The southern press., 1851-12-03
The government and agriculture.

Sun, writes as follows:
Z" 1t is said that the President will, in his mes
sage, recommend the establishment of an agrI
cultural school in or near this city also, the es
Enlistment of bureau of statistics in connec'
ton with the Department of the Interior. Both
OF these institutions are greatly needed. we
are behind all governments in regard to stats
teal information.
| was surprised that the Southern men were
80 generally opposed, at the late session, to the
collection of statistics in taking the seventh
census The results have been tiatterng and
useful to the South, but they thought it would
show the nakedness of their land.
In country where agriculture is he employ.
ment Of three-fourths of the people, the govern,
ment ought certainly to do something for the
promotion of agricultural science for, though
" reading and writing come by nature" il does
not appear that good farming does.
When Mr. r. ]. Walker shall be called upon
to explain the cause of the great mistake in hi
estimate of the amount of agricultural products
to be expected from the United States this year
"a mistake of three hundred millions-he had
better say that it was because the government
had founded no agricultural school! II would
be quite as good a reason as any that he could
give"
We suppose that it is not unlikely that the
President will recommend just such an estab-
lishment as the writer suggests, and AS he and
other consolidationists have often advocated,
They would have the powers Of the government
constructively enlarged its arms extended to
every industrial pursuit in the States its rough
and unadapted hands laid upon even the finest
social relations and the theorizing sentiments
to be found in society moulded to foster and
support it's own abuses and corruptions.
We have already built up under Executive
power, a :" Department Of The INTERIOR which,
with Il pretext for the general welfare" is but
another centralzing organ for scrutinizing all
internal interests, general and special. The
motive, of course, being to enlist the popular in
tuence Of each interest, and by combined ma
jorities to confer upon the government the
power to beotow supposed special benefits. Ii
is upon this aggregation of offices, hitherto ap-
perta. ing to other departments, now even more
heterogeneously combined, that it is proposed
to engraft an Agricultural Bnreau"-not un-
likely to be consummated by experimental plan.
tatons and model farms, with overseers and
ploughmen general, under the nominal title Of
professors"
The Statistical Bureau" is another graft on
this Internal engine, to be composed, as we have
seen it somewhere stated, Of the present census
corps of officials, after they shall. have made
their report--if ever--on the last federal census
Hitherto, The business Of aggregatng and re-
porting the census has been done in a few
months, b. about, on an average, a dozen tenn
porary clerks. But the corps now employed
numbers nearly one hundred persons sufficient,
one would think, to have produced an accurate
report of their abors long before this. We
know that the excuse for the extraordinary force
and delay is the fact that the President, backed
by majority in Congress, has made the census,
for the last decHde, paekhor for all sorts Of
legitimate statistics. And this brings US to
the main Object we had in view in noticing the
extract we have made.
The writer repeats 4 grieyous expression Of
his surprise that Southern men should have OPP
posed the purpose Of those who finally enacted
this constructive power, since the results have
been 50 hattering aud useful to the South"
And he assumes that they were afraid that il
would show the nakedEess Of their land
Now. we assert that this assumption is not war
ranted by any thing to be found in the opposi.
tic,NS Southern men TO this extension of power
They opposed it solely on the ground of its I'M
constitutionality, or that it was not necessary or
wanted for any practical purpose Of government
The stigma thus meanly aud groundlesslv at
tempted to be cast upon Southern men, by a
writer who has been generally regarded as fair
in his observations, can only be accounted for
in that parGonsbIe sensitveness to any opposi-
ton to schemes tending TO increase the pepula-
ton and value Of property in the federal city, go
peculiar TO many of its inhabitants The last
thing they dream Of is that any evil can result
to this confederacy By lavish expenditure of
public money, even though it be not wanted for
purposes strictly constitutional
The writer, who, by the way, is also the free
rade correspondent Of the Charleston Courier,
and the New York journal NJ Commerce, says
that government ought to do something for
the promotion Of agricultural science" We
would ask IL al the other ats and sciences do
not az mucu need its promotive agency! Ger.
tainly he cannot plead infancy and homage for
agriculture. We thought that the course for
enlargng the area Of our federal powers would
tend to the establishment Of a "by authority"
law, and medical faculty and professorships, be.
fore an agricultural one woud be- attempted
II, however, the latter ia thought the most
popular the former may be most readily obtained
by giving il precedence.
p $. Since the remarks above were penned,
we observe in thu New York HeraH PROPOSE.
ton for yet another Bureau, the Burcau u
Printing"
~ 1t 10 scarcely necessary for us to men.
ton the fact that Congress meets 20 .dav