The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1868-09-18
ArricnItura.

Agriculture.
1t was a fitting compliment to husbaudry
that the great Cincinnatus, after having
conquered the Aqui aud restored peace to
Rome, should lay aside the dictatorship
that he might return to his pillow, and that
GURUS, though crowned with laurels,
should disdain the offer Of the King Of Epi-
rus, that he might cultivate his four acres
Of land on The vatican hills. The retire
ment Of Mount Vernon on the banks of the
Potomac had more attractions for our own
Washington than the honors Of public life,
and Jackson, great in war as well as in
peace, was willing to leave the Presidential
mansion for the shade Of the Hermitage.
Agriculture is the basis of our national
greatness; It is tho great conservative Gle
ment Of the republic; it developers our re-
sources, gives permanonco and stability 10
our free institutions. Il is tho great civil
izer in the worlds history. In proportion
as the soil is cultivated, barbarism declines,
and the past most forcibly teaches that any
legislation which has the tendency to re-
strict the agriculturist, is injurious to the
entire nation, for the interests of the two
are n utual and reciprocal. We are emil
nently an agricultural people. There is
with US q wonderful adaptation to soil and
climate, and our system Of Legislation is
wise and munifcart. The Almighty has
written beauty and utility on every feature
-four landscape. The green slopes Of the
New England hills the rich States of the
imperial center, the mighty valley of the
Mississippi, the eun-lighted plains of the
South, and the new Ststesswhich are being
created toward the settling sun, are all sus-
ceptiblo ofthe highest cultivation. In Con
tinental Europe there is an excess Of labor
In America there is a demand for it. Our
wide extent of territory is the necessity
which calls into play the inventive ingonu-
ity of our people. Labor must be encour-
aged. and the reaping machine must sup
plant the sickle.
In 1850 there were less than one hun
dred reapiog machines 10 Ohio, while in
1860 there were between thirty and forty
thousand. There is no land tenure system
with US, as in ireland, but The soil is held
in fee simple, and widely distributed
There are no laws Of entail and primogeni-
ture to affect the agricultuust. The pro-
duce has market, and the laborer a sure
guarantee of reward. It is the spirit ofour
Legislation that the public lands should DO
distributed as widely as possible among the
people. and should be disposed Of either IA
der the presumption or homestead laws, or
sold in reasonable quantities, and to none
but actual occupants. We have world as
complete within itself as the earth, which
Hercules is represented by tho anoients as
holding upon his shoulders. When the
great line of railway is completed across
the American continent, aud binds the East
and West in unity, we can stand on the
shores Of the Atlantic. instead Of the Pa
cifio, aud say yonder Is India and China
and Japan, and the islands Of the seas
Providence has dealt with us as with 20
other nation, and with this broad land, with
its valleys and meadows and plains, aud
above all, with the integrity and patriotism
of The people, we will go forward with high
hopes in the accomplishment of that mis-
sion which God has given US as a nation 90
fulfill.