Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1841-06-18
From the Portsmouth Journal.
THE PURSUIT OF AGRICULTURE.

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And still with her sweet innocence we find
And tender peace, and Joy without name,
That while they ravish, tranquilze the mind;
Nature and Art at once-deiight and use combined
While the population of the United
States has been rapidly increasing, the num-
Der who aim to accumulate riches without
hard labor, has increased at a greater ratio
and too many have neglected the culture of
the soil TO enters on business of questionable
utility.
Agriculture affords more certain profits
than any other business. While half who
enter on mercantile pursuits fail 1.-THE outset,
aud quarter part fail when advance in life,
the failure of a temperate farmer is almost
unheard of.
Increased attention to agriculture and those
manufacturers which are Immediately depen-
dant upon it., would retain in our country
much of that wealth which is now sent out
Of it. The public documents show that in
the year 1886, (whcn the scarcity of money
paralysed domestic industry no less than
twenty-five millions of dollars were sent to
foreign lands to pay for silk goods "a spe.
cies of merchandise whcih can as we'll be
prod s,d at home as cotton fabrics-although
one which scarcely receives thought
from the American agriculturist.
The dignity of agricultural pursuits is not
sufficiently acknowledged. What is COM
merce-what are the artS-but dependents
upon agriculture To what purpose is it
that our canals our railroads, and tho de-
velopements of the great system of internal
Improvements are going formard in our coun-
try! Is it not that the grand system of COM
mercial intercourse, founded on agriculture
may be carried on with greater facilty2
Let every farmer, but for one year, sus-
pend his toll to enjoy that case in the sum
beams of which no sees so many basking,
and what would become Of every mercantile
and mechanic interest?
There is another reason why the dignity
of this pursuit should be acknowledged as
essential to the stability of our national
wealth. We cannot better express it than
in the language of one whose name stands
high in the annals ofour country. "God has
made the breast of those who labor in the
earth his peculiar dcposite for substantial
virtues. Corruption in morals in the mass
of cultivators, is a phenomenon of which no
age or country has furnished an example"
"The proportion which the aggregate of
other classes Of citizens bear in any state to
that of its husbandmcn, is the unsound to its
healthy parts"
The community appear to be awakened
to sense of their negligence in this depart
ment of industry. The agricultural and ge-
illogical surveys of several States are coming
at the root of the matter and these surveys
ought TO 60 on, until the now more than hall
hidden recources of our country arc fully
developed. 1t is to tile earth that we mus,
look for the valuable and inexaustible store
house of nature, filled with the rude material
for the productive laborcs, and rich in be-
starving tho nutrment of life. A nation
which bases its hopes ofprospcrity upon any
less substantial resources, can never acquire
undertaking national wealth.
AT this time, It's for the interest of the COM
munity to hold ont such alurcmcnts to agri.
cultural pursuits that more may be induced
TO engage in them such inducements as
will not only lead to the cultivation of the
distant sections of the Union but also to give
that dignity to labor and encouragement tc
industry, which will lead young men of New
England, as well as the other old States, tc
bring forth the whole strength of their owl
native soil, before they will feel inclined t.
court the augmented privatons and slavisl
toll which must necessarily be submitted to
in subdung the soil of distant region.
In the old state of Massachusetts, where
the Pilgrims first turned the sod, an agricul
tural survey, recently completed demonstra
ties that not one forth of what the soil is ca
pabe Of bearing is yet obtained.
The ample field for labor at home would
employ every son of the New England tarme
who may come 10 the stage ofactlon for hal
a century at least. There is enough Ian,
in New-England to sustain and enrich a
least ten times as many agriculturists as arr
now employed, Then why do so many o
our young men GO abroad Better ia
would it have been for many of them liza,
they remained in the land of their fathers
Let the spirit of the following address, fror
the pen Of c. p. Ilsoe, be dilluscd through
out New-England:-
Leave not your own New England soil
| For cline more bright more fair
| Leave not your hll-sides and your streams
| Your own pure mountain air.
Though warm and fertile is the West
| Though lighter there the toll
| Still labor here reaps rich reward
l. Leave not your native soil !
How can you leave your native soil
| Where all your treasures be-
i The old house by your father built
| Under the waving tree
| That tree was planted by your sire
| When young in years and toll,
| Meath which in infancy you played
Leave not your native soil
You will not leave your native soil
| Your fields and pastures fair
! Your greenwood haunts, the babbllng stream
| That makcth music there:
| You will not leave this sylvan home
Far from the worlds turmoil
You will not slight this friendly voice
Leave not your native soil
know you love your native soil
With feelings strong and deep
The old church planted round with graves
Wherein your kindred sleep.
Forsake not then the old homestead
Lest fortune should you foil
Check vain desires and be content
| Leave not your native soil