Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1852-1852, 1852-10-08
By CHARLES A. PEABODY.

! By CHARLES A. PEABODY.
Mr. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
| The honor of addressing you on this, your first
| anniversary, cannot but regard as an unmerited
distinction When look around me, and see
the gentlemen of talent the ornaments of all the
learned professions, and behold the bright, ex-
pectant glances of your fair ladies' feel that to
other and ADLER hands might have been entrusted
this your first address. But, Ladies and Gentle
/ men, when assure you that l bring heart en-
tirely devoted to the cause of agricultural i'm
provement, and mind deeply imbued with its
; great and paramount Importance, you will ex-
cuse me, / am sure, for the lack which you will
find in eloquence; and perchance, for still
greater lack in scholastic lore. do not propose
to give You a lengthy dissertation on agricultu-
raj science; the cheap publications of the day
are open before you, and he that wills, may read
and learn. But | rather propose to 60 into your
plantations, into your fruit orchards, and to ac
company you, fair ladies, through your flower
yards and kitchen gardens. ! hail the orma-
tion of your Society as one Of the brightest har-
bingers of improvement, in this most lovely
county. Gentlemen planters, assume not to
teach or dictate to you but let reason together
You have established an Agricultural Society,
and for what purpose? Would you improve and
enjoy its advantages, you should hold frequent
meetings-impat freely your knowledge if you
can learn nothing yourselves, you may teach
Others something for our profession, our reli-
gion, and common interests, teach us to hide no
light of ours under bushel, and it is our glory
and our pride that it is so. We ask no, patent
rights for knowledge, but as freely as we receive,
as freely do we impart
"No pent up Utica contracts our powers
The whole boundlcss Universe is ours"
Tell me not that you can learn nothing from
the past. Is the experience of these slvered
heads, which | see around me, nothing ?-Forty !!
fifty sixty perchance seventy summers, have
rolled DER some OF you, and i'll that long. expe-
rience, are you not wiser, in the great art Of
making human food and clothing from the ee-
ments around than when you started9 Yes,
you may say, but you learned it from long expc-
rience, and not from societies like this, or from
books Granted but will you not impart your
long experience to the rising generation You
have toiled through many rererses, and long ex-
periencc hathmadey youa Farmer. Here, through
the medium of your Society and the press, may
you impart that which it hath taken you per-
shaps half a century to acquire, and your young
men may start in the agricultural profession
where you left off Tell me, ye men of years,
could We have started life with all the knowledge
Of your past experience before you, would ye not
have been wiser, richer, happier, far, than now
Take heed, then, how ye hide your lights under
a bushe The days are fast disappearing when
H., HI hoo.l
ing newin Agriculture. The wiscst and greatest
men confess the infancy of their knowledge in
agricultural science; whether it tits taught by
science or by practice, the physical world is SO
full Of new and startling truths, that though we
close our eyes, and prefer to grope in darkness,
Yet stilf the glmmering rays will pierce the will
faly closed lids from the thousand flashing lights
around us. Gentlemen, yours is noble calling.
Behold the anxious eyes of the civilized world
are upon you; you are to feed and clothe the
millions. Have you weighed we'll your response
bty to your God, your country and yourselves
Are you such perfect masters of your calling,
that when the common routine of the farm is
interfered with, by visitation of any of the
many scourges of our crops, that you can bring
the head to work as well as the hands Are
YOU familiar with the entomology of your sec
ton? Have you proper knowledge of the
cross formulation Of plants and flowers? Do
you know the component parts ofyour own soil
If not, then here are subjects for your Society.
In your deliberations and councils, discuss these
most important matters learn from whence
come these dreaded scourges. Yes, intelligent
planters, study insects if you would protect your
crops from the ravages of insects. Is it matter
Of little moment to you, that the howcred winged
moth fits its midnight flight over your fairest
fields of cotton, depositng its millions of eggs to
hatch out the destructive boll-worm? The boil
worm has come, ye say, and the startling cry is
echoed from settlement to settlement But who
knows preventive? Here, emphatically, will
you find that knowledge is power, and to no pro-
fession on earth is it greater power than to the
agricultural. A correct knowledge of the insect
tribes around you may shield and protect your
crops from their ravagvs. Your children chase
in sportive glee the gaudy butterfly as he fits
on listless wing from flower 70 flower; but do
you teach then, that enough they float on wings
Of beauty, they lay the foundation for the dcfo-
liation and destruction of your brightest trees
and plants, your choicest fruits and flowers, in
the production Of the loathsome caterpillar {!
You are the only practical botanists but do you
heed its silent, beautiful teachings? Behold the
flower, with its impregnating pollen! Nature is
ever active in pcrpetuating its species, but if we
| ~, fol1o