114 
Ancient and Modern Agriculture. 
more resembles in appearance the figure of a 
bunch of grapes than any idea that I can ex¬ 
press. The colour of the fruit is purple, ripens 
equally throughout the bunch, and is so juicy 
dripping, that when eating, you are in constant 
apprehension of injuring your clothes. The 
great superiority of their grape over all others 
that I have seen, is its full bearing, perfect fruit 
and delightful flavor. Upon the sea shore, im¬ 
mediately exposed to saline moisture and un¬ 
protected from the breeze, I was advised by 
those who lived in Florida, that I should cer¬ 
tainly not succeed in my efforts to rear grapes, 
That they would ripen imperfectly, and that 
many would be faulty. I have found the re¬ 
verse, and now upon one of my vines, not three 
years old, I have fifteen hundred bunches, every 
one of which promises to be perfect. The 
dry rot which affects all other grapes has never 
yet made its appearance upon a single bunch. 
Excuse this hasty scrawl, and if upon perusal 
any thing may suggest itself, I will take a plea¬ 
sure in a leisure moment to answer you more 
fu lly and satisfactorily, in haste yours 
W. H. Tegarden. 
We regret exceedingly when at New Orleans,-that 
we could not have accepted Doct. Tegarden’s polite 
invitation, and accompanied him to his plantation on 
the route to Mobile, and visited his grass fields and 
grapery and many other things, that we should have 
doubtless found there besides well worthy attention. 
We shall look for fnrther communications from him 
on southern poducts with interest. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Llangollen, Ky., May 20th, 1842. 
Gents : — There are many precepts and 
practices in Agriculture, which are thought to 
be of modern date, which were inculcated and 
adopted even before the Christian era. In this 
antediluvian age, it has become fashionable to 
neglect classical literature, especially with those 
who are totally unacquainted with it, and con¬ 
sequently incapable of appreciating it. And 
the young people receiving their impression 
from such, think that in reading the ancient clas¬ 
sics they would acquire no useful knowledge, 
but merely the words of a dead language, which 
like dead capital, would remain useless to them. 
They think it would be throwing away their 
time to learn even Latin, while they waste more 
time than would be necessary to acquire it, in 
reading the trashy works of fiction with which 
the periodical press inundates the country. Very 
few even read translations from ancient authors. 
They either complain that they are too dry, or 
assert that more instruction can be obtained from 
modern works on the same subjects, or from 
others of greater utility —practical utility , that 
is the cant term, I believe. But on enquiring, 
you will find that they have never read, or do 
understand these vaunted works. By youi 
leave I propose to show that this anti-classical 
heresy is the cause of much ignorance even in 
Agriculture, the most utilitarian of all human 
pursuits. Much agricultural knowledge is to be 
had from the perusal of Virgil’s Georgies alone. 
Knowledge too, that is thought to be the fruit of 
modern discovery. All this is clear gain to 
those who read the Roman language, either to 
discipline the mind by intellectual exercise of 
the most invigorating kind, or to acquire that 
etymological instrument which enables them to 
read and understand our own language, and all 
those of southern Europe, in the shortest time, 
and with the greatest advantages. 
It is true that modern Chemistry, Vegetable 
Physiology, and Mechanical science have given 
us a better knowledge of the elements, of the 
constitution of plants and their mode of exis¬ 
tence, better agricultural instruments and ma¬ 
chines than the Roman cultivator of the soil 
possessed. And we may by the aid of induc¬ 
tion, have arrived at some mediate and seconda¬ 
ry causes which he never reached. We may 
have ceased to doubt in many cases in which he 
if now living, would still doubt, I do not say 
whether wisely or not; still he had much prac¬ 
tical knowledge, derived from experience, which 
modern science has only confirmed , but which 
modern ignorance attributes to modern discove¬ 
ry. It has not even been vamped up by us. 
This I will now proceed to show from the ori¬ 
ginal. The first important precept relates to 
Ploughing. This was known to be the prime 
operation in preparing the soil for all crops— 
the time and mode of great consequence; hence 
Virgil gives them the first place. Georgica, 
Lib. I linea 42. 
Vere novo gelidus , etc * u In early Spring 
when melted snows glide down the hoary hills, 
and the crumbling glebe unbinds itself by the 
zephyrs; ” 
Observe the qualification and caution in the 
last line, when the mouldering clod falls to pie¬ 
ces—not when the furrow slice turns over un¬ 
broken and without resolution. 
At prius ignotum ferro , etc. “ But before 
we cut an unknown plain with the coulter, let 
it be our care to learn the winds and various 
quality of the climate, the ways of culture prac¬ 
tised by our forefathers, and the genius and 
habits of the soil.” 
Not a furrow is to be run before the climate , 
nature of the soil , and previous modes of its cul' 
tivation have been carefully ascertained. 
Et quid queeque ferat regio , etc. “ What 
each country is apt to produce, and what to re¬ 
fuse.” What more on the adaptation of differ¬ 
ent soils and climates to different productions, 
do we find in any modern book, than is here 
