Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1855-02-03
6IGCvLAE.
THE STATE AHRiCU TUATi BUREAU TO TIE
fARGEaS AND MECHANICS OF TESNESSEg.

l,rm Agricultural Societies IN all TIE counties sof
The State it Will naturally be expected that tais
Bureau shonl set foi til Ks reasons: Tie motives
FIR such organizations too numerous to be
inciuied in cirealaF; bat some OF them will be
I briefly stated
The first consideration Is, tina. such societies will
get up union and concert Of action. II union,
there is strength; and in a multitude Of counsel
there is safety. An persons who see the want of
! Improvement among MS and have the spirit and
nobleness TO lend their aid may thus associate and
/ consult together for the common good, and take
4 such measures and procure such means as will
! best promote the general prosperity
Second. Societies must be formed, in order that
every county may obtain its share Of the aid offer
ed by the treasury of the State. And Societies
must be formed in order that each county may be
represented, by its delegates, in the Agricultural
! Bureau, which is bound to study and overlook the
whole mechanical and farming interest Of the State.
In this Bureau the lsborng classes have an abiding
interest because it is substantially State Council
made up Of farmers and mechanics.
Third. There one consideration, which is enough
! 10 itself to stimulate every farmer and mechanic;
that is they are the great body ofprodu,ers. We
have in this State, of merchants physicians and
lawyers, all put together, G,55S; while we have
over 10000 farmers and mechanics. That is, we
have near twenty men engaged in agriculture and
mechanic arts for every one in all the other branches
of business In the United States there are about
four and half millions of mechanics and farmers.
In Tennessee we have 725 lawyers and in the
United States about 24,000 and yet it is fact,
that these lawyers, but a small fraction of the
great multitude, make all laws, and rule everything,
both State and national, while we merely do tie
voting to elevate them to Office. The time has
fully come for US as free and sensible men to unite
together, and think and act for ourselves
| We are the great majority-we have the right
we have the power, to make ourselves intelligent
and rule our own business. When we are united,
who will dare to oppose us2
Fourth. We buy too many articles, which ought
to be produced at home. 1t is doubtless our in
terest to purchase many commodities, which can
not be economically made in our climate, but such
as can be proftably made here ought not to be i'm
ported. This Bureau has adopted measures which
will doubtless develop facts enough to astound US
the drain Of our wealth from this cause is enormous
We buy garden seeds, clover, timothy, herds grass,
blue grass and mlet seeds -four potatoes, apples,
beef, pork, hay, plows, hoes chains, spades axes,
dressed plank, window sash, shoe pegs pleasure
carriages, chairs, water vessels brushes and broons
to the amount Of hundreds of thousands. If we
| will unite in good earnest, and study to improve
our systems, we can probably make all these and
many other articles which are imported as cheaply
as they can be made elsewhere.
| Fifth Our soil is wearing out, and producing less
every year, while our population is increasing rapid
| ly, and demanding improved modes Of production
aud increased supplies to furnish even the COM
mon comforts of life At the rate we have gone
on in wearing out our lands we shall certainly re-
duce our population to a state of suffering. We
have now over one million Of inhabitants in Ten
uessee, and may reasonable expect the population
to be doubled in twenty five years more; how then
can our exhausted lands support such a multitude
As intelligent farmers, ought not to delay our
efforts till the goodness CT Providence shall send
us many more dry seasons as was done in 1854 to
force US TO leave Of oar careless systems and i'm
prove our modes and soil to make it stand
draught. 1t IS burning shame too, for this pros
porous generation to waste and wear out our once
fruitful SOIL so as to starve cur children and all f-
ture generations.
Sixth. There is one remarkable feature in our
affairs that deserves well to be considered that is
our citizens are industrious enough to be far more
prosperous than they are With qualification this
Bureau has witnessed the increasing energy and
industry Of our agricultural population. But we
md idad- do
and plan, and reason together, and study system
atGaly to improve our old modes of business,
which did well while the country was new but
which do not answer now. And in this we are
cot alone; the farmers of other States have gone
on as we are doing wasting their timber and wear
ing out their soil, and removing 10 new countries
in the West, there to do again the same work of
waste ana destruction, till the old countries have
been reduced to barren fields of gulles and broom
sage. But in reviewing the course pursued in the
old States, we find one consolng feature in sew
eral sections where former generations had pro-
duced extreme barrenuess of their lands, urgent
necessity has forced the remaining population to
unite, and think and improve their systems, until
at this day come sections have restored the soil to
more than its original fertility, so as 10 produce
three or four fold, and to support a growing and
prosperous population Felow-citizens, we can
do as well as they. Yes, we can do better than
most of them, because we have the talents, and
the energy, aud here Providence has blessed our
soil with fruitful materials mot yet wasted far sur
passing those of most sections OF the world. We
can, if we viii, enrich ourselves and hand our
soil down to the next generation better than we
found it.
Finally; in view Of the foregoing considerations;
as well as others which might be urged, let us
unite in good earnest Let us form Societies in
all the counties Of the State-permanent Socie- |
ties, which win 60 on growing and improving,
and causing improvements for ages to come.
How LETTERS ARE SENT To CALHoRNIA-A |
correspondent of the Boston Journal, writing from
Bate county, California, says:
"a purchased shirt in this place a few |
weeks since, and took it to his cabin. On trying |
it on, happening to put his hand on one of the |
pocket, he found letter, purporting TO be from a
young lady in Boston, the maker of the shirt The |
letter was addressed to the purchaser of the shirt
in California, stating age, complexion, figure,