154 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
rich manure, and farming lands will soon be 
worth $100 dollars per acre all over Western 
New-York. Land must be made very fertile 
before one can produce grain and meat at the 
smallest cost to the farmer. Western agricul¬ 
turists begin to understand this, and act accord¬ 
ingly.— Rochester American. 
EX-PRESIDENT TYLER’S CLOSING REMARKS AT 
THE LATE VIRGINIA STATE FAIR. 
We listened with much pleasure to the re¬ 
marks of Ex-President Tylek, made near the 
close of the Fair at Richmond, and we doubt 
not our readers will find the following report of 
them well worthy of perusal. Mr. Tyler being 
called upon the stand said: 
Gentlemen of the Agricultural Society: 
On me has devolved the task of uttering to you 
the valedictory of the Executive Committee on 
this interesting occasion. It will of course be 
brief. The important duty will afterwards re¬ 
main of announcing the various premiums 
awarded by the Society; and after to-morrow 
the first great Fair of the Agricultural Society 
■will have mingled with past eternities. 
At first let me congratulate you, gentlemen, 
upon what we have seen and what we have 
heard since we have been together. The mount¬ 
ains and the lowlands have met in friendly com¬ 
munion to exchange views and thoughts on the 
great subject of agricultural improvement, and 
every region of the State has exhibited the re¬ 
sults of its industry in its various productions. 
Specimens of tobacco, of corn and wheat, indi¬ 
cate a capacity in our State to supply food to 
the starving millions in less favored lands—sheep 
of the longest wool and finest fleece—cattle, 
both native and imported, of rare excellence— 
horses that claim a descent from the “ racers of 
the sun,” and the sturdy animals that share with 
us in the labors of the plow—vegetables of a 
diversified and admirable character—ores dug 
from the bosom of the earth, of unsurpassed 
richness and quality—the inventive genius of 
our people, as manifested in the exhibitions of 
their skill—the advance of mechanic arts, as 
shown in the useful specimens of implements 
to be seen upon the ground, and the cloths and 
other fabrics, the product of the needle and the 
loom—all bear evidence to the richness of our 
State, and encourage us to press forward in the 
race of improvement; and can we desire a finer 
field for our exertions than our ow*n time-hon¬ 
ored State presents? If you overclimb the 
mountains and traverse that interesting region, 
you find stretching far down on the dimpled 
rivers of the West, a country rich in mineral re¬ 
sources ; its hill-tops and valleys covered in much 
of its area with luxuriant grasses, on which 
graze innumerable herds of animals, and pos¬ 
sessing a water-power to do the manufacturing 
of the world ; re-cross the Alleghany, and your 
eye rests upon a. valley rivaling in point of beauty 
the loveliest regions of earth ; inclining gently 
from its lofty summits, you behold the Allegha- 
nies sinking amid verdant and flower-covered 
slopes, and meeting in the sunlight the broad 
smiles of the Blue Ridge, its joyous rival and 
sister. A population comparatively dense, en¬ 
gaged in all the diversified employments of so¬ 
ciety, here meets the gaze. The hum of man’s 
busy industry, mingled with the lowing and 
bleating of numerous flocks, bespeak a region 
far advanced in the arts which embellish and 
adorn, and the labor which enriches the coun¬ 
try. Descending the Blue Ridge to the east, 
and you enter upon the region of red lands, 
where flourishes the tobacco-plant, one of the 
great articles of foreign exchange, and where 
the farmer gathers into his garners until they 
are full with the harvest. Below the falls of the 
rivers the tide-water country invites attention, 
not only because of its valuable productions; 
but because of numerous rivers and bays, the 
capacious reservoirs of a commerce yet to be, 
which it requires but ordinary effort on the part 
of the Legislature and the people to advance 
and increase. Such is the country which God 
in his goodness has given to you Virginians, and 
to your descendants; such the resources which 
he has placed at your disposal; such the talent 
entrusted to your care. We should but poorly 
acquit ourselves of our duty if we could neglect 
to improve so rich a patrimony—nor can it be 
denied that individual effort has done much to¬ 
ward the improvement of the land. I am sur¬ 
rounded here by gentlemen who have raised up 
their lands from barrenness to fertility—acres 
which a few years ago would not have rapaid cul¬ 
tivation, are now teeming with production. In 
fact, the most interesting statistical table which 
could be presented for the encourgement of 
others, would be the statistics of the wheat crop 
upon those improved estates for the period of 
twenty 3 r ears last past. In that district of coun¬ 
try which has fallen more immediately under 
my eye, and in which I reside, it may be safely 
said that where, twenty years ago, the crop was 
told by the hundred bushels it is now told by 
the thousand. The truth is, that without some 
change in the course of cultivation and improve¬ 
ment, we should have been driven to emigrate 
to richer and distant regions, or to have dragged 
out lives of poverty and wretchedness. The an¬ 
nunciation of a single fact, the result of analy¬ 
sis, viz.: the absence of lime from the soil, res¬ 
cued us and the State from comparative aband¬ 
onment. From that moment a new order of 
things has existed. The roads leading to the 
West and South are no longer filled, as was for¬ 
merly the case, with emigrants fleeing from the 
homes’ of their fathers to seek their bread in 
other lands. Plenty presides over the board 
where meagre scraps of food were before served 
up. The son cultivates the old homestead, and 
hospitality once more invites the wayfarer to 
enter the doors where poverty so lately kept 
watch. Can too much praise be bestowed on 
that man who has been the great instrument in 
the hands of Providence in bringing about this 
result ? The soldier in the embattled field may 
encircle his brow with laurels ; he deserves to 
wear them, for his skill and bravery has won 
them. The statesman may deserve the grati¬ 
tude of his country by a course of unselfish and 
devoted patriotism. But what can warrior or 
statesman do to compare with the citizen who, 
unaided in his efforts, shall from his laboratory 
have announced a truth, and by his own exam¬ 
ple have carried it out, and thereby opened the 
way to the resuscitatian and improvement of his 
native land. The monument of such a one is 
in the hearts of his countrymen, and the laurels 
that adorn it shall be green forever. 
Much, I admit, has been thus done by in¬ 
dividual effort towards the improvement of the 
soil—but w r hat can individuals, isolated and 
apart, accomplish to be compared to the result 
of united action ? Look at the effects of con¬ 
centrated capital in the various concerns of life. 
It bids the manufacturing establishments arise, 
and forthwith the loom and shuttle clothe the 
naked. It penerates into the bowels of the 
earth, and the fire blazes in the hearth to expel 
the frost.; the plow subverts the globe, and the 
axe fells the forest. It speaks to uninhabited 
places, and towns and villages and cities arise. 
It builds the engine and lays down the iron, and 
the car speeds over hill and plain; it calls into 
requisition the lightning and makes it the letter 
carrier “ from Indus to the Pole.” If such be 
the results of concentrated capital, shall mind 
have no affinity with mind in this great work of 
improving the very matrix of every comfort 
known in life ? If gold and silver poured into 
one common coffer, can build up and embellish, 
can the united efforts of mind produce no similar 
effects upon the agriculture of a State ? Mind, 
from which sprung the universe—mind, the 
great attribute eminating from Deity, and which 
makes man but little lower than the angels, can 
its scintillations when colleoted and drawn to a 
focus, be less in their efforts than the metal, 
which but for it would still be unbosomed in the 
earth. And how is this concentration of the 
mind to be obtained but by association? It is 
only by intercourse with the world that each 
man is active and useful. Separate him from 
his kind and isolate his mind, and he becomes 
the naked savage, and the wild beasts, no more 
savage than himself, are types of his condition. 
For the first time, Virginians, you have 
brought the concentrated mind of the State to 
bear upon this great subject of the improvement 
of the lands of the State. It is an eminently 
successful first effort, and would most forcibly 
compare with the long continued efforts of other 
States. We have now assurance that this is to 
be no spasmodic effort, to perish as soon as made. 
The Agricultural Society of Virginia is now a 
fixed fact, and its benefits are destined to roll 
over the land in a mighty volume, causing the 
now desert place to bloom and blossom like the 
rose, and our beloved State to raise its head 
proudly among the nations. The voice of the 
past, proud in historic fame, has been heard 
and obeyed. The interests of the present, re¬ 
sulting in our good, have plead not in vain. 
The hopes of the future, so full of unspeak¬ 
able greatness, spring forth in the heart and 
ratify this work, which has been accomplished. 
We look no longer from Pisgah’s top, but have 
already entered upon the fruition of the great 
heritage of our anxious longings. From this 
day a new era opens upon us. Our noble State 
awakens like a giant from her slumbers, and 
stands erect in all her majestic proportions. I 
rejoice that I have lived to see this day. 
The hour is approaching when we must wend 
our way to our respective homes. Your neigh¬ 
bors will cluster around you to learn from you 
the result of your visit here. You will tell them 
what you have seen, and when next we assemble 
they will surely be with us. You will not fail 
to tell them that Virginia is at length in earnest 
in the good work which she has so long been 
seeing only in the possible—that she has changed 
her livery of grey, and put on a new suit of 
green—that the spirit of improvement has com¬ 
menced her work in earnest—and that Ithuriel 
has touched her with his spear, and that she 
stands in all her virgin robes beautiful and loveljq 
soon to become grand and sublime. For our¬ 
selves, we will go back possessed of new energy 
in the work of improvement. Upon the next 
meeting of the Society I trust that each and every 
one of us will have something to bring of the 
product of our own industry for public exhibi¬ 
tion, and thus give evidence that our lives in the 
interval have not been passed in inactivity. Re¬ 
member that success is the result of well-directed 
labors. We should adopt no system which is 
not the result of our own experience, or that of 
others. Even the results announced from the 
laboratory of the chemists are often deceptive. 
The processes of nature are subtle in the ex¬ 
treme. She is constantly forming new combina¬ 
tions and undergoing mutation. Man thinks 
sometimes that he has entered her temple, and 
read from her mighty volume her hidden mys¬ 
teries ; but he who knows most sinks back upon 
himself with the consciousness, not of positive 
ign .ranee, but of how little he does know. 
The great farming interest is that which Gov¬ 
ernment has most neglected. Instead of being 
fostered and cherished as the foundation of all 
others, it has been made the beast of burden for 
their benefit. The farmer has also stood isolated 
and alone until very recently—other interests 
could more easily combine and cooperate in a 
common end. He therefore stood exposed to 
assaults from all, and it has but too often hap¬ 
pened that he has been made the carcass on 
which the vultures have preyed. Through the 
associations similar to our own which are formed 
and forming, he is now in some condition for 
defence. Ilis employment has also been here¬ 
tofore avoided by parents in the education of 
their children. He has been in fact regarded 
as the inferior in his vocation to those wdio en¬ 
tered upon other pursuits. This delusion has 
passed away, and science comes to his aid to 
elevate, to refine and improve. We have cause, 
brother farmer, to be proud of our calling. In 
the language of a great Indian Chief, “The earth 
is our mother, and on her bosom we repose.” 
Our trust is in that over-ruling Providence which 
has brought us into existence, and sustains us in 
our efforts. Our God is evermore present with 
us, and our communion with him is unceasing. 
He gives the genial sliow r ers that cause the grain 
to germinate. He gives the sunshine to mature 
the golden harvest. We hold converse with him 
