Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1856-01-12
AarilnItnral.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD.

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the advance which was making in all the
branches Of domestic industry. The
Hon. ANDREW STEVENSON, the distin-
gushcd statesman Of Virginia, delivered
the annual address before the Society,
which is spoken of in the highest terms
by those who were present on the occa-
sion. The Society asked for copy of
the address, and in the reply Mr.. $.
takes occasion to refer to the beneficial
Effects which the Agricultural Societies,
both State and County, have had in the
Improvement of the agriculture Of our
State--and points to the prop9iaty of
the States aiding these societies in their
dissemination of practical Enoutedge
among the people. We ask the partic-
ular attention Of the members elect OF
our legislature, to the importance of this
subject, so eloquently and truthfully adj
vanced by this venerable and eminent
son of the Old Dominion, as the subject
will be brought prominently before them
By our State Society, at its coming SEES
sion. The farmers have been too long
put off with hopes deferrcd, and thou
sands of dollars are annually paid in
sinecure offices and emoluments, expend-
ed avowedly for the benefit of Agricul-
tire, which, if Judiciously applied TO
educating the future farmers Of the
State, will put Agriculture upon so per-
manent a basis, that it will soon hun
dred fold refund to the treasury of Mary
land, all that may be expended for the
support of schools and colleges for the
education of farmers sons, to qualify
them for the profession of their fathers,
which is now daily rising in dignity and
importance. Mr.. Stevenson says:
eff there was one sobcr-minded cul-
tivator of the soil in your county, who
still entertains doubts as to the value of
Agricultural Societies and Associations
and of the utility, nay, necessity of prdc-
teal science and education, connected
with agriculture, he ought to have been
present at your exhibition, that he might
have been convicted of his delusion, and
renowned his heresy.
| said in the course of my address,
and take occasion now to repeat it, that
the results of your Society, and that of
the State Society Of Maryland, had not
only nobly accredited the wisdom and
patriotism of their founders, but had
spread over the whole State new zeal
in favor of agricultural Improvement and
high farming, and added four fold to the
productions of the greater portion of
the cultivated lands of Maryland !
need hardly say how strongly this has
been illustrated in the range of country
lying between Georgetown and Wash
ington, and Rockville, the capital of
your county. A few years ago, this
whole district was not only sterile and
unproductive, but, with few exceptions,
barren waste The lands sold for not
more than four or five dollars an acre,
and produced from one to three barrels
of corn, and some four or five bushels
of wheat. Within the last ten years,
the whole face of that partof the country
has been changed, Now are to be seen
little else than fine farms, rich verdure,
excellent enclosures, comfortable and
tasteful dwellings, neat churches, and
an industrious and thriving population.
The lands are now selling from S25 to
$50, and in some localities for $50 an
acre, and producing from ten to fifteen
barrels of corn, and thirty or forty
bushels of wheat
And all this is the result of practical
science, industry, dnd enterprise, aided
by the influence of your Agricultural
Societies, and that new spirit connected
with humanimprovement, which is abroad
in the world. And yet, gentlemen, al
low me to say, that, Notwithstanding all
this, there is much which remains still
to be done to place the agricultural in
terests of your own State, as well as
those of most other Atlantic States,
upon their true basis, and enable the
farming classes to assume the rank to
which they are entitled, at the head of
other professions, and which l ardently
trust they are soon destined to reach
but let it be borne in mind, that to ac-
complish this, two or three things are
indispensably necessary
Fra-There must be an enlarged
and general system of agricultural edu-
cation, and a knowledge of practical sci
ence, amongst the great body of our
farmers.
Sccondly.-There must be united ac-
ton and liberal patronage on the part of
individuals and the State Governments:
and
Wirdly.-Tho minds of the farming
classes must be deeply impressed with
the truth, that the cultirotioa Of tie soil is
the foundation Of public prosperity. And
why shall not this be done? Why it that
agriculture has so long failed to assert
its just claim to responsibility, and place
itself upon its true basisP Why is it,
that whilst our State Governments and
people bestow life and energy upon all
other professions and branches of national
industry, agriculture alone is suffered to
languish and take care of itself? And
more especially may this be asked in an
age like the present, when everything in
art and science seems to be bearing on
the interests and destinies of man, and
in no department of knowledge, with
greater progress and success, than in that
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