Des Arc citizen., 1859-05-04
Agriculture Its Importance.
BY c. N. BEMEN T

Agriculture Is the body, while the oth- CT professions are members, and, although the body and members are mutually de- pendent and reciprocally useful to each other the body can exist without the mem- bers much better than the members can exist without the body. For the purpose of comparison agriculture may be con- sidered as a trade, an art, and science. The trade is mechanical, requiring muscu- lar strength It IS imitatiye-it is to do a thing as one has been taught to do it be- fore. The OK, in measure, acquires 1t. He knows his master and his masters crib. He treads the accustomed furrow, turns at the headlands, and obeys the dri- ver's commands.
 The art implies cooperation of the mind with physical power. The mind contrives it is lever which greatly as- slsls and abridges the labor of the hands. The mind, like the soil, makes returns in proportion to the culture which is bestow- ed upon it. Both are unproductive with out culture. The mind is improved by observation and reading, which makes 1t familiar with the best models of practlce, and enables it to profit by the improve ment of others.
 The science teaches the laws and pro. portions of inorganic matter-as of rocks, earths, manures, &c.; of organic matter as animals and vegetables oftheir struc- ture, food, and uses; and the agency of heat, water, air, light, and electricity in their development and maturity the en- ployment and adaptation of these matters for the best uses of man. It csntradicts the experience of ages and the labors of nations upon these interesting subjects. and makes them subservient to our wants and our comforts. The science is col lection of facts and leading truths, illus trated in practice and confirmed by ex- perence.
 Land and labor are the legitimate sour ces of public wealth. The first to be pro- ductive must be cultivated, and the labor of doing this is abridged by the culture of the mind, which guides it's operations.
 Without agriculture there is no wealth. Gold and silver are not wealth they are its convenient representatives. Com merce produces no wealth-it simply ex- changes it. Manufactures and the arts recombine it. Agriculture is the prolific mother of wealth. The rest simply han dIe it when produced and delivered into their hands. The earth itself, originally, spontaneously produces wherewllh to keep the race of man from starving-on- ly whilst he is making ready to till the soil. Without it he soon degenerates into wild animal, living here and there in small squads, little superior to other beasts of prey. The earth breeds sava- ges. Agriculture breeds enlightened na- tions. It breeds houses and ships, tenn ples and seminaries it breeds the manu- factory sculpture, painting, and music are it's offspring. It would be folly to speak of the existence, or beauty, or pow CT of any of these things, without agrl- culture.
 The pulpit, the professors chair, the scientific laboratory. the tripod, the libra ", the ship, trip-hammer, the loom. and the anvl-all would go down in one gem eraton. It is by the superabundant pro- duce and stability of agriculture that all things exist. Nor gold, nor silver, nor diamonds could replace it. The state of husbandry in any country IS the test ot It's enlightenment. The thermometer ot civ- ilization rises and falls as drives the blow. '" You must send the plow," exclaimed a man who had travelled all over Christian missionary ground in heathen lands. A barbarian nation needs but to be plowed kup-deep, subsoiled, continued, sowed, planted, and the inevitable harvest will be an enlightened empire. A practical, working agricultural society will dig bar barism and mental and physical and spir- itual poverty out of nation as etectualiIy as any powerful grubbing machine Will " snake out" the stubborn s.umps.
 A few centuries ago, a learned writer describes the times in these words |" Rude were the manners then; the man and wife ate out of the same trencher few wooden handled knives, with blades of rugged iron. were luxury Tor the oreat: candles were unknown. One or,