The weekly Lancaster gazette. (Lancaster, Ohio) 1852-1855, 1854-11-02
AN Address
pr p. vAN rRUNP, SO,
FELLov-CrrrzENs:

Il has been quainsly said, by one OF the
writers of the olden time, that be who is
good at making an apology, is seldom good
for anything else. | am compelled, how
ever, on the presept occasion, aud in the 4
face of this popular maxim, to ask your
Kind indulgence, and crave your char
liable appreciation, of the circumstances
under which have been placed, in the
performance of the duty so flatteringly inn
posed upon me by your Association. Gus
tom seems to have established a rule upon
occasions ike the present, for the person
selected to make public address, to draw
up carefully written essay upon the Syl-
eace of Agriculture, either practical or
theoretical-and embodying, in its scope
and treatment, either the actual results of
the writer's own experience, or the untried
theories of the amateur agrisnturalist.-
1t is, fellow-citizens, a mater Of much more
regret to me, than it can be of loss to you,
that my engagements. professional and 9th
erwise, have so occupied my time for the
last several weeks, as to prevent me from
drawing up such a paper upon the great
subject which has assembled you together,
as would have done some justice to myself
at least, if not to the subject itself 1t is,
then, matter of necessity which compels
ms to substitute for this customary docu-
ment, brief, off-hand paper, in general
terms, upon the interesting subject which
has brought together tho beauty, the intel
ligence, and the moral worth, Of this glori-
ous old County Of ours. Without further
apology, therefore, shall proceed to read
you few general remarks, hastily thrown
together, upon the Social and Political i'm
portanee Of tie Agrieulturat and Needanic
Arts. ~ Hs4
From the new and and surprizing i'm
pulse which the science of Agriculture has
Received withinthe last few years, through
the popular demonstrations of the day, one
would suppose that some great discovery,
some radical revolution taken
place in the elementary principles Of the
science ITSELF But this is very far from be-
ing the fact; except only SO far as relates
to the great and wonderful invention and
improvement in the means and implements
bywhich agriculture is prosecuted at the
present day, The lawsof vegetation, the
chemical properties Of soil,-the constitu-
ent portions of light, and air, and heat
are now, what they were, when the first
son ofAdam was "tiller Of the ground,
when the primeval curse (or blessing)
was imposed upon humanity, through its
long line of succeeding generations, that
''by the sweat Of his brow should man eat
his daily bread" In the mere process Of
agriculture, aside from the mechanical i'm
plements oihusbandry, used in the prose.
cution of its labors, wheat, and all other
great staples of the art, are produced in
modern times, much in the same manner
they were in Egypt, under the Pharoahar
Kings, three thousand years ago;-tht
chemical stimuli Of which was furnished
not by specific manures artifcially applied
but by that great natural fertilizer, th'
Nile, its periodical inundations Of it
vast and deep p-soiled yalleys-Agriculture
like all the physical sciences, except, per
haps, That Of mechanics, has had its ebb
and tides, NOW swelling up into its high
est proportion Of excellence and perfection
aud anon, in the changing forms Of gov
ernmcnt aud social polity, degeperating in
to the lowest grades of professional imbe
cility. There has been, however, Away
one noticeable Elct connected with thi
fiuctuating condition Of agriculture, in al
ages Of the world and that is, just in pro
portion as agriculture has 1ourished or de
generated, just in the same proportion ha
civilization, public liberty, public morals
and a Just security Of individual rights
flourished or degenerated Rome, as re
public, flthough essentially warlikc, wa
also essentially agricultural;-and in tn
earliest and puress times Of that wonder
fu! commonwealth Jthegreatestpraisc whic
could be given to an illustrious character
civil or military, was to say Of him, tha
be was an Industrious, intelligent, and ju
dicious husbandman The republican Re
mans, ,unlikemany conquerors even in mod
ern times, instead Of desolating and dc
stroying improved and protected, the nu
merous countries which the valor Of thei
arms subdued. They seldom, or never
burned or laid waste the fertile but barba
rian lands which yielded to the triumph 0
their marching legions:--but labored eve
harder thanthey had done TO subdue ther
and bring them into subjection, to civiliz
their habits,--to convert them into efiectiv
tillers Of the sol, and to introduce amonI
them the kindred arts of commerce an,
manufactures, In the ages Of anarchy an,
barbarism, which succeeded the fall Of til
Roman Republic, agriculture was almos
wholly abandoned, ,--tbe arts and science
languished to corresponding degree
public law and public liberty were trample
under foot by every succeeding despot, un
I'll finally Rome itself sank into that state {
national degradalion,i in which she found til
nations she herself had conquered. N
point inhistory is better apthenticated tha
that agriculture rose and fell with the ri'
and fall Of Rome. So, too, with othe
countries, and other portions Of the histor
ofthe world. five turn our attention
that dark and gloomy period in the histor
ofman, the Middle Ages, we win find thi
agriculture. and all its concomitant attr
butes, had sank toa common level wit
the political degradation, the public vic,
and the public gnorance, Of the perioS
The history Of England, our great prot,
type in all that relates to the leading el,
nents Of mans moral and political dignit,
is also history Of tho rise and fall Of agr
culture, contemporaneous with the rise an
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