Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-09-19

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ognized as standing outside of tbs circle,
and ranked by the laws of the land with
horses, sheep and swine, and like these &c
be held and bought and sold m
If we look abroad over our country and
observe the condition of the colored people,
we shall find their greatest wantto be regu-
lar and lucrative employment for their en-
ergies. They have secured their freedom,
it is true, but not the friendship and favor
of the people around them. The sentiment
that greeted them all over the South, when
their letters were broken, was: let the negro
s'arVe! Happily to-day tina sentiment is
SELDOM heard, ont though seldom heard Il
am sorry to say-it is still felt, snd is active
in thousand ways to cur hurt. 1t keeps
back the wages of the black laborer by
fraud; 1t refuses to REM and sell land; it ex-
cludes them from printers unions and other
mechanical associations; it refuses to teach
them trades, and shuts them out from all
respectable employments, and consoles itself
with the theory tina; tie negroes like the
Indians-will ultimately die out.
Some Of our old citizens, no doubt, con.
tinue to regret the change which has taken
place in the relations of the people of Ten
nessee. In the loss of slavery the State, in
their estimation, has parted with the source
of its happiness and prosperity. To ny
mind it would be hard 70 find greater
mistake than this. Emancipation in this
State was not only triumph Of justice, but
triumph of agriculture, industry. It was
not merely Blessing to the slave, but
blessing to the master. l put it to the co n
mon sense of all who hear me: what pos
sible motive had the slave for a careful,
successful cultivation of the soil? What
| concern could he have for increasing the
wealth of the master, or for improving and
identifying the land? The wealth of the
master did not attach to the slave, but the
reverse. The natural tendency of wealth
was to deepen the chasm between the mas.
ter and the slave, and to break up all SYM
patty between them. The small slave
owners went TO the field with their few
boDdmen and worked side by side with
them. Humane and kindly relations
spraDg up between them; common tolls and
common priFatioDs made them, in some
sense, friends. But the reverse was the
case witt the rich and great masters.
Their hsn9s were unused to toll. They
could afford to leave their slaves in the
hands of soulless Overseers and drivers, who
had no motives of kindness and good will.
Thus it was for the interest of the slave to
make the rich man poor and the poor man
poorer. To reduce IS far IS possible the
difference between themselves and others,
and since they themselves could not be mas
tiers, they had direct and powerful motive
for reducing their masters to the poverty of
slaves.
l take it that one part of the mission Of
this State Agricultural Association is the
speedy and radical extinction OF the evils
inherited by the emancipated class from
their former condition, and that, therefore,
it is appropriate on this condition, to point
out some of the more palpsble of these er-
rors for condemnation and Punishment, and
inculcate in their stead the wiser and better
ideas, suggested by the condition upon
which we have entered.
TREATMENT OF ANIMALS.
There is no denying that slavery had q
direct and positive tendency to produce |
ooars9ness and brutality In the treatment |
and management of domestic 81 imals, es-
pecially those most useful In agricultural |
industry. Not only the slave, but the |
horse, the OK, and th3 mule shared the gen.
eral feeling of indifference to right natural |
ly engendered by a state of slavery. The
master blamed the oversesr; the oyerseer
the slave, and the slave the horses, oxen and |
mules, and violence and brutality fell upon |
the animals as consequence. Now, there
is no successful farming without Well-trai J.
ed and Well-treated horses and oxen, and
one of the great pleasures connected with
agricultural life may be found in the pleas
ant relations capable OF existing between
the farmer and his four-leggsd companions:
for they are company as welkas helpers In
his toll. have seen men spend valuable
hours Of the best part of the day, chasing
the horse ard the mule in the open field,
which but for the abuses heaped upon them
when in harne s, would have c.lne instant.
ly upon the call of their master.
CARE OF AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS,
Gentlemen, in farming, as everyu here
else, time is money; and one-tenth of all
Ice time of farmers is lost to useful labor in
Sc arebing and mending tools carelessly flung
down anywhere aud everywhere and left
forgotten to rust, decay and ruin. | have
seen in some OF our Western States, amid
The SHOWS and rains of winter, costly plows,
harrows, and moving machines exposed to
4 / the destructive forces Of the elements.
Ut course, men who farm thus bring no |
honor to agriculture, bnt are = disgrace to
hat vocation. The loss Of time, labor and
money, as in the other cases, are not the !
only evils of this style Of practical farming. |
THE WELL AND THE woODPILE.
Life Is said 10 be made up of little things,
ind small annoyancss are often Lore dis !
ressing to the temper than large ones.
There can be no happy and successful farm :
ng when there is no peace a. home. When !
he wife smiies and the children are happy !
md gieefal, the toll and burdens ofthe hus-
sandman are light and easily borne. Every :
hing, therefore, which tends 10 make home
lappy is in tie lice Of a wise economy, both 7
# time and labor. Where woman must =
o half mile in the woods to tote brush or !,
often bark to make fire, o. . quarter of
nile to the spring to fetch water, tits impos- =
ible that household affairs can 90 on either :
egularly or pleasantly. Such economy is
nworthy of the sense of a HottenLot or o =
,ushmsn. =
MANUREs
Successful farming does not entirely de- 8
end upon good plowing, narrowing, and =
oeing, nor PROMPT attention to seed5ime
nd harvest. Every crop gathered from the
ell takes something valuable from the
oil upon which 1t is grown, and the richest !
Ind in the word can be made poor if we -
Ike everything from it and give it EOshing 7,
d return. While providing for ourselves, -
ur next best thought should be given to :;
ne question as to how we shall provide for q
le wants of the soil out of which comes D
ur own living. All flesh is grass, and the 7
mount of vegetable matter we obtain from a
le earth will be the measure of the life -
nd happiness of the men and animals who ~
Insist upon it. There nead be no such =,
ling in the world as WORKOUT land.
AGRICULTURAL BOOKS AND PAPERS. -
Knowledge and power. There is no ~
'ork that men are required to do which .,
ley cannot better and more economically Il
0 with education than without it. The r.
ouble with us as people has been to \,
ork without knowledge of the theory of -
ork. We could build ships if some one " "
ould draft them. We could build house q
some one would draw the plan. ALI that =,
q have done has been by rote. We have .,
Irmed without knowledge of the philoSo- u
by of farming. We have used our mus 20 20
es, but not cur minds. Under the old -
'gin1e we weIe not expected to think, but *
ally to do as we were told. We were not u
lowed to profit even by our own exper- 4,
nee, and to do things in the easiest and S Se
9st way which our practical knowledge ~