The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1854-08-23
IN ADVANCE.
N UNI B E r 2s

in view of the eravagant cruelty with which thew
treated close their remarks with the expiring wish Of
the famous father Paul to his country Esto per9eiua,h
The early Greeks well as the Romans paid consider.
able attention to agriculture If they were inferior as
agricultural people, to the Romans it was owing to nat
raj causes rather than neglect of the soil They carly
manifested their interest in agriculture by esabshino
the Eleusnian mysteries in favor of Ceres These mvs
tees they continued to celebrate annually for eighteen
hundred years, when they were abolished by beodosus
the Great Hesiod, early the time of Homer wrote
poem on agriculture styled his Days and Works.
Need menton in this connection, the Egyptians
from whom the Greeks derived their first notions Of ae
riculture Who has not read of the fertility of the Nile
The ruulness of her Valleys which made Egypt grain
cry tor the countries round about her?
Whose imagination taxed to form an idea of the
wonderful ruitfulness of this country during the seven
years of plenty he reads of Joseph gathering corn
tor the seven years of famine which afterwards prevailed
and of the of Jacob going down from the land &c
Canaan, to the land of Egypt for corn (And Josenb
was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king
OF Egypt And Joseph Went from the presence of
Pharaoh and went througout all the land of Egypt
ana IN the seven pentious years the earth brought forth
by handfulls And he gathered up all the food of the
seven years which were in the land of Egypt and laid up
the food IN the cities the food of the field whi cb was
round about every city, laid he UP in the same And
Joseph gathered the sand of the very much
until he left numbering because was without number
haraoh speaks In his dream, of one stock
full and good .t.Ia.
The attention which we have thus hurrdly shown the
Egyptians, the early Greeks and the Romans to have
given to the subject of agriculture establishes the truth
OF our hrst general proposition e., that agriculture
considered merely branch ofindustry is coeval with
history of the human The evils which we brief
noticed in the history of the barbarous nations an
tlquity growing out of neglect of agriculture estab-
sh the truth of our second-hat its connection both
branch of industry and science with the gene
raj prosperity and happiness of nations is intimate
We have therefore, seen its Importance and relation to
civilization, only branch of industry. If we would
view it as branch Of science must come down to
modern times, and mark the wonderful Improvement
and progress which the modern nations of Europe have
made In the cultivation Of the soil by the application
OF science to the subject of agriculture Liebig in his
Agricultural Chemistry has thrown food of light on
this subject by of chemical analysis he has dis
covered the different properties of the different soils
and plants and their adaptation to each other
On the subject ofmtan~res and the best abSorbents
much valuable information may be gained from this book
should like to continue this part of our subject but as
it would greatly the limits of an address and
as the claims of agriculture to the dignity of science,
belong more properly to the chemist than the farmer
shall leave this branch Of our subject to Lebig and
Others whose singular discoveries in the various depart
ments OF SCIENCE be relied upon and simply mention
of the improvements which the modern Nations of
lEurope~England, France, and Germany have made in
practical agriculture. s
The immense population, the comparatively small ex-
tent OF country together with their age have placed
these countries far in advance the United States in
every work of Improvement in practical agriculture
England and Wales, leaving Scotland Ireland the
Islands in the British and parts of the army and
navy out of the King lom which # included would give
her population of near thirty millions England md
Wales without these which together do not exceed In
oi TWO Oh nave
ulaton OF over seventeen millions This immense pop
ulaton Tor SO small country it greatly there
sources OF the soil under the best systems of cultivation
and manuring would in short time overrun tsnatu-
raj resource under the exhausng and runous system
of cultivation pursoed by u.s. 3
These several Lave co-operated to make tho
Improvement and preservation of the soil subjects OF
the first care to the formers of England They have
with singular care, directed their whole energse the
preservation and Improvement of their SOL BY the APP
pication of manres, and the of dtche drains aud
rotation of crops the English farmers have impaired
wonderful fertility to their soil
The extent to which they have carried ditchng and
draining strikes American visitor with
prise These bitches laid off with singular care and
walled with stone The wonderful amount of money and
labour thus bestowed upon the Improvement Of the SOIL
is justified in the fact that England is thus enabled to
supporta population that would otherwise starves
Thus by turning to her advantage circumstances which
naturally made against her progress has Englan been
enabled to maintain her equal and independent rank
among the nations of the earth France and Germany
too, BY initiating her example in tbisrespec have long