
good, so far, great benefit has been conferred up- 
on the people; if, however, they fail, little harm 
has been done. But in general. Agricultural 
Societies do not rely on speculative suggestions. 
Their members are Farmers, understanding 
perfectly their respective modes of culture ; 
each has tried experiments, and when success- 
ful, these are communicated, and others are 
thus encouraged io try. For example, can any 
thing in the wheat crop, be more important than 
a certain means of preventing S/wwi? A brother 
Farmer, .John S. Carwile, Esq., many years ago, 
communicated to me his specific, which consist- 
ed in soaking the seed wheat during the night pre- 
vious to sowing, in a solution of blue stone, in 
the ratio of one pound of blue stone to every 
five bushels of wheat. After many trials, my 
experience enabled me to say to the Newberry 
Agricultural Society, that it was a perfect anti- 
dote to smut, and my report, thus made public, 
has been spread throughout the grain growing 
communities, and many a farmer has been 
thereby essentially benefitted. Again, in Agri- 
cultural Societies, experiments in manures, 
and the crops adapted to the different soils, are 
made by various men, and the results are, in 
their reports, given to the people, so that the 
community have the opportunity not only of 
profiting by one man’s success, but also even 
by his errors. These examples of practical re- 
sults will be enough to remove one class of pre- 
judices. 
It is however urged by many a Planter, whose 
advantages of education may not have been as 
great as another’s, it is useless for me to become 
a member of an Agricultural Society; lean 
neither write nor speak. It is true, when the 
elegance of erudition is combined with the prac- 
tical knowledge of the Planter, as is so beauti- ! 
fully illustrated, in the bright example of the 
untiring President of the State Agricultural So- 
ciety, it adds many charms to the usefulness of ' 
such a member. But this is not expected of 
every one. Like the trees of the forest, one : 
may be more towering or more fruitful, still i 
each has its place, and is useful. Every farm- 
er — every man who tills the soil, is an impor- ' 
tant member of an Agricultural Society. We j 
are in Society for the express purpose of com- J 
bining every thing which can be gathered to- i 
gether. An Agricultural stream, is like ycur ' 
own Saluda; it is made up of hundreds of mi- : 
nor streams, some greater, some less, until they l 
dwindle down to the drippings which fall from < 
the summit of the Table Rock. We want the i 
experience of every one, in the culture of his ( 
crop, whatever it may be. From that which he \ 
considers important to his success, we will find ( 
somethingbeneficial to others. Letnoonesup- 1 
pose that he cannot tell, or commit to paper, a ( 
plain statementof whatever he considers materi- < 
al to his success as a Farmer. I know that every s 
one who has the gift of speech, or who can write a < 
letter, can do it. For he who understands a ] 
matter, can make it be understood by another, l 
In the Society of which I am a member, (the l 
Newberry Agricultural Society,) many of our J 
most valuable Reports come from unpracticed ; 
writers, plain farmers, tillers of the soil, who 1 
themselves, at some periods of their lives, have ( 
been accustomed to hold the handles of the i 
plow. But it is not alone in the Reports of < 
the Society, that a member’s usefulness is seen. 1 
Every exhibition of practical success io crops, i 
raising stock, or adding to the health and com- i 
fort of his slaves, is of as much, and perhaps i 
more importance than that which is written. It : 
teaches by example. It says to each and all, if i 
I have succeeded, you can succeed by the same 
means. TRY. Having disposed of these ob- 
jections, [ come now to set before you the 
claims of Agricultural Societies and Agricul- > 
ture. 
Meetings, such as this, with an exhibition of 
stock, manufactures and crops, are other results 
from Agricultural Societies. What effect they 
will have, a year or two hence will better ena- 
ble you to answer than now. In general, they 
w’ili excite emulation among the Farmers; 
every one will try to surpass his neighbor. This 
spirit leads to improvement upon improvement, 
and a whole section ot country will put on a 
new face. Where barrenness existed, fertility 
will be found — where wasteful habits of farm- 
ing were common, more prudence will take their 
place. In all our rolling country, from the 
mountains to the flat lands ol the seaboard, what 
more wasteful, impoverishing style of Agricul- 
ture could be adopted, than plowing up and 
down the hills'] Yet that has been the univer- 
sal habit until of late years. The consequence 
is, that the State is scarred all over with gullies, 
and the wasted h 11-sides, bald and barren, stand 
before us, our reproach and punishment. Cul- 
tivation in drills, and horizontal plowing, or 
plowing around the hills, corects this evil. 
Agricultural Societies are the means of com- 
municating this information, and inciting Farm- 
ers to try it. In a hasty trip to Asheville, in 
June last, I was delighted to see the improve- 
provements in Agriculture, w’hich had taken 
place in Buncombe, in the last lour years. One 
larm, wfithin four miles of Asheville, presented, 
what is not common in this country, a moun- 
tain knob, plowed horizontal!}' from base to 
summit, and smiling in corn and grass. Such 
an example, on the highway, could not, I was 
sure, fail to create a spirit of emulation, highly 
favorable to Buncombe. And in this expecta- 
tion, I was not deceived. Everywhere, it 
seemed to me, she had stripped herself to strug- 
gle for the prize — the blessing of sldlfvl Agricul- 
tibre on the poor land of the mountains; and in 
parr she has already received it. Can you not, 
my countrymen, in like manner strh e, and io 
like manner succeed? If you have the will to 
try, I know you can and will. 
Associations of men for all purposes are es- 
sential. Without society man could not exist. 
In the very morning of creation, God declared, 
“it is not good that man should be alone:” he 
therefore provided an help-mate for him, in 
lovely, smiling, erring, suffering, yet faithful 
and angelic woman. 'This principle of help, 
thus recognized and pointed out as necessary to 
man in the beginning, has descended to him 
ever since, not only in the blissful relation of 
husband and wile, but also in all the other va- 
rious relations of life. Separate action seldom 
accomplishes much. Combined action is irre- 
sistible. These remarks will be better under- 
stood by plain men, from a few practical illus- 
trations. If one Farmer, in some retired section 
of country, pursues a course of husbandry which 
makes his place blossom like the rose, what 
does he accomplish? He blesses himself and 
family; but as to the community, 1 could say 
of him, in poetic language, “ Full many a rose” 
blooms “ to blush unseen, or wmste its fragrance 
on the desert air.” Let him, however, become 
a member of an Agricultural Society, and his 
success will be their success, his example their 
example, seen, known and followed by hundred*. 
In the performance of any work, when much is 
to be accomplished, numbers are sought and ob- 
tained, as the means of accomplishing it prompt- 
ly and easily. If a Farmer has his logs to roll, 
a house to build, or his wheat to cut, his neigh- 
bors are called in to aid, and that which his 
owm force could only have accomplished with 
a great expense of labor and time, is the work 
of a day. Just so it is with an Agricultural 
Society. Inaividual improvement has been for 
more than an hundred years in the field, and has 
accomplished but little. Associations for Ag- 
ricultural improvements are, comparatively 
speaking, of recent origin, and yet they have 
crowmed the land with all the honors of success- 
ful husbandry. A Society in a District gathers 
in the people to the work, points out that which 
is to be done, and all, wdth the desire to surpass 
one another, go at it, with minds and hands de- 
voted to, and prepared for the task, and the la- 
bor of more than an hundred years of separate 
action is thus, by combined energy and infor- 
mation, accomplished in a few years. 
Farmers, too, have few'er channels of inform- 
ation relative to their particular business than 
any others. Politics, Literature and Tempe- 
rance, have, through papers, meetings, and other 
sources, continual rills, which, united together, 
make up the mighty sti earns which flow through 
our land, to make it everywhere glad. But un- 
til recently. Farmer’s Associations and meet- 
ings were few and far between. Now and then, 
it is true, an Agricultural paper, periodical or 
address, found its way into the hands of some 
enterprising Farmer, who read and profitted by 
it. Latterly, by combining Agriculture with 
Temperance, in the columns of the Temper- 
ance Advocate, Agricultural information has 
found its way into many a house, where it oth- 
erwise would not, and has excited interest 
among the yeomanry of the country, which 
never before existed. 
So, too, the District Agricultural Societies 
have collected the people together; have, by 
addresses, reports, and exhibitions of stock, in- 
terested them in the cause; have made them 
conscious of their power, proud of their busi- 
ness, and shown them, both by precept and ex- 
ample, how it could be made better and better, 
year after year. 
In the pursuit of an object and end, such as 
ours, every thing which will excite individuals 
to excel, is properly resorted to. Hence premi- 
ums are offered, not so much for their value, 
as the evidence of success. The public rendi- 
tion of these, accompanied by such an address 
as that which the President of this Society, 
usually delivers, is an honor of which the suc- 
cessful ought to be, and always wnll be proud. 
B ut its usefulness does not stop here ; it arouses 
the spirit of emulation in others, and blesses 
the country with fine stock, fine crops, and beau- 
tiful farms. 
The annual, or semi-annual meetings of Ag- 
ricultural Societies, with their attendant exhi- 
bitions of fine Stock, good domestic manufac- 
tures, and excellent specimens of grain and cot- 
ton, are calculated to deeply interest not only 
us, the members, but also the people. Multi- 
tudes will thus be drawn together, each meeting 
increasing the succeeding one. The Agricul- 
tural meetings of New York fully support this 
assertion. That of the last Fall, which called 
together so much of talent, enterprise, and suc- 
cess from the bosom of the State, and from the 
extremes of the old thirteen, Massachusetts and 
South Carolina, with the immense crowd of 
citizens, men, women and children, attended by 
their trains of stock, and every thing else to ex- 
hibit, proclaims, in a voice to be heard through- 
out our broad land, that in New York the peo- 
ple have made Agriculture and Agricultural 
improvement v/hat it ought to be, their princi- 
pal object. Can it not be so here? — Could we 
talk less about politics, and more about crops; 
have fewer stump speeches and barbecues washed 
dMwn with strong drink ; more o.gricuUural ad- 
dresses, meetings and, barbecues washed doion with 
cold, water, think you not, my countrymen, that in a 
few years we should be an abundantly vnser, more 
prosperous and happier people than we are now? 
To my mind it is clear that we should! Such 
Agricultural meetings as this will do much to 
accomplish so desirable an object. We meet, 
from every quarter of the State, to become ac- 
quainted with one another as Farmers, to think, 
to write, to talk, to hear about, and to stir one 
another up to improvement in Agriculture. It 
is, I hope, to be the parent of many other such 
meetings in other parts of the State, until all 
her people, everywhere, will devote themselves 
to her greatest good: For South Carolina 
seems to be plainly devoted, by her local posi- 
tion, to three great staples, rice, cotton, grain 
and grass. Many of these different products 
can be grown upon the same lands. But the 
swamps of the lower country are more especial- 
ly suited to rice ; while the region in which we 
now assemble, lying west of a line on the lati- 
tude of Laurens Court House, ought to be es- 
sentially a grpin and grass-growing communi- 
ty. The intervening country, between the tw'o 
designated sections of the State, is a cotton 
country, not usually producing more grain than 
