New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1859-10-17
9ew 0rlans 1a'y Crescent aaonaay oana eeob j 1859
scIEuTITrc AGHTcUITITaE.


If there Is one error too common in practice
among Southern planters Of the stapes and tiIlers
| Of the soil for general crops it is that system
Which Is at fault on the same greedy and short
sighted principle on Which the goose that laid the
| golden eggs was killed, that her covetons owner
might at once possess himself Of the mine OF aurf
erous wealth which he fancied he should discover
IN the CARCASS OF that celebrated and most extraor
binary fowl-a bird only second indeed in fame tn
that historical goose which once upon a time saved
| Rome. The Southern planter is too ant tn n,pnce
on the rich virgin soil, and, by comnelI;no il n
yield in quick succession the most exhanat;n,
crops, he speedily destroys its fruitfuIpess and
thus kills the golden goose Of his fortunes. whereas
scientific system of cultivation would have ena.
bled him to bequeath to his sons homestead of
uni'npaired value, with q soil rather increased than
diminished in productiveness by long use. It il
not many years since the oli-fashioned traditional
farmers Of the older States and Of England who
TILED tile exhausted soil Of their poor estates with
| the same simplicity Of agriculture which Adam
himself practiced sreerel at all ATTEMPTED innoya
tons, and ridculed any one who essaycd to de-
part from old customs and to put "book-learningn
to use in practical farming: but science was not
rance and prejudice, has already achieved wonder
| full victories over those oldtime enemies of ad.
! vancement Fields which their fathers were com
PEELED to permit to lie fallow, not even affording
decent pasture for sheep, fill the pockets of the
sons with the proceeds of the most affluent crops
and the teenng plains and hillsides of vast regions
smile encouragement on science. The agricultural
| productyeness Of provinces and empires is vastly
increased, and the nations and the whole world is
benefited.
| The greater interests of the South are and always
must be agricultural. Climate and soil render US,
par excellence an agricultural people, but we have
not yet learned to use good discretion in availing
ourselves of the advantages which the kindness of
nature enables Us to command. We are troubled
with too much land and cuitivators do not hesitate
| to ruin plantation by calling on the soil to yield
| constant crops, unaided by scientific encourage
ment and assistance, for they know that when its
fertility is destroyed they can pull up stakes and
decamp for other parts, there to put another fair
extent of land through the same destructive pro.
cess. Travel through the South and the many
abandoned and barren 20 old fields" tell sad tale
of the shorsighted system of Southern agriculture.
We doubt not that the time will come at no distant
of cotton that, at comparatively little increase of
cost of production, lands will yield two or three
fold the amount which is now grown upon them
Results much extraordinary than this have
been attained in the cultivation of other crops in
other countries.
Legislatures and corporations throughout the
South have manifested that general interest is
felt, and is sought to be encouraged, in the i'm
proyement of Southern agriculture, and something
is being done to further the object but nothing
important will be accomplished until enlightened
and systematized effort is made. In all of the edu
cationa Institutions of note competent professors
should direct an Agricultural Department in which
students might undergo a thorough course of in
struction in the various branches which would
pertain to it. The considerations suggested by
the above remarks doubtless exercised their full
weight in the minds of the highly intelligent and
well-known citizens composing the Board of Trus
tees of Dolbear Commercial College, when they
concluded it to be most important and desirable
that an agricultural and Mechanical Depart
ment" should be added to the great central Com
mercial Department of the College, which would
thus be complete institution wherein the student
could be fitted to succeed so far as knowledge ia
power, in the pursuit of either one of the three
great interests of life-Commerce, Agriculture or
Mechanics.
In regard to this action of the Trustees we were
pleased to see, and pleased to extract for the
benefit of Our own readers the following article in
the columns of the " Cincnnatus,n journal of
merit, published in Cincinnati. Its highly national
and catholic tone is every way commendable, and
indicates that sectional fanatcism sets up no bar
riers to the phanthropic and progressive enthu-
siasm of the writer. The article illustrates, too.
the fact that the reputation of Dolbear Commercial
College, as an institution Of practical learning is
not confined to this locality, but is co-extensiye
with the country, North and South. 1t deserves
its fame and with pleasure transfer the article of
the ''Cincinnatus " to our columns:
DoLBEAR COMMERCIAL COLLEGE, situated in New
orleans, La, Is now incorporated with full powers
to add an Agricultural and Mechanical Department
so that the three classes which are the greatest
producers of the country may be provided for and
may enjoy the advantages of a scientific education
This corporation has been authorized to increase
their capital stock to S2500OO, with power to re-
ceive donations and legaceS
This, we believe, is the only institution ever char
tered in Louisiana where special scientific nstruc-
ton is given with view to educate literally those
who are to engage in Agriculture, Commerce and
the Mechanic Arts. We are truly delighted with
this movement, and while at the South, az well as
at the North, there IS yet an abundance of land nm
exhausted, still there, as well here it is wisely
provldent to take care OF those elements which are
rapidly being removed, remembering that where
land has been cultivated scientific principles two
hundred bushels of corn have been produced on
old lands that without it, would not produce forty
bushels and so with other crops Let every
farmer and planter be qualified to adopt this sys.
tem and it will be that their profits would be
quadruped, and their estates increased in value in
proportion. The mechanical genius of Whitney
doubled the value of every cotton plantation in
the South and that of Fulton doubled the value of
the property of every State in the Union Com
merce doubles the value of all agricultural and
products; and these three classes
create most Of the comforts, luxuries and wealth
of all other classes hence ALL from the lowest to
the highest, have direct personal interest in their
in the city as well as country.
1t is matter of small importance to Louisiana
and the whole South to have lands cultivated 40
that they shall not wear out, but be enriched
And let it be remembered that the material con-
though great, forms but yery small
in the calculation of the immense adj
vantages, which are to result from the better eu-
cation of these classes. The political, moral, So
cial, and religious, must all Immediately and cor
relatively be brought into the account. In the fiat
that man to eat bread by the sweat of his
brow, he was endowed with such mental capabili-
ties, as if rightly improved and directed, he might
raise himself in the scale of being. If man il to
i've by mere physical labor, without the exercise {
Of those mental faculties with which he is endowed,
n what is lie to be distinguished above the brute u
,reation? Shall we regard those who are delving a