Weekly hawk-eye and telegraph. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1855-1857, 1855-08-22
From the Albany Evening Journal

Opinions AZ G various and conflicting as to
the cause Of the decrease in the agricultural
population of the State. One says Grail
roads, Another '.Canals." s'Fear of
Taxes suggests a third. '.Wostcrn emigra-
ton' says a fourth, while a fifth attributes
it to tie ''hard times" and a sixth to the
.'eyhaustion of the soi!.''
In purely agricultural country there is
one invariable succession of events. Its pro-
ducts are carried to the Metropolis, sold, ex-
ported or used. The Metropolis thrives and
fattens on them. Population pours into it..
Wealth centralizes in it. Commerce is con-
trolled by it. Education and literature and
refinement resort 70 it. Political power and
influence pass into its hands. MeanThie
the agricultural population decreases as
lands become more easily worked, and as
machines take the place Of hands. As it de-
creases and consequently becomes scattered,
i, is no longer able 10 support schools and
churches, to maintain banks, to build roads
and railways, or libraries, or even to own
lands. So the country grows ignorant, poor,
dependent; and comes in time to be the mere
purveyor and subordinate of the Town.
Such Il fate has happened to agricultural
France, once u confederation of sovereign
States like ours, now ruled and owned by
Paris. Such fate has happened to the ag-
ricultural Turks, once the terror Of Europe,
now the needy dependents of the Greeks and
Jews of Constantinople. Such fate is
gradually stealing upon the agricultural
Southern States, becoming every year more
dependant on New York. Such fate would
happen 10 us were we to confne ourselves
as they have to that one pursuit.
Inland commercial towns, which happen to
I, L.. -, - -:
export, exhibit temporary grpwth not I'M
like that of the metropolis. Goshen grew
rapidly so long as it was the terminus CT the
Erie Road. Hudson grew rapidly while it
was the point of departure for ship naviga.
ton. Auburn grew rapidly while the Central
Road was built no further. Elmira and
Canandaigua have grown since they became
the functions of transhipping roads. Buffa-
10 and oswego, the entrepots of North
western trade, grow rapidly yet. AS the
channels of trade become perfected, such
places, if they have no other resource, fall
back, and their commerce is transferred to
the Metropolis. Witness jamestown, (Va.)
Alexandria, Schenectady.
| This is one side. Now for the other.
We have but to look across our eastern
| line for State whose agricultural popula-
| ton does not decrease-whose growth is as
! rapid in its age as in its youth-whose coun-
try towns and metropolis grow together and
keep proportionate pace-whose villages and
/ farms, Notwithstanding "rallroads " not
withstandiug IS taxes, notwi hstanding
"Western enigration," Notwithstanding the
poverty of ssthe so - are thriving as much
| as they ever did, and more. And as it is in
4 Massachusetts so it is in other mauufac.
4 turing States the world over
/ NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. of iron, cloth, la
/ per, wool, cotton, or anything else-are
| what are needed to keep the inland towns
and counties of New York increasing instead
of diminishing. Bringing market ilose &c
the farmers door, supplying him with the
manufactured products. without the cost oil
the 'ouble trans portat.on to and from thu
sea coast-bringing mouths to bel fed. bodie,
to be clothed, heads to be taught, and peck
cts to help pay taxes--those are the means Of
proven ing him from leaving his farm ans
running off after prairie land and gole
mines.
/ Two small towns, of whose existenc,
evcn many in the State are ignorant, exhibi
a striking contrast TO the falling off in towns
of q similar sizs-Seneca Falls. where the,
make Cloth and paper, and Gloversyille
where they manufacture bnckskin mittens
| They have grown faster than places of fvt
times the population which have relied sole
y on trade in agricultural products.
/ Agriculture, manufactures and commerc
are the three props that support State
10 try to make two support i, without tn
third, is ike building house on two-third
of a foundation. Ii may. look secure an
well balanced for a while, but sooner or la
ter 1t will topple over.