The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1848-05-18
NUMBER 48.


locomotive engine has not thus far been adapted to
common roads, and Notwithstanding the brilliant an
tcipatons OF some projectors, the day has not yet
daWned, when every producer shall be whirled to
market by the steam Of his own teakette. Nor has
! the increased production of vegetable aliment and
tissues in any degree essened the demand for ami
NAL food, or superseded the necessity of employing
the skin and fur and wool Of animals for clothing.
On the other hand, the growing and gathering of
the winter supply of food for the numerous flock
and nerds, which are required for nourishment
ana clothing, constitute large proportion of the
labors OF the agrculturst, and thus neither Of these
heds OF rural husbandry can be much enlarged
without q corresponding extension of the other.
Pastoral life and the tlage of the earth there
fore no longer distinct and independent occupations
but are properly branches of the same calling, ard
| though with some violence to etymology, popularity
are, and conveniently may be, both comprehended
under the general term AGRICULTURE.
Pure pastoral life, as have said advances man 10
but an humble stage of civilization, but when it is
merged in agriculture and the regular tillage of the
soil commences, he is brought under the dominion
of new influences, and the whole economy Of domes
tic and social life is completely reyolutionzed.
Proper and permanent social institutions now begin
to gerninate, because combined effort for supplying
the physical wants of man becomes necessary, and
it is upon the necessity of such effort, that human
society, considered artificial system, is found
ed. Men now begin to realize what, wandering
shepherds they had before dmly suspected, that man
has right to the use, not the abuse, of the products
of nature; that consumption should be everywhere
compensated by increased production; and that it
is a false economy TO encroach upon capital, the
interest of which is sufficient for our lawful uses.
Among the various causes by which the transition
from the pastoral to the agricultural state may be
occasoned Or facilitated, obvious is the dis
covery, that by cultivation q smaller extent of
ground may be made to furnish nourishment for the
shepherd and his focks, whose increasing numbers
threaten to exhaust the supply spontaneously pro-
duced within his habitual range. Cultivation at
once begun, the nomad condition is at an end,
Tor the growing OF crop, including the preparation
OF the ground and the securing of the harvest,
sunes the greater part of year, and if perennial
plants are reared OF tile ground is first to be cleared
of forest growth, and fenced against the ravages
OF wild OF domestic animals, many seasons must be
passed upon the same spot. Hence arises the ne
cesslty OF fixed habitatons and store houses, and Of
laws which shall recognize and protect private eS
elusive right to deteImnate portions Of the common
earth and sanction and regulate the right Of nhori
lance, and the power OF alienation and devise, in
snort the whole frame work of civil society. The
recognition of private rights to real estate is neces
sary condition precedent to the establishment of
fixed habitations, without which there can be no
permanent improvement of the soil, no considerable
accumulation Of personal property or the comforts
OF lite, none OF the sacred influences of home no at
tachment to localities, no national feeling, no dura-
Ole records no history; it lies at the basis of all civ
il institutions it is essential to the very idea of
nation. distinguished from nomadc tribe or
sept and those spectators, who propose the abro-
CATION Of such, are aiming blow, not at the arbi-
trary institutions of an age or an epoch, but at the
grounded
What then are the present condition and future
prospects of the profession of Agriculture; how far
it to be regarded a liberal arr and what part is
destined to play hereafter in the organization of
the social tabrcp The primary and immediate OBJ
ject of agriculture is the cultivation Of vegetables
and in its largest sense it embraces the of the
forest and the propa alton Of timberre the rear
ing Of fruits of the roots and herbs and seeds of our
gardens, and Of medicinal plants, as well as the
growing OF our ordinary farm crops 1t may be
stated as general rule, subject to clearly ascer
tanned exceptions, that animated creatures are in
capable Of deriving any nutrimont directly from
mineral or unorganzed matter. 1t is the great Office
of vegetable lite to convert the ultimate elements Of
organic matter into secondary forms, sometimes
called pOT180te or immediate lyiRtip{eS which eth
or Immediately, constituents of more complica-
ted combinations las roots, barks, leaves, fruits and
seeds,) supply food, shelter, and clothing to man
and the lower animals. In many instances again
this process is repeated the brute or insect being
the agent Of a second elaboration, and converting,
by organic chemistry, vegetables unnuritious to
higher creatures into animal fibre other tissue ca
pabe of yielding them aiment, or subscribing their
other uses. And herein careful Nature has by no
means left lmprovldent man dependent upon the
fruits Of his own foresight and industry; for not
only does he, reapng where he has not sown, derive
supplies for his various wants from spontaneous veg
citation, and from wild animals fed by that wild
growth, but even in those uncounted ages of vital
existence, which biologists tell us preceded his
birthday she was busy IN preparing and furnishing
adamite world was clothed with iuxurant growth
Of We etable lfe which fed and sheltered a swarm
ing host Of beast and bird and fish and creeping thing
But these all tribes unsuited 10 human use,
and among the remains of primeval life, which lie
sepulchred in the earths crust we find no plant or
animal belonging TO genera that yield food or cloth
ing to man, no pleasant fruit or nutritious seed
healthtul root no fowl or quadruped all ed to our
domestic animals, but rank ferns unfuttul shrubs
and barren evergreens, fishes of coarse and bony
structure, huge, thick skinned quadrupeds and
monsuous reptiles. And when, III the tullness Of
time appointed by the CREATOR, man was about to
be summoned to assume dominion over tie earth
and all things upon it, the existing organic forms
were swept away by the agency Of some sudden
catastrophe, or some unknown cause OF gradual eX-
tinction, and succeeded by more fruitful world of
vegetable and animal life adapted to the convenience
Of him who was now called to rel n over it. But
though these extinct organizations were not in their
original forms, suited to human uses, they are yet,
in their minenzed condition, of the highest value,
and Of almost Indispensable importance to
man. The vast deposits of coal in Europe and
America, without which the smelling of ores and
the workings Of metals could be practlced only
very limited scale, are the remains OF extinct for
ests limestone formations are often almost entirely
of animal origin and even our common polishing
powders are composed of the fnty shells or wing
cases Of microscopic insects no longer eXtant.
Vegetable life therefore, the object OF proper ag
ricuture is the Indispensable condition Of at least
the higher forms Of animal existence, and the eco
uOmcal value Of this art can hardly be overrated.
But are It's present COultlOndu eSlllutlon answer
able to its Intrinsic importance? The result Of agri-
cultural labors depend upon causes obscure, aud
difficult of appreciation, are determined by me-
eoric and telluric influences apparently COM
pletely beyond human foresight and CONTROL or to
express the same idea in fewer words, nature here
contributes 50 much and man so lttle that the
name of IN art has been somewhat unwillngly ac-
corded to the agricultural profession. But since
modern analytical science has busted itself with eco
lomcol Investigations, agriculture has come to have
Is proper laws and is no longer conducted by arb
raFy rules themselve9 founded on Il blind and CROP
ng experience. Until chemical analysis had shown
what we're the constituent elements Of vegetable
orms, ascertained their proportions and modes of
combinations and resolved soils into their primary