Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1849-06-07
Importance of Agriculture.
BY HENRY COLMAN.


ton Of philanthopic individuals and of gov
ernments to the immense Importance of ag
riculture have been in France during thu
exciting scenes of political revolution, il
which have seen very many thousands o
workmen without the means Of support from
their labor, and large bodies of them actual,
J, ..ro,. r POM VndIHy lOr Their dal
bread. tits not the dangers to public lib
erty and order, growing out Of large unem
ployed and destitute multitudes, which 81
much disturb me, as the actual suffering t.
which they are exposed, and the melancholl
future that lies before them In London
have encountered, with an extreme depres
sion of heart, thousands of squalid, ragged
miserably poor, with no resocrce but from
crime or charity. A distinguished manu-
facturer in one of the most industrious
counties in England states, that there are
least five hundred thousand operatives with
out employment, and many on the borders
Of starvation tradesmen and professional
men will tell you that every trade is over.
stocked and one is daily saluted with the
melancholy, not to say presumptuous excla'
nation, that there are too many people.
Must we affirm, then, that there are too
many people in the world, and that thou
sands and millions are born into it, for
whom there is no place at the table of be.
nifcent Providence Why. in France there
are more than nineteen millions of untitled
and unoccuped acres, and in England
more than eight millions, all capable of
yielding food and clothing 10 countless hu-
man beings and here and in other lands
there are millions of acres, for the want Of
labor which might be applied, that produce
not moiety of what they might be made
to produce. In ancient Rome seven acres
were the ordinary size of farms on which
a family might be sustained. In Flanders,
on soil which was once sterile, but which
human labor has made productive, two and
half acres will give ample support for
man and wife and three children, or what
is considered equal to three grown up men
and half; and to add to it three acres more,
which this amount of labor is more than suf-
6cient to cultivate, and you add consider
BILE surplus for other purposes.
The great cause, then, of the evils com.
planned OF, is, that the cultivation of the
| earth is deserted aud tiA~t "~sl, in"~rner"-
BILE muItitudes pour into cities and towns,
and. filling every profession and every me-
chanical art and trade, destroy each other
bv competition in articles of which the de-
mand is necessarily limited There may be
too many physicians, too many lawyers, and
too many ministers, for them all to get a
sufficient and an honest living, and too ma
ny hatters, and TOO many printers, and toe
many shopkeepers; for, besides that these
persons furnish more of particular article
or service than the community require
their work is in general only formal they
only manufacture, they do not produce
They do not, like the grower of bread ant
of clothing, create that which may be sale
to have substantial and permanent value
For when was the time when there was too
great an abundance Of the Materials
mean particularly of those which can b'
keeps from year to year-for food and cloth
ing, for human subsistence and comfort 7
AS long as this state of things continues
there must be misery in the community a
The population increases, this misery mus
increase.
In cities, money becomes the standard O
prosperity. Wages are paid in money
money is the instrument of subsistence, @
gain and of pleasure. Avarice, under thes
circumstances, becomes stimulated to exces
and often leads to crime. Mems happiness
becomes dependent upon that which has n
intrinsic, but only an arbitrary value-a val
ue which is always eapracious, and contin
ualIy changing. If men could be induces
: to cultivate the earth and trained to tn
simple habits of aborious and rural life, b
satisfied with what that affords them; if the
) would measure their prosperity and wealth
: not by so many shining pieces OF gold o
silver, which they have boarded in thei
closets, but by the produce Of their labor
bread aud clothing, and the various and in
y Vulnerable simple luxuries of life, wit
, which kind Providence so often blesse
: the labors of even the most humble, ho'
, changed would be their condition ! If the
could be as we'll satisfied to breath the fres
air Of their native mountains and forests a
crowded streets and confined dwelling
e from which both sun and light are shut out
If as well content to enjoy the simple an
o heaIthful sports of the country, as the e.
n citing and exhausting pleasures of city life
o if their, taste could be better satisfied
e contemplate rhe verdant fields, waving vii
n crops or enameIed with flowers, than ca
d peted and gilded halls if they could
+, taught to prefer skies and painted clouds
r. brilliant hues, and studded with stars whO'
lustre never grows dim, to palaces blazin
!, with artificial lustres and adorned with Il
g far inferior magn6cence Of mans geni'
/. and taste if, indeed, by any possib
n means, you could induce men and wome
e and, above all, the young, to love the cou
Is try if, in word, you could keep them
- the country by an attachment to its simp
4 labors and recreations, and prevent the
ID crowding cities to repletion, and thus de
l. troying by competition the ordinary profe
ID sions and trades which prevail there, whe
e, so many vigorous young men, and SO mar
III fair and blooming maidens rush in, like fiji
- in summer evening into blazing taper,
III find too often the grave Of their healt
tx hopes, happiness and virtue, what an il
I'd mense gain would be achieved for NOR;
I'd and for humanity
as
1t, Every one knows the power Of pub
all opinion, and how all the world are inhueT
a. ed by fashion, or what is called general sc
n. timent. have heard of man who was az
ed, as is common on leaving church, how