New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-10-08
NEW EARNlNG.

In the days when. for lack OF more cxcit-
ing occupations people wrote great deal
of poetry the homely business of tilling
the soil came in for its share of the dulcet
ciyiliiy of the muses.. Then, III fragrant
and unctuous measures. such men as The
ocritus and Virgil celebrated the toll of the
plowman and the pastor, and added an Ideal
chain to the summers harvest and the
autumn's vintage. of which we fear their
actual drudgery was often sadly destitute.
We know not whether it is any cause for
regret that this has gone out of fashion, and
that the more intrOyeIted bards of our day
deal with rural matters as mere stuff for
the metaphors and alluson- that deck out
the passionate histories or Continental
faDcies, which form their stock in trade.
But certain it is that farming is forsaken Of
the poets, though the grandet among
them Goethe--pay it beftting honor when
he concludes his great drama by bringing
his typical hero back to the culture of the
earth as the congenial sphere of wise and
manly life.
Nor. while Art has thus ceased to bestOw
its sweetest ornaments upon this oldest
and most indispensable branch of indus
try, has its modern compeer and rival,
Science, altogether made good the defec-
ton. Other departments of productive
activity have been enriched with nobler
powers OF usefulness thought and re-
search, ard invention, have transformed
the loom and anvil; and machinery,
so intricate and miraculous as to seem
instinct with intellect, has supplanted
the clumsy primitive apparatus; while
steam and water power, taking the
place OF human hands, swing the
sedge and drive the shuttle, doing
in an hour what thousands of mon
could not accomplish in month and bring
ing the means OF decency and comfort
within the reach Of whole classes that
before were deprived thereof Endowed
with such tools, Manufacturing Labor has
called 10 lis aid the no less potent princi-
pie Of 4 s>ociation and the resources of ac-
cumulated capital, and within half CEN
fury has revoluiOnized Society. Bat farm
ing still fingers in the back ground. The
PlOw that to-day cuts the the sod Of an
American prairie, though greatly i'm
proved, is essentially the same instrument
as that sung by the poet OF Syracuse or
Mantua. No great invention like the spin
ming emmy or the electric telegraph illus.
Iates the annals Of Agriculture hurrying
the world forward to its destiny, and, as it
were, making day equal to THOUSAND
years of IT. former progress. Science has
done much, indeed especially within the
last quarter Of century, to enlarge the
range and increase the facilities Of tina
farmers toll; but, after all, it has only made
a beginning, and has yet 70 achieve any
special triumph. Under these circum-
stances, it is not to be expected that Asso.
citation, combining capital and skill, work
ing On the largest scale and with the great.
est economy and efficiency, should be or
gained to carry on farming and to cheaper
and increase the production Of food. a. Il
has done the production Of cloth and iron.
Still, common sense affirms that these "a.
suits viii inevitably be attained.
We have, accordingly, observed with
intense interest the introduction in England
of a uOvsl system OF farming, by the aid of