Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-12-20
new Hanover Agriculture.

New Hanover Agriculture.
We were much pleased to see in our We'd
nesday's issue the notice for "the meeting
of farmers at Ellington, on the 29th IN
slant This is a most important step IN the
right direction, and we trust that our enter
rrising planters and farmers will realize Its
importance and not be guilty of the too
common folly of suffering the enterprise
To fail from want of zeal. This would
be worse than if they had never made
beginning. Journalists have too often wit
messed, and had with pain to record, the
premature death of such Agricultural Socle-
ties. Half a dozen meetings is frequently
as long as they survive. Feeling the vital
inheritance of such Society at this time,
when we are about to inaugurate new sys-
tenn of labor, we earnestly urge upon the
highly respectable gentlemen who have
signed the notice to see to it, that what is be-
gun in so commendable a spirit, shall
not be suffered to languish and die for want
of proper support Let them remember
how much more difficult it is to rednina0te
q deserted cause, than to give 1T life at the
beginning We trust that they will feel
the imperative necessity as we'll as the in
calculable benefits of it, and shall not,
therefore, assign reasons for what is so OBJ
Yious. We hope, however, we may be par
doned for making a few suggestions not I'M
. worthy of their attention.
First, then, we deem it important that
H. Cbo II auraa rnOO uniform
mode of paying for labor, and we hear from
all hands that the experience of the last and
the present year, establish beyond doubt,
that payment of wages is preferable to Civ
ing part of the crop, whether the laborers
be white or black. This course produces
system and good order on the farm, avoids
all the usual causes of wranging and dis
satisfaction among the hands, and what we
would especially be pleased to see, greater
benefit to the laborer than the course Of
cropping with them as it is called for
surely when the wages are fair land they
ought always to be SOL it must be better
for the laborer, whatever his color, to have
those wages fixed and certain, and not de-
pendent on the vicissitudes of the season as
well as of price, &c. And
Secondly, it would be unjust to the
employer that the laborer could have it in
his power to abandon the farm at q critical
moment. and when it might not be posi-
BILE to replace his services with other la
borers.
There is only one other remark we will
make on this subject, viz: That we admire
the sagacity which selected Ellington as
the place of meeting. Wilmington is not
the place for the permanent sessions of the
Society. Men who are in the earnest occu-
patton of comparing systems of agriculture,
hearing the results of experiments made by
farmers on any article ofculture, and express
ing their views in their own homely way,
want the silence and the quiet of the coun-
try, and cannot in the noise and hustle of
the town, perform their duties SATISFACTORY
~. In addition, they must always incur
extra expense in coming to the city, and in
these days, even this small item is not to
be overlooked. In conclusion, we hail with
pleasure this demonstration of a reyiving
spirit among our Planters, who, after all,
are the producers or creators of the mate
rails with which the world is fed and clothed,
and must therefore be always regarded as
the most important class of mankind