Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-10-06

scIlOeu MS boundaries; and hiS cottage IS
his castle, however lowly its roof. With a
weii-dlrected energy, refined civilization,
and gentle domestic government, as its
presiding genii, and the religion of that meek
Nazar1ne who "walked through the fields
ana gathered the ears of corn" to charm
and sanctlfy the altar of that cottage-it SUR
passes, In all that constitutes contentment
and JOY, the pride of any power, or the pal
ace OF any prince. Is it not, therefore, sin
gllariy meet and proper, that such - Home
stead, with its plain and honest husband
man as its lord, and woman as its priestess,
thus consecrated and sapctified, should be
tostered by patriotic and enlightened legisla-
ton, granting for it protection and exemp-
ton? Is it source of surprise to the fiber
al and cultivated, in any of the walks of life,
that invidious distinctions are made, to Sc
cure, by legislation, permanently to the
husbandInan who is welded to the soil, in
producing the bread of life on which all must
live, and to which, in destitution and want,
all turn, with the faith and hope of Elijah of
Old, when he prayed on Mount Carmel
amidst the priests of Baal, for the clouds to
darken the sky and the rain to fall on the
| dry and parched earth, to save furnishing
people. 1t is estimated that a thousand mil
lion of human beings, besides the domestic
ANIMALS, are daily fed from the products of
the soil. Notwithstanding, therefore, the
profusion and prOdigality that greets us on
every side, in this teeming land, vet, the soil
| untitled Tor single year, would cause the
giant spectre of famine to brood over every
healthstOne and the wall of woe to drown
"the song of the reaper
Intimately blended with these domestici-
ties, which are the browning JOYS of home
life, is the broader relation to all other pur-
/ suits. Then does it not impose upon the
tiller of the soil moral obligation to study
this "sOurce of life," and become familiar
with that science, which, while il enriches
him, reveals the beautiful mysteries of ma
ture, and feeds the toiling millions. Your
| philanthropy asks for this knowledge: your
interest demands it; and your affections in
| their purest and lOftiest yearnings crave it.
If this knowledge-Scientifc If YOU please
OF the mysteries of vegetable life, and the
! combination of elements from which it
! springs, is the "open sesame" to hidden re-
! cesSeS containing untold treasures; if it is
the secret spring moving the machinery that
! is working out prOgresSire destiny in agri-
| cultural pursuits and profits; and if that
| pursuit is the source of food and raiment
! for man; does not the tiller of the soil owe
it to himself, his family, his generation and
race, to strive for the philosophers stone"
by the daily application of scientific re-
search? 1t is the scientific application of
| seeds to soils, and the combination of active
and resistive elements in the culture of the
same, guided by well-directed energy,
which constitutes the true alchemy that
works silently and mysteriously in the pro
ductiOn of grand results. This is natures
boon, in which with the silent subtlety of
the spider, drawing from its own internal
resources, the rags of poverty are woven
into the webs of silk. 1t is this knowledge
and IFS pplicatiOn-simple, Yet mysterious
! that enlarges the boundaries of the husband
man, fells his forests, enriches his soil, fills
his granaTies; and brings happy faces in happy
homes.
1t is this, which invites in its wake the
rustic schOol-hOuse, and nestles it by the
cool spring in the shaded valley. 1t is this.
which builds the little church that beams
like a beacon to light the traveller on his
dubious pathway, to the great Hereafter.
With such motives and such results to allure
him to scientific research and scientific ap-
plication of the fruits of that research. can
man dare resist the invitation to seek it ?
Notwithstanding the apparent progress in
this branch OF study and practical life, "the
highest attainments of science are Yet to be
won from the soil she has neglected; and
the highest duty of the State is to place agTi-
cultural education within the reach of all
her sons" COrOllary to these two PROPOSE
tions are the others, that science can be sue
cessfully applied TO agriculture; and, all is
not known that can be kitOt-n in fertiizing
! the earth and multiplying its fruitfulness.
| The laws of vegetable life are within the
reach Of human grasp. and knowledge of
( them will aid the cultivatOr of the field in
his practical huSbandry. Until late wears.
since Sir Humphrey Davy and Leibig have
bent their energies to the illustration and
demonstration of these truths, q prejudice,
hOary with age, and deep-rOOted, existed in
the popular mind against them Science
demonstrated" and chemistry applied"
has plUcked the wizard beard of hoary error,
and, To great extent, removed the preju-
dice against scientific culture. IT'S true
that here and there. lingering amid surround
ing progress, we find specimens of doubling
ThOmases, who, like DiOgenes, prefer con-
timing their operations 10 the circumscrbed
sphere of their own tubs-Who discard in !
nOvatiOns and experiments, decry all i'm
provements as humbugs, and, if asked why.
would say, as l once knew one to say: . |
liked daddy and his ways; l despise wealth /
and aristOcracy; / was born poor, and /
thank God, I've hit my own" These /
specimens of utScientiic and Gati-prOpeS- I
sire farmers, are generally found digging
with the most primitive instruments of huS- I
bandry, about the roots of ancestral pines. I
upon old clay hills, because daddy did it, .
afraid to emigrate to the rich bottoms of the I
West, lest he might catch the fever and .
- SY1rb a-,Ti, To- L.
their place in the wake Of all scientific i'm
proyements. "COntent with little and con-
tent with more" is better poetry than philos-
Ophy. NJ H it not as well have been said .
that, because GalileO spanned the heavens
with the lescope, and numbered the stars
in their orbits, years agone, therefore nothing
was left TO be done in astronomy? Yet, Sir
John Herschel, with his eighteen inch re-
fiectOr, of twenty feet focal length poised on
the verge of Cape Good Hope, penetrated
further into the wonderful mysteries of
astronomy than did Calico, when he
d" snatched Immortality from the SUM-" To
feel the force of scientific advance We need
but look over the landscape surrounding us,
and see what local changes have been |
wrought in few short years. Here in the
valley of this mighty river, before De Soto
pushed his little column of devoted Spa
niards through the solemn forests and
tangled brakes to her mysterious banks,
there was a race, standing erect, in the
image Of our maker, cultivating the maize,
and smoking in his calumet. the exciting
weed, which are yet great staples of use and
commodity. Those tVlnUi, which dot the
banks of her tributaries, and rise here and
there in her own broad bottoms, like islands
in the sea, with trees growing on their sur
face, that science tells are centuries old when
discovered, reveal to the antiquarian, rude
implements of husbandry, made of stone,
together with other indicia of civilization.
That this race was more enlightened than
the Indian, as he revealed himself to our
immediate ancestry, is no longer a problem
but why the want of agricultural progress
in this preceding race when once it had
taken the initiatiye9 Why the cessation in
the use of these implements of husbandry
with such an inviting soil? Why the loss
of that art of building of which buried ;
cities give evidence, the page of history does
not show, nor the eyes of philosophy detect.
Here in this land, where valleys smiled and .
mountains frowned; where the dun-deer ! I
dashed through tangled wild-woods, and the
trout leaped in waters that cleaned and |
flashed in the light of the morning, these
Nimrods of the forest held sway, content l
3, A1,,er i,