Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1867-09-18
Diversified Agriculture.

Our QlStllSuIsueu ieiIOW'Cil'ASii3 Oe1A'
N. C. NJ. HAMMOND, over twenty years
ago, while residing IN Burke County,
Georgia, delivered before the Burke Coun
ty Agricultural Society, an exceedingly
interesting address, showing the necessity,
even at that period, of diversified Agri
culture. We have been placed in posses
sionof copy of this address, and as Gen.
HAMMoSD's views then are equally ap-
plicable to the present day and time, we
make copious extracts therefrom.
After showing the impracticability of
the almost exclusive culture of Cotton,
as has heretofore been the prevailing Gus,
tom among our people, the Gen. branches
off to the subject of his remarks, and
says:
This is indeed an Agricultural era,
most trying to Us now, and exciting the
deepest anxiety for the future. We have
no hope of discovering new staple,
which shall be necessary to the existence
or comfort of mankind, the cultivation OF
which we can monopolize long enough to
restore our fortunes, and throw it upon
future generations, to struggle through
that revolution in agri allure, which, how
ever protracted, mus. come at last. There
are indeed, virgin soils still open to us in
the West, to which | have already alu.
dcd, where we might shun the work which
would inevitably await our children here
But if we have no attachment to the
graves of our fathers, and the scenes Of
our childhood-if the family mansion,
the broad fields, the lofty forest, the fa
miliar stream, all of which have been
Home to us from our first recollections,
possess no charm to bind us here, we may
we'll doubt whether the difficulties we
should have to contend with, as adventu.
rers among adventurers, in strange.
wild, and for the most part unhealthy
region, might not be at least equal to
those which surround US here--and
whether it is not the manlier part, to
struggle with the ills of Fate upon the
spot where God has placed US, than to
attempt to shun his visitations, by inglo-
rious flight. To many, the most Of US,
however, even this alternative is not left
We cannot all go. Whatever betides,
whether from compulsion or choice, far
the larger part must remain where We
are.
The question then, is, what are we to
do? The answer might be given in the
words of the Sacred Book, that which
our hands find to d." and do it with all
our might. Let the intelligent planter
survey his own premises alone, and it will
bring ample conviction of the work which
is allotted him. Let him look around
upon the plains with their scanty herbage
and compacted soil-upon the red hills
with their skinlcss backs and skeleton
sides ribbed with gullies The first thing
to be done is, to restore all these to their
original fertility, and to carry them in
deed beyond it, as has been done thou
sand times, in as many different countries,
by people far behind us in Intelligence
and energy. The next thing will be, so
to diversity their productions as to graft
fly more human wants, and avoid, as far
as possible, the over-supply of any. And
lastly, we>must so change our habits of
life that we shall become, as we should
be, simple, home-loving, pains-taking,
Woodworking People, as wise and polished
as we can be, and as becomes our Age
and Country. Here is what we have to
achieve, and it must be accomplished, or
we are a ruined People, impoverished,
fallen, degraded, ready to suceumb to the
first tyrant who waves his strong arm
over us-to sink into the degeneracy of
modern Italy anr' Greece. or rush into the
wild anarchy of South American mobo-
cracies.
No candid and intelligent mind can
fail to see the work we have to perform,
and no one, trust, will want courage to
address himself vigorously to the task
before him. Yet, the means of its ac'
are various. and many
honest and earnest differences of opinion
in relation to them may exist. Hon. are
aye 10 restore our exhausted lands9 How
are ce TO diversity our productions
These are the. points propose TO consid-
er. How we shall alter our modes of
life so imperiously demanded by our al
tered circumstances, is q question | shall
refer to the good sense of each individual
to answer for himself
The renovation of exhausted land is a
matter which has occupied the minds of
men from the earliest periods Of which