The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1854-09-20


The following extract Is frvm DE-.
Pierces agricultural address. delivered
in Augusta last fall:
II is historically true. I belle We. that
no purely agricultural country has been
great. prosperous aud powerful. But
the sun in his circuit never looked upon
a continent which afforded the same
encouragement and facilities for the
highest perfection of the art as our own
happy land. Yet with all its adyan-
tages, agriculture, even here. must de-
pend for its profits, not upon the simple
productions Of the ground, however
abundant, but ON their marketable wall
ue. The want of a market for the sur
plus produce of the farm has been in
many sections the incubus on the earn
ings Of Southern husbandry. Rail-
roads and factories are fast removing
this obstrUction, aud the stimulus is
felt IN the increased cultivation Of ev-
cry article of consumption. A yet
further division of labor is necessary,
and the Southern States, with that
great staple which is all their own,
might not only control the exchange
and commerce of Europe and Ameri-
ca, but make of themselves a power to
be felt aud feared in the councils OF
the country and the intercourse Of ma
tions. And though it is said the world
is banded against US, yet by a wise use
of the means which God and nature
have put into our hands, by being just
to ourselves and faithful to our duties,
we may defy our enemies, and in de-
fault OF their respect. send them naked
through the earth; for il the corn ol
Egypt in the oIdcn time fed the world
il is the glory Of the South that hrl
cotton clothes it. This is our defence
need not cxhort Georgia audience
to stand BY their arms.
In developing agriculture, as an art,
I; it is an extraordinary advantage un.
known, at least to the same extent, in
other lands, that in this the planters
and farmers are the proprietors OF the
soil. In England the farmers are te
nants at will OF the lordIy owner, ol
at least for term Of years, on the Sc,
curity OF the lease and yet, under al
. the disadvantages of such system
England is land of gardens. In
France, the subdivisions Of landed pro
perty are so great as almost to prevent
Improvement BY the hopelessncss o.
the enterprise. What reward can til,
French farmer expcc. from the cultur,
Of his acre, or less, beyond the supper
OF his family? Even this result, how
ever, may demand science, skill and
industry, and under the joint applica.
SION these specks may blossom IN beau
ty and gladden. with harvest. Blu
here in Georgia (and in other States
the Tree born citizen counts his acre.
by the hundreds, and they are his in
fee simple, "to have and to hold" to
sell, or begueath TO his children after
him. This fact and this feeling Of pro
perty might be made the basis Of i'm,
provement and the best reason for it
if local attachment did not act SO loose
ly upon us as people. The wander
ing tribes Of earth, though savage, | in
ger about the graves Of their tathers
and with them, distance from the ia
miliar objects OF childhood aud th
resting places Of the dead they loved
is exile. But we are restless, migra
tory, sigh for the distant and the un'
tried.
The desire Of fortune, the love o
gold, overrides the instincts of nature
the sentiments Of the heart. What o
our birthplace, the memories Of child
, hood, the hallowed friendship of house
hold love, the consecrated churchyar,l
where lie our parents and our children
in natures last sleep? The very ide
of home, sweet home, with all our pro
gress, civilization and refinement, "
seem to regard as the myth Of som
dreamy poets brain. Where is th
Southern planters home ? Where
Why on virgin lands at goyernmer
prices. A bag of cotton to the acre
ah J. there is the Louisiana, Texas, n
1 matter what, there is the land Of pro
r mise. Farewell society, churches
$ schuuls, old friends, and old Georgi
too. Six bags Of cotton to the han
can never satisfy the boundless era,
ings of our ambition. "More liant
more cotton, more negroes" that's th
: sentiment we admire, the poetry "
love, the tune that makes music in gu
souls. But Ihope this evil is abatins
IT not by correcting our views OF II
lgreat ends Of life and moderating ou