Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1845-07-10
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
COUNTY.

10Q4A a
We have received in pamphlet form, the Con-
stitu,ion AID proceedings Of The ViRolsla STATE
AesIeuLrURAL SoclETY-sn institution which
organised during the month Of January last in the
CITY Of Richmond. The Convention was respseta-
ole in point Of numbers, and embraced many Of the
most enterpiising and accomplished agricultural
lists Of the State. We sincerely trust, that this
last caor, to awaken the agricultural energies of
the people OF Virginia, will not meet that discour-
aging reception, which has unhappy attended
every previous movement to accomplish the same
laudable purpose. Their object is praiseworthy,
patriotic noble--their appeal il the great mass
Of the People--and the results which they aim at,
ere the prosperity, comfort and eifiuene Of the
People themselves. Why ia il that ii Is so dill
cult to combine aud rally into associated action the
agricultural energies Of this great Commonwealth
What vice is il in ,he constitution OF our national
character--whai diversity in the productions Of
our soil--what historical element in the early pop
ulation and settlement Of this State which results
IN so marked an insensbility upon the part Of our
people to objects yitally affecting their welfare
and Improvement In some ofthe Northern and
Western States, Agriculture is deemed interest
so vast and controlling as to commend itsefto the
direct protection and encouragement Of the Govern
ment itself. Ia most Of them, noble and gener-
Gus spirit Of emulation is awakened by means Of
voluntary State and County associa atoms, whose
influence is every where seen and felt in the i'm
proyed condition Of their farms buildings and stock
W dptt cf
day life are sacrificed to the speculative phantases
Of har.blained system Of political empiricism and
the energies of the public mind wasted in curious
and proitless enquiries, whilst those plain home
.ouu truths remain unnoticed and uueultivated
which constitute after all, the glory and strength Of
Empires and Of States. God grant that may
now be ON the threshhold OF practical and
experimental age!
AeklcuLruRE is the great and controlling in
terest OF this country. Its Importance cannot be
msen6ed or exaggerated. ''That Art" says an
eloquent writer, "in which nine tenths of the fixed
capital of all civilized nations is embarkea--and
probably two hundred millions of men expend their
daily ,oil--that art must confessedly be the most
important Of ALL the parent and precursor OF all
other arts"
If the sole object Of the farmer of this country
wa. to supply himself and family with the essen
tia. elements of human food, we would say that
the art Of Agriculture had already attained suf
fcient point of Improvement here; for centuries
must elspse, before the diversity Of our population
eau make US feel any scarcity in the means OF sub
sisteuce. Very different is our situation from that
ofGfeat Britain in regard TO which country it has
been demonstrated that in fifteen years from this
time, unless some general improvement takes place
in the Agriculture Of the country the demands OF
the population will have completely overtaken the
productive powers of the land. But the object OF
the farmer here is higher and more expanded than
to supply himself with the mere essential wants OF
life 1t is pursuit with us, as it is in most other
civilized countries, adopted as the means OF ae-
cumulating wealth, of adding to our surplus capt
tai, and such is the diversity OF humap employment
the infinite division Of human labor aud the
growing freedom of commercial atercourse-lhat
the farmers of the County of Berkeley, are at this
moment, competitors for the markets OF the world,
with the cultivators OF the soil in England Ger
many, Sweden and Russia. Struggling then as we
are in a noble and generous rivalry, not only with
the vast aud extended labor of our own country,
but with that of some of the most productive king
doms in Europe can we be inatlentive TO those
wonderful improvements which are every day
marking the progress of this art aud expect to
maintain profitable competition with those who
are ever on the alert 10 benefit themselves by eve
ny new and valuable discovery
Who is there so uniformed at the present day
as to stand up and assert, tina, new and Voluabi'
lights are not every day being shed upon the pro
cesses and practices of acknowledgements
the cost Of production and multiplying the Produe
tive capacities Of the soill "lf we glance at the
history OF British Agriculture during the last hai
century" says the distinguished Professor John
slou, "fom the introduction of the green crop sys
TEN OF the alternate husbandry f,om Flanders lnt'
Norfolk, up to the present time, we find the re'ol
OF each successive improvement more remafkaol'
than the former. The use Of lime. more genera
dtsinage Of the soil, the invention OF improved
rlouphs and other agricultural implements, as vel
a, the Introduction of better and more economical
modes Of using them, the application OF bone ma
nure. and more recently Of thorough draining an'
sub,oil ploughing, have all tended not only to nh
raising Off crop at less cost, but in far create
abundance and on spots which our fore-fathers con
sidered wholly unfit for the growth of grain IN
result Of each neT improvement has seemed NOR
Astonishing thaR The former. For after waste
piece Of land has been brought into an aversg
state Of productiyeness, we are not prepared 10
any great improvement upon it by new laborsi no
could we readily believe, that hall century a'ie
such land had been in culture, its produce OF 1t
value should at once be doubled by better dram
ing deeper ploughiug, or by shrinking on 1t
surface small quantity Of saline substance 'mPof
ted from foreign country-yet the example OF tn
Chinese shows US that the productive powers o
the soil are not to be easily oyer-es'imalee =
Nothing repays tho abors Of the hu'bandman NOR
fully than the willing soil; nothing is more CRATE
fol for his attention. or osrs surer rewards to pa
ten, industry or to renewed attempts at improve
men,,"
Agriculture, like every other art, is Partak'ni
largely of tho spirit Of the age. II is progress"
--npidly wonderfully progressive The hne's J"