The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-04-14
A Model Address on Agriculture.


! A Model Address on Agriculture.
The following brief ands exceed edingly well
timed agricultural address was delivered be-
fore the Hebron Agricultural Society of Craw-
ford county, Georgia, By its President, Pearce
E. Lewis, Esq, and is copied from the Southern
Ctsziuator. 1t contains food for reflection, and
may well be styled model of its kind:
Gentlemen oftse Associations ofmen
common benefit, have been justly regarded
among the most efficient means of insuring sue
cess. And why2 because in no single individ-
ual is found the requisite capacity, either phys
ical or mental. to accomplish all that may re-
dound to his own advantage. But where the
united energies of the intelligent and well in
formed portions of communities are eoncentra-
ted. a moral as we'll as physical force is render
ed available, sufficient oftimes to overcome OBJ
stacles, which even the credulous may have
rarely conceived of as within the range Of pos
sibility. At the meeting of such assemblies,
by comparing individual views, experience and
practice, each one becomes, as it were, maga-
zine of the aggregated information of the whole.
Different plans for the improvement of lands,
various modes of culture being contrasted, new
thoughts are evolved, important improvements
are suggested, useful ideas are eliminated, and
he must be an Indifferent observer indeed, who
does not carry back to his farm some knowl-
edge, some valuable hint, which may aid his
Judgment.
= Agriculture is the most ancient and honora-
BILE occupation of man. It is the foundation
and support of every human trade and occupa-
ton. No avocation offers greater field for ex-
pertinent, and for the application of science,
directed by sound Judgment No pursuit more
calculated to expand The mind, bring into Wig
orous exercise all the mental powers, and de-
velope the physical organization. AS science,
Agriculture requires much study and research (;
as an act, much skill in numerous and varied
operations. In both these respects few other
pursuits require knowledge or skill in so many
different things, or require so much instruction.
Yet it is almost profession without any regu-
lar or ordinary means for instruction-one In
which almost every learner is without teacher
While there are many farmers who have i'm
proved their lands and realized handsome
profit on their capital, which would be deemed
a rare and remarkable measure of success or
gain, in any safe business; yet there are per-
haps twenty times as many others, possessing
the same facilities who have realized but little
annual profits, and no improvements whatever.
These opposite results are owing to unequal
amounts of knowledge possessed by different
farmers. This inequality belongs to farming,
in very far greater measure than is possible in
any other Industrial pursuit. To supply this
want by proper instruction should be our single
aim however diversified the manner and
means) if designed to promote Agricultural
improvement and interest. Little has yet been
done by governments, owing to misdirected eff
fort, and almost nothing by other associations.
AS the great disadvantage under which agricul-
ture suffers, is the want of knowledge, SO the
great remedy must be to collect, embody, in
crease, and diffnse information. 1t only re-
mains for us to take advantage of the circum-
stances that surround us, throwing past preju-
dices to the wind, and satisfying ourselves by
ACTUAL experience and research. This accom-
.plished, these old fields will again blossom as
the garden, our credit will be maintained, dire
necessity will no longer compel us to sever old
ties and associations to search for more produc-
tive soils in less congenial climes. And now
gentlemen, have only to return my profound
acknowledgement for the honor bestowed upon
me, to express my regrets that the brevity of
your notice, prevented my doing more ample
justice to subject of so much interest. Let in
dustry guide the plow, and science bear her
lights along, and success in renovating our
worn-out lands is certain.