Daily national Democrat., 1858-08-26

The Jewish people were an Agriculture
Society, as well as a religious congregation
Moses, their great lawgiver, LEARNED in al
the wisdom of the Egyptians" doubtless bor
rowed the idea originally from Egypt. TIL
three great yearly religious feasts of tn
Jews, had direct connection with agriculture
Three times year they were commando,
to assemble in one place
lst. At the Passover, which was the sow
ing time.
I'd. The Feast of Pentecost, when the,
came to present the first fruits of the eartl
upon the altar.
Sd. The Feast of the Tabernacles, whel
they came to JOY over the harvest home o
the year, as we do this day They compared
the fruits of the earth, and emulated eacl
other in their crops, as we do on this occa
sion.
Mark the most marvellous result-Egyp
gave civilization, and Judea gave religion t
the world
In modern times, what have agricultural
societies achieved2 For there is little ad
vancement in merely tilling the soil. 1t i
essential that there be the developement o
mind connected with these societies. Menta
| growth, as well as the growth of plants
The intellect must be plowed deeper thar
the furrows of the field; or the farmer is
mere serf of the sofia superior kind O
dray horse--a kind of clown, but withou
his suppleness of wit or limb
A few centuries ago, before modern agri
cultural society was known. a learned wri
ter describes the times in these words:
Rode were the manners then the MAJ
and his wife ate off the same trenchcr; a few
wooden handled knives with blades f rug
ged iron, were n luxury for the great can
dies were unknown. One. or at most, two
mugs of coarse brown earthenware, formed
all the drinking apparatus in a house. Rcl
gentlemen wore clothes of unlined leather
Ordinary persons scarcely ever touched fesl
meat In noble mansions little corn seemed
wealth.
This is history. Any one of our neighbor:
compelled now to live as the highest and
wealthiest of mankind lived in those days
such a neighbor would excite our svmpathies
We would consider him as good as starving
would carry in gifts to supply his wants,
and start subscription among our friends to
feed and clothe him.
In the kingdom of England, not more than
a century and a half ago-not quite two long
life times-McCauley writes; Wheat was
then cultivated only on the strongest clav,
and consumed only by those who were in
easy circumstances. Many routes which now
pass through an endless succession of or
chards, then ran through nothing but fens,
heath and swamp" In describing the coun-
try gentleman of those days, he says: ale
troubled himself little about decorating his
abode and if he attempted decoration.
seldom produced anything but deformity
The litter of farm yard gathered under the
windows of his bedchamber, and the cab
bages and gooseberry bushes grew close to his
hall door. His wife and daughter were, in
tastes and requirements, below Il housekeeper
or still-room maid OF the present day"
Thus testiies the great historian, writing of
but century and II half ago.
few hundred years ago as well as in
ancient classic times, and all the wealth of a
kingdom could not buy loaf Of bread such
as yon will see on any Californians table
The fine flour could not be made The table
Of our farmers is much more princely in its
furnishings than was the table of monarch,
then. We have now in common use several
species of most delicious fruits then unknown.
We raise several kinds of grain not then in
use. The very word corn, then applied to
wheat and barley, is now applied to a grain
undiscovered at that time
Men then lived upon fe : vegetables with
flesh on extraordinary occasions; and at their
greatest feasts the chief viands were flesh and
wine.
Their crops, as we'll as in the palmiest an.
cient times, rarely yielded over ten or TWEEN
ty fold. Now hundred fold is very small
return. Then they gathered the harvest 10y
pulling off the heads pulling up the stalk,
or by the almost as slow process OF reaping
with the sickle Compare those methods with
the great reaper we now behold That
sweeps over acres in an hour, and leaves
but the yellow stubbe of the golden harvest
on the fields Of a farm, in day.
Then, as formerly the lowing OK slowly
tramped out the grain week af. er week; and
the winds of Heaven, and the fan in the hand
OF the laborer, slowly and imperfectly seplra-
ted the kernel from the chaif and straw.
Now the mighty thresher. with tumultuous
whirl, takes into its crashing teeth Thousands
of sheaves in n day, and scattering the empti-
ed heads of stra and the chaIf; in thick
streams the separated golden grain runs out
upou the ravished sight,all ready for the mart-
of trade for food of man and fowl and beast
and for the hopper, and the upper and the
neither stone, swift driven 10y the vast wheel
of the ponderous mill From its mighty
pouch comes out flour, white as the light,
which makes the kne lded bread, better than
the fabled ambrosia of the gods.
Since then the amount and varieties Of nu-
tritious and wholesome food have incre.sed
at least a thousand fold. This abundant and
varied food, connected with the advance OF
science, has doubled the average duration OF
the life of man; and so far superior are we
in all physical respects to our foreflthers,
some few generations ago, that it is well
known that the armor of the great warriors
of the middle ages, preserved in the tower Of
London, will not 60 on to the bodies or
limbs of their superior descendants And
yet there are those among us who affect to
sigh for the 'good old times
When were those good old days! Never
never! There never were days, in all the
world, as good as now. Yes, now, and even
here, with all the faults of the times, there
never were days as good as these For he
who now turns the clod, is no longer 'cLod
hopper" He has become responsible prince.
"A free American sovereign, tilling his own
feesimple farm.
And richer array of the bounties of the
earth was never before beheld than surround
us at this Fair
"Say not thou"-Says Solomon, "Say not
thou what is the cause that the former days
were better than these, for thou dost not in
quire wisely concerning this" Ii this were
true in the time of the Sage of Israel, it is a
hundred fold true to day.
POSITION II.
THE FARMER is KING.
Cotton is King" saysa Senator Of these
States Nay, replies another Senator, "Gold
is King" Nay, say we've like a living
Sovereign Farmer IS King
A monarch is prepared for his throne by a
careful education; but who is nurtured with