Daily National Intelligencer

THE IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE.

FROM THE RALEIGH REGISTER.

"Let us cultivate the ground, that the poor as well as the rich, may be filled; and happiness and peace be established throughout our borders."

The want of due estimation of the pursuits of Agriculture, is, in many countries, a grand impediment to its progress. Where the cultivation of the soil is regarded with contempt, or as beneath the attention of men of standing and education, it will be entrusted to the management of persons of narrow capitals and still narrower minds. Such prejudices operate in various places. In almost every part of the United States they are fortunately rapidly dissipating, and agricultural pursuits are viewed, as they should be, as the basis of our strength and prosperity, and therefore, worthy the attention of the wise and good. Many of our best citizens, who were distinguished in the field and in the cabinet, are now to be found on their farms devoting their time and attention to the occupations of husbandry, as the surest means of gaining an honorable subsistence and of doing good to their country, by thus encouraging and patronizing this first of arts.

An idea, however, yet too generally prevails, that young men and many of those who have fine landed estates, must, of necessity, study and pursue some public profession, the pursuits of agriculture being too low and mean to engage their talents and attention.

Agriculture, when skilfully pursued, is calculated to call into action every noble and improved faculty of the mind, and is capable of being aided by the most interesting branches of the sciences; and in the late improvements which it has undergone, it has been shown that some of its most important principles are derived from, and may be illustrated by chemical doctrines. The objection therefore, that young men would have no employment for their talents and learning, were they to engage in the pursuits of agriculture, is entirely groundless.

I consider the insensibility to the magnitude of the subject, to be the greatest obstacle in the way of advancement, which agriculture has to encounter. The first preparatory step towards its improvement, is to satisfy the minds, not only of farmers, but of the community at large, that it is an object of primary importance, and not attainable in perfection, by mere farmers. If this be not accomplished, efforts to introduce any thing like system, or principle, will be arduous indeed.

A Farmer should be considered, by himself as well as by all other members of the community, as one placed in a situation to perform the most beneficial services to the public, by exercising a calling in which all other citizens are peculiarly interested. He may be, personally, no better or worse than others; but the art in which he is engaged, is the most essential, of all others, to the general welfare; an art which should be encouraged and supported by all manner of citizens. Agriculture having been not only the first of Arts, in priority of time, but the first in the estimation of the wisest and greatest men in every age, should ever be deemed the first object, both of public and private attention.

Power, especially that delegated by the people, should extend its arm, and open its hand, for its aid and protection. Wealth should unlock its coffers for its encouragement; science and every mental acquirement should be liberally bestowed, when instruction is required, as it always has been, by the tillers of the earth; whose occupation in a great degree secludes them from opportunities of gaining scientific knowledge, and a capacity for philosophic research. Commerce should yield to the support of Agriculture, a share of those profits whereof it is the source; and Manufactures should bestow a willing tribute to the art, on which their existence depends.

Those who devote themselves to the learned professions, should render to it both homage and contribution. Their usefulness, or gains, would be small indeed, among shepherds and hunters--and those were, for the most part, the employments of man, before agriculture widely diffused its blessings, and mainly contributed, not only to the civilization, but to the happiness, wealth, subsistence and safety of our race. Those who minister at the Altars, and are our instructors and examples, in our most exalted concerns, are also bound to animate, instruct, and encourage the cultivators of the soil. Many of them, in other countries, have been highly meritorious, both in precept and example, on this subject. And they peculiarly know, that the exercise of this art, is venerable for its antiquity; was enjoined by a dispensation of Providence, and established by an ordinance of Heaven.

Those who have a permanent residence in our towns and cities, should be more convinced, than they have hitherto been, of the obligations they owe to agriculture. Their daily subsistence, and their necessary comforts and even luxuries, depend, either directly or consequentially, on this first of arts. The better the style of husbandry, the more benefits they derive from it. It is no reasonable excuse for withholding their assistance, or encouragement, that they are not agriculturists.

They possess, and should bestow, the means of promulgating encouragement and information to those who are engaged in the labors of the field.

On us, whose happy lot is cast in a free country, the extension and encouragement of agricultural improvement, is most impressively incumbent. Montesquieu has, with truth, observed, that "countries are not cultivated in proportion to their fertility, but to their liberty."

The Athenians, among the first of the Greeks who acquired a free government, and the polish of civilization and science, were famed for their knowledge in Agriculture. Xenophon, one of their distinguished citizens and celebrated historians, has many ages ago remarked, that "Agriculture is the nursing mother of the arts. For, where it succeeds prosperously, there the arts thrive; but where the earth necessarily lies uncultivated, there the other arts are extinct."

In the early periods of the Roman Republic, when liberty was a substantial blessing, and not an empty sound, the highest praise that could be given to any citizen, was to say of him, "that he had well cultivated his spot of ground." And the leading propensities of her greatest men, were to cast off their robes of state--lay aside their truncheons, and ensigns of power--to "cultivate their spots of ground."

Let it not be understood, that the encouragement and improvement required for agriculture, is intended for the mere personal emolument of the farmer. Those who take an incorrect or improper view of the subject, allege, that farmers are doing well enough,--and want no improvement. Every one acquainted with political economy, knows well, how extensively it adds to the general advantage of the community, when the same portion of labor is made to produce an increased number and quantity of supplies. And eminently distinct from all other employments is that of the husbandman, which brings into existence, by a kind of creation, additions to the public stock, drawn from the earth. Whereas, most, if not all other occupations, are employed on materials pre-existing. Farmers are truly called, by the best writers on political economy, "the productive class," whilst all others are justly styled, "the unproductive classes" of the community.

It is not necessary to cite opinions, or proofs, from great authorities, to show that whilst able and intelligent farmers enlarge the mass of property and wealth in the society in which they live,--they also increase the public security and happiness.

It will be seen at once by every one who passes through a country productively and neatly cultivated, that quietude, contentment, morals and exemplary submission to law and good government, are strikingly conspicuous. But in a district inhabited by a negligent, indolent, and ignorant population, the picture is disgustingly, and even dangerously, reversed. So that it behoves every good citizen, for his own security, as well as from motives of patriotism and moral obligation, to assist in furnishing the means of warning the negligent, stimulating the indolent, and enlightening the ignorant husbandman.

AGRICOLA.

*I am indebted to Judge Peters's writings, particularly his Address before the Philadelphia Agricultural Society, for some of the facts and observations contained in this essay.