Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1852-10-27

been rounded upon erroneous prTn1IT~
such results could not have occurred.
We have sometimes asked the owners of
such farms, why they did not make an effort
to restore fertility to their lands, why they
did not gather and compost the various re
fuse substances which abounded on every
hand? To this question, the stereotyped
answer was-'they had not time !-as if
time thus spent, was not, as it is in reality
the most lucrative part Of farm economy
as if the detaching a part Of a force, to collect
the rough materials to be wrought into ma
nure, would not prove to them the farmers
gold mine ; as if the effect of appropriating
such time to such purposes would not enable
them to produce moro on one acre than they
now get from three-.and as il they would not
thereby actually save both labor aud time
for it takes no more force to cultivate an acre
Of rich, than it does one of poor land; while
there is this difference in the results, the
first is sure to end in profit, the latter in dis
appointment and loss.
If the necessity of applying manure to re-
store the distractions Of cultivation, was a
new thing, there might be some excuse for
the Indifference manifested by those who are
otherwise intelligent men. Bnt it is no
new thing for Marcus Cato, the earliest
Roman agricultural author, who fourished an
hundred and fifty years before the Christian
era-who was distinguished alike for his
: ~eloquence in the forum, for bis enlightened
r Craftsmanship as Consul and Censor, in the
| administration OF government, as he was fol
( his skill and genius as a leader of armies, OF
as a tiller of the soil, incorporated this wise
and salutary advice in this work on agricul
: ture -
e STUDY TO HAVE A LARGE DUNGHILL-
KEEP YOUR COMPOST CAREFULLY
u This was not the advice of a mere thee
rist, but the counsel of an enlightened, prac
+ tical husbandman, who though welding tn
l. civil affairs of Rome in her days of GREATNESS
of one who We find at ore time electrifyinj
her senate from the forum, by his eloqucnc
IAN eloquence that caused him to be call
q ed the Roman Demosthenes-an eloquenc
p that enabled him to find the way to th
er hearts of the people through their judgment
Z though he f~attered them not--though h
le rebuked their p~assions-and who, at anothe,
s. we find leading her legions to battle, to vi
tory, and to triumph, still had time, and d
p rived pleasure, from cultivating the cart
ne with his own hands,-and who, in givir
the above advice, spoke from the results
he his W rich experience--an experien
re. which had enabled him to take a broa,
ID comprehensive, philosophic view of the co
he s~titution and nature of soils-which had G
nabled him to study and fathom their ply
ne ical wants and in ten short words, to p
Id nounce how those wants could be supple
And though two thousand years have revo
ed since they were uttered, they are as tt
a to-day as they were when first pronounce
for the farmer who does not take these p
ac- cautions, will, in a few years, realize the
ne truth, that the fertility of his land has
or parted, as the soils, like human beings a
'te. other animals, require to be fed, to presel
OF the integrity of its strength and cofinue
the productive powers
md ". C.. Farmer.