The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-05-25
THURSDAY EVENING. MAY 20, 1871

Horace GREELEY closed his able adj
dress GU the Esd before the State agricul-
tural Society of Texas at Houston. with
the following maxims of gold, applicable
to cultivation in every cline and under all
circumstances, whether among popula-
tions dense as that of China or spare as
that of British America "
1. Only good Farming pays. He
who sows or plants without reasonable
assurance of good crops annually, might
better earn wages of some capable neigh
Dor than work for so poor paymaster as
he is certain to prove himself.
II. The good farmer is proved such by The
steady appreciation Of his crops. Any
one may reap an ample harvest from fer
tile virgin soil the good farmer alone
grows good crops at first, and better and
better ever afterward.
III. Nis far easier 10 maintain the pro-
d,tctipc capacity Of a farm than to restore
IL. To exhaust its fecundity, and thea at
tempt its restoration by buying costly COM
nercial fertilizers, is wasteful and ira
tional.
Nv. The good farmer sells mainly such
products as are least exhaustive. Necessity
may constrain him, for the first year or
two, to sell Grain, or even Hay; but he
will soon send off his surplus mainly in
the form of Cotton, or Wool, or Meat, or
Butter and Cheese, or something else that
from it. A bank account daily drawn
upon, while nothing is deposited to its
credit, must soon respond "No funds J" SO
with farm similarly treated.
v. Rotation is at least Negative Fcrtiliza-
hon. 1t may not positively enrich farm !;
it will at least retard and postpone its i'm
poverishment. He who grows Wheat af-
ter Wheat, Corn after Corn, for twenty
years, will need to emigrate before that
term is fulfilled. The same farm cannot
support (nor endure) him longer than that.
All our great Wheat-growing sections of
fifty years ago are Wheat-growing no
longer; while England grows larger crops
thereof on the very fields that fed the ar
mics of Saxon Harold and William the
Conqueror. Rotation has preserved these,
as the lack of it ruined those.
vi. Wisdom is never dear, provided the
article be genuine. have known farmers
who toiled constantly from daybreak to
dark, yet died poor, because, through ig-
norance, they wrought to disadvantage
If every farmer would devote two hours
Of each day to reading and reflection, there
would be fewer failures in farming than
there are.
VII The best Investment farmer can
make for his children is that aohich sur
rounds their youth aoitt the rational delights
of a beaute0us, attractive home The
dwelling may be be small and rude yet a
few flowers will embelish, as choice fruit
trees will enrich and gladden. it, while
grass and shade are within the reach of
the humblest. Hardly any labor done on
farm is SO profitable as that which makes
the wife and children fond and proud of
their home.
VILLA good practical Education, IN
tluding good trade is a better outfit for
a youth than a grand estate scith the draav-
back Of an empty mind Many parents
have shaved and pinched to leave their
children rich when half the sum thus Law
ished would have profited them far more
had it been devoted to the cultivation of
their minds, the enlargement of their ca
pacity to think, observe and work. The
one structure that no neighhorhood can af-
ford to do without is the school-house.
TX, a smaa library Of acey selected books
in his home has saoed many youth from,
avandeyiag into the balefM acoys Of Pro.
dioal Son. Where paternal strctness and
severity would have bred nothing but dis
like and fixed resolve to abscond at the
first opportunity, good books and pleasant
surroundings have weaned many youth
from his first wild impulse to go to sea or
cross the continent, and made him docile,
contented, obodient, happy lingerer by the
parental fire-side. In family, however
rich or poor, no other good is SO cheap or
so precious as thoughtful, watchful love.
X. Most men are born poor, but no man,
acho has acreage capacities and tolera6te
tuck, need remain so. Aud the farmers
calling, though proffering no sudden leaps,
no ready shortcuts to opulence, is the
surest of all ways from poverty and want
to comfort and independence. Other men
must climb the temperate, frugal, dill
gent, provident farmer may groac into COM
petence and every external accessory to
happiness. Each year of his devotion to
HID uUulCobCdd may Auu ~ iuOlo VdludOlC,
more attractive than the last, and leave 1t
better still.
Farmers OF Texas bring you mainly old
and homely truths. No single suggestion of
this Address can be new to all of you ;
most of them, presume, will be familiar
to all of you. There are discoveries in
Natural Science and Improvements IN Me-
chanics which conduce to the efficiency
of Agriculture; but the principles which
underlIe this first of arts are old as Agri-
culture itself. Greek and Roman sages
made observations SO acute aud practical
that the farmers of to-day may ponder
them with profit, while modern literature
is padded with essays on farming not
worth the paper they have spoiled.
And yet the generation whereof am
part has witnessed great strides in your vo-
cation, while the generation preparing to
take our places will doubtless witness still
greater. / bid you hold fast to the good,
with minds receptive of, and eager for the
better, and rejoice in your knowledge that
there is no nobler pursuit and no moro in
viting soil than these which you SO proud
ly call your own.
IN L.. L