You may be a small man; passing in the crowd, you are hardly noticed; yet you have an influence in society. Do you doubt it! For once, exert this influence; give it wings, POPULAR ERRORS ABOUT AGRICULTURE. 17 As intimated, some persons have imagined, or affected to imgine, that the agricultural profession is less honorable than other pursuits of business. It is difficult to devise how such an idea should ever have been indulged; by what process of reasoning such a conclusion should ever have been reached! If individuals in it, by circumstances for which they were not responsible, have been apparently degraded; have been without education and social accomplishments, surely there is nothing in the occupation itself to lead to degradation. Far from it. This could be easily demonstrated. If a comparison were carefully instituted between the husbandman and those of other g professions and occupations, it would be found that important advantages, on many accounts, are decidedly in favor of the Let us glance at some of these advantages. former. First. None can deny that the advantages for health are incalculably in favor of rural life. If this be not an honorable incident to the husbandman, it is near akin to it; a circumstance that ever enters into our calculations in selecting an occupation. Without health, of what value would be riches or honors, or even life itself? Then, let us look at boys, of corresponding ages, from the city and the country. Are they both alike flushed with health, and sound with the elements of powe.ful manhood? No. The former are puny and pale, and without muscular capacity, while the latter are large, and florid, and athletic, almost like men, The former, too, are timid, while the Latter are venturesome, and even courageous. Look at men, also, from the city and the country. Are they alike in stature, in visual aspect, or in strength? The very suggestion almost leads to a smile. It is made simply to remove erroneous impressions, and not in a tone of ill.berality. This is the only object. Still, it cannot be denied, that one is dyspeptic and feeble, scarcely knowing what he can eat without injury, while the other has an appetite and digestive powers that enable him to sustain nature from whatever food is placed before him, even though coarse and unsavory. And, let there be occasions for great physical exertion and exposure, as in conflagrations or shipwrecks, or other unusual perils, which of the two will be most efficient or the least injured from his efforts? Let there be opposing armies from the two classes, and, almost literally, one would chase a thousand. Again, let us look at women in the middle of life, from the city and the country, and a similar variance will appear. At this era of life in woman, health is the essential attribute to her. Without it the purposes of her being are nearly lost, both to herself and to the world. We will say nothing of muscular Tho-e who go to law for damages are sure to get them. and the results may be seen in another generation. The world has been frequently renovated in this way. The cure of an evil tongue must be done at the heart. The weights and wheels are there, and the clock strikes according to 18 their motion. A guileful heart makes a guileful tongue and lips. It POPULAR ERRORS ABOUT AGRICULTURE. ability for the ordinary labors appropriate to women in the domestic sphere. But look at them in another point of view. The latter is surrounded by a healthy offspring, varying, according to age and other circumstances, in number from the twelfth to the forty-eighth part of a gross, while the other has, perhaps, the fourth part as many, and they resembling so many representations in wax, or plaster, or porcelain. Does this prove nothing of the advantages for health in the country? And, above all, look at girls, at an age to bud into womanhood, from the city and the country. Let the picture be drawn from real life; or let each stand up before you. Of the former we make no asseverations. But look at the latter; see their elastic steps-their bright eyes-their ruddy cheeks--and, especially, their full feminine developments, which embody, according to Edmund Burke, the most perfect principles of natural beauty. Their hearty laugh denotes sound lungs. Their bewitching smiles tell you that they are guileless, and at peace with the world; and they will exhibit no artificial coloring from rouge, or breastworks of cotton, for they need not either. Nature, in these respects, has completed her own work; has made them as God intended they should be. Second. Although individuals may be found in the city possessing more wealth than is possessed in the country, yet a hundred thousand persons, being the entire population of a city, do not possess, it is believed, the aggregate amount of property possessed by the same number of persons in rural life. And, if it were not so, the inhabitants of the latter are by far more independent than those of the city. Farmers usually own what they possess. This is not so in the city. And, if what we usually term independence does not consist in owning what we possess, and in eating, and drinking, and wearing, and enjoying what we absolutely do own, it would be difficult to tell in what it does consist. It is an undeniable fact, that in a vast majority of cases in the city, even among those with all the externals of abundance, persons do not absolutely own any material thing wanted for personal comfort used by them. They may not, indeed, owe the butcher for the meat on their dinner-table; the grocer for their tea and coffee; the tailor for the clothes they wear; or the mechanic for their furniture; yet, may not the money with which they paid for these things have been derived from the banks to which they are indebted? Nor does it essentially alter the case, if it be said, that these persons severally are less indebted to banks and individuals than other individuals are indebted to them. This may, and often does, prove a delusion. Suppose B owes A fifty thousand dollars; that C owes While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest shall not cease. is the workhouse where is the forge of deceits and slanders; and the tongue is only the outer shop where they are vended. Politeness.-Be polite at all times, and to all persons; for, if polite yourself, you will generally meet with politeness in return; and if you do n t, you will still have POPULAR ERRORS ABOUT AGRICULTURE. 19 B the same sum; that D owes as much to C, and so on through the alphabet; and, finally, that the twenty-fourth on the docket fails to the twenty-third man, where will the money be had to pay these several liabilities? Thus it will be seen that this entire range of persons were neither living on their own means, nor on each other, but on the means of some other parties, to be made known in the day of trial. If such persons fancy themselves independent, and can feel any complacency and self-respect arising from real independence, they must use a different kind of logic from that with which we are acquainted. Now look at the independence of the farmer. True, he may work hard; rise early and reti.e late; have brawny arms and a sunburnt face; and may wear clothes of a coarse texture; but, as the labor of the day is completed, he is literally at rest, and becomes refreshed by a night of sound sleep-not interrupted by dreams of bankruptcy among his debtors, or of solicitude for means to make his cash balance good the following day. It is a wise providence that the bread, and the meat, and the vegetables, of our own producing, are peculiarly sweet. This is an inducement for cheerful labor, as well as a rich reward for labor already performed. And, while laboring, with what admiration does the husbandman gaze upon his waving corn; his bleating flocks; his clustering trees; his neat cottage; and a thousand other things that fill his soul with gratitude and praise! That man may be the envy of kings, with a landed title securer than the thrones on which they sit. In the language of Shakspeare, he may truly say, "I am a true laborer. I earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man's happiness, glad with every man's good, and content with my own farm." Such a man's food is wet with no tears, is cankered with no fraud, is stained with no blood. And he may rationally add, I love the country -the green, open country; and would rather go forth, with spade in hand, and "earn that I eat," than "chew the food of idleness," or bask in the smiles of fashion. My theatre is the country; my dome is the heavens; my curtain the dark blue sky; the sweet-scented honeysuckle and the green grass are the carpet on which I tread. With such varied associations, with such hallowed sympathies, who would not live in the country! The mariner may ter himself from the endearments of his family, and encounter the perils of the sea, for the sake of a livelihood; but constantly anticipates when he shall be relieved from such a dire necessity. And, upon the same principle, the enterprising and the ambitious may for a season dwell in the pent city; but, if taste do The excesses of youth are drafts upon old age, payable with interest. the inward satisfaction of having yourself acted correctly, which will be a source of pleasure to you. The great entertainments in human society are refined thought, intellectual conversation, and elegant 20 reading. These endowments add brilliancy to youth and FIRST LESSONS IN AGRICULTURE. not become vitiated, and the affections defiled, aspirations for a return to the pure delights of rustic simplicity and beauty will never cease to swell the bosom. FIRST LESSONS IN AGRICULTURE. Read nature; nature is a friend of truth; Ir a man apply to a tailor to make him a suit of clothes, his first care will be, to furnish the several materials needed in their production. If he know the quality and quantity of these materials, the business is quickly arranged; but, if he does not know, he makes the requisite inquiries, aware that, if one of the articles is not provided, or that, if there is a deficiency in the quantity of the others, his clothes cannot be completed. So, if he is to construct a house, in the first instance he provides himself with a catalogue of the materials required in its construction. If he were not to furnish lime, the mason could not make the bricks and the stones hold together. If he were not to furnish nails, the carpenter would have the same trouble in regard to the portion of it to be constructed of wood. Or, if he were not to furnish glass, it is apparent he could have no windows. This may appear simple, and almost childish. It is indeed so. But let it be applied to one of the first processes of agricultural life, and its pertinency will be evident. We will suppose a case, to illustrate the subject. A merchant from the city, wholly unacquainted with the chemical nature of soils and vegetables, moves into the country and purchases a farm. His first essay is to raise a thousand bushels of wheat, and five thousand bushels of potatoes. He then ascertains that forty acres of land will probably be required in the culture of each. He accordingly measures off his land; but, unfortunately, he plants his potatoes upon the plat best suited to the growth of wheat, and sows his wheat on that which would answer for Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only true balance to weigh friends. beauty, and, when all other charms are departed, they make old age sacred, venerable, an 1 beloved. A full mind, a large heart, and an eloquent tongue, are among the most precious human things. What delight is that mind able to receive and impart, which FIRST LESSONS IN AGRICULTURE. 21 his potatoes. The result to the scientific farmer would be most obvious. Again, he makes another mistake. He is advised to manure his lands. He promptly does so; but he applies the fertilizing agents designed for his wheat to the growth of his potatoes; and those adapted to their production are used on his wheat land. By this means, his first mistake is made additionally ruinous to his expected profits. In a subsequent chapter, it will be shown that vegetables require food as well as animals; that without it, the former will no more live and flourish than the latter. In the present place, allusion is simply made to that fact. Now, further to illustrate the case of the novitiate in agriculture, another supposition is made. True, it is an improbable one; but it will serve our purpose equally well. Upon a well-cultivated farm in one of our fertile country districts, there suddenly locates himself a rare genius of a gentleman, no matter whether from one of the hitherto unknown islands of the Pacific, or direct from the clouds. Our hero is wholly ignorant of animal physiology. Our farm animals he had never seen. Yet he was enraptured with the horse, and bought one forthwith. With the rich flavor of fresh butter he was delighted, and lost no time in providing a stock of cows. And, although not particularly smitten with the grunting brotherhood, yet, as they were seen about every family establishment, he got up a full-stocked piggery. Like a wise man, he made ample provision for their sustenance. For his horse he purchased a chest of tea, a bag of coffee, and a barrel of whisky; and for his cows an abundance of salted mackerel and smoked herring. Now all this would be no more preposterous and ridiculous than to provide food for vegetables which their natures do not require; than to give potatoes the particular elements of subsistence and growth indispensable in the production of a good crop of wheat. A person can no more obtain a good growth of this grain from soils destitute of the vegetable constituents or food required in its formation, than a woman can obtain good butter from churning a barrel of beer. The same is true of the production of all vegetables. There is a wonderful analogy between the animal and the vegetable world. This analogy is so conspicuously developed, that the same general laws must prevail in both. Indeed, certain portions of the vegetable world are removed at so short a distance from the lowest portions of the animal world, one might almost presume that both are parts of the same system; the same, as asserted in the hypothesis, that the highest grade in what is called the irrational animal creation approaches so near to the lowest grade of the human species, they both must Losing a cow for the sake of a cat: the Chinese interpretation of going to law. is able to discuss any topic that comes up, with accuracy, copiousness, eloquence, and beauty! |