Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1824-12-28
aGRluUllYUR.aA.

ne pioFf9S Con'isy .1gf7clIurdt society, helC
its fourth Annual Cattle show and Fair. a
Morris-Town on the 18th ult The repor
Of the Managers speaks well for the Far.
mers and manufacturers of our sister county
Mr.. MsCuiloch's address TO the Society, ha.
been published. Like all the production.
OF that gentieman's pen, it is handsome
and aD apprspriate performance, and con
Yeys many important truths in a perspieuotl.
and fehcitous manner. Speaking OF the
wonderful advances of internal improve
ments, the orator thus noticed their effects
upon the agriculture Of our western border
~. Eagle.
The soil OF these distant and rude
regions has arisen to value SURPRISING
our own cultivated districts; the pro-
ducts oft Lake country are transport
ed 10 the very shores of New Jersey ;
and where the farmers OF Essex, Morris,
and Sussex, were accustomed to find a
market, there the settler Of Ontario and
Erie meets them on vantage ground and
undersel lis them at their own doors, Our
manufactures will soon groan under a
similar competition; the iron of Lake
Champaign is conveyed TO the consumer
at half the freight for which we can
transport it to the city; and even in this
very village Morris hay rakes from
Genesce have supplaated the industry
of our own workmcn. In this situation
Of affairs wealth flows by unnumbered
channels into land opened by canals
: while that same wealth is drained to the
very dregs, from land like ours, land
locked and severed from free intercourse.
In vain does our soil teen with subter-
ranean riches; in vain do we possess
meadows, orchards, and groves of slate
ly timber; in vain are our mill seats and
water powers, until all these treasures,
now hemmed Ia by mountains, be res
cued by wise policy from The embargo
f. under which nature has laid them"
We most earnestly commend the fol-
lowing just and forcIble observations to
the farmers Of Essex -
$ But we must probe still deeper into
the causes which dcpress our asricni-
ture. BY judicious course, the fsrm-
or, in almost any part OF he British Isle,
can, from one hundred &C es Of land,
comfortably lay up 1909 n Is - do!
lars every year. TO this degree OF per-
fiction, should emulation and ingenuity
aspire, and this it will pever attain, until
practical husbandry be considered here,
as /, has long been in Europe, study re-
quiring and meriting investigation. 1t
consists in union Of mechanics and
chemistry; its operations must have their
foundation in the established principles
of these sciences; and the extensive far
mer, il he would keep pace with those
Of other countries, must bold a book in
his hand as we'll as plough; he must
labor less, to deliberate more. Even il
our country were interspersed with ma
nufacturing towns, traversed by canals,
yet unless we acquire the art OF taxing
nature to her utmost, and drawing forth
the full capabilities of our soil, We must
ever continue poor in comparison with
those districts in which agriculture is
regarded and learnt as a branch of libe-
raj education. He who can persuade
as to read treatises upon our own bust
ness; who can induce US to spend the
evenings Of winter in planning the ope-
rations Of spring; he who can dispei
the preJudices originating in ignorance
and teach US to view our pursuits in the
light by which they are now illuminat-
ed; that manlwill accomplish more for
the prosperity of his state, than if he
transformed each Of cur mountains into
mass Of solid gold"
The folly Of blind and stupid at
sachmen. to ancient customs is thus no.
ticed:
$ No external and real obstacles OPP
pose the execution ofvarious expedients
tor raising the system and success OF our
agriculture; no impeachment, save the
Imaginary difficulties conjured up by
the iorpor Of our own minds. A kind
of perverted resignation, sordid con-
ten 'nent- renders US willing rather to-
crawl round the circles Of ancient Gus
tom, than to break forth into that enter
prize which we may perceive crowned
every where with success. As the first
step then to all amelioration, let mo re-
commend to keep alive the spirit Of in
curry and observation--to read, to think,
to compare our culture, our profits, our
modes Of conducting business with those
which distinguish the neighboring states.
The formation Of cemposts, the manage
ment Of manures, the uses of lime, the
pioughing in green crops, the rotation
husbandry, trench ploughing, and va
y6ty ofsimilar topics, would'if thorough.