Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-04-11

PROGRESS IN AGRlCULTURE.
II Southern farmers are to keep up with
the times, and not lose both money and
reputation by lack of reading, they must
watch the action and study the industry of
their class in the Western, Middle and
Northern States. Young Iowa is an agri-
cultural State that is without one dollar of
State debt-an advantage which the farm
ers Of Tennessee would gladly enjoy, and
would now possess, but for the folly of
trusting men not worthy of confidence. BY
acting together 10 promote a common in-
terest the farmers of Iowa have probably
the best Agricultural College in the United
States. Its President, (Mr. Welch, one of
the patrons Of husbandry) thus describes
the objects of the two institutions:
"Our bond Of union is the congeniality O
like pursuits. The leading purposes of the
Farmers College and the Farmers Grange,
though gained through different paths, ara
largely the sSme. The Grange seeks to aid
the farmer by multiplying bis means of in
teiligence, by giving him tho mastery of all
the better methods and processes of The
farm, by quickening, intensifying and
elevating all the better elements of his So
cial life. The Grange would secure the
farmer against the torpidity of solitude and
the extortions of monopoly; would kindle
In his breast steadier zeal and sturdier
courage; would touch all the labors Of his
hands With the glow Of enthusiasm; and, in
short, would do for him what skiIlfnlly or
gaDized effort has already done for every
other great human industry on the round
earth. ALI this the Grange aims to do by
means which are the most Immediate and d.
rect. All this also the Farmers College strives
to do By another method; by giving
knowledge, to such as will seek it, of all
those practical sciences that underlie the
processes of agriculture; by training and
sending forth men who may become, as the
years pass, the leaders in the grand move
ment which the Grange has inaugurated.
1t is in harmony with this noble purpose
that the College, instead of draining the
rural districts of their most promising
youths, and graduating them to swell the
over-crowded ranks of the law, or to wand
er in perpetual search Of a vacant pulpit,
sends back the farmers son to the farm, so
educated that he will re-vitalize ali its OPP
erstions, and give them new and endur-
ing interest. Such are the benign objects
which these two great enterprises are Or
gained to further. And, mark you, each
seeks to accomplish its aims by combined
effort-the College, on o closer and mora
concentrated plan; the Grange, on wider
and grander scale. And what ef-
81, 49,. II
good, or for defence against evil,
has ever reached its final triumph, since
the world began, without combined effort
What progress, moral, social OF industrial,
was ever achieved without combined effort?
Combination is, in fact, the great instru-
ment of progress. Civilization would re-
lapse into barbsrism without it. 1893
Aud who shall dare say, in the face of
all this marvellous advancement, this vast
accumulation Of the results of hard think
ing, this imperative demand for skill and
experience, and judgemnt and common
sense, that farming is dull, stupid, hum
drum business that only stupid humdrum
people should engage in it that the bright
est boy of the farmers family must be IN
fitted for the farm by sending him to Col
lege to learn the dead languages, or crown
ed with 8 stove pipe hat and dispatched to
the city 10 engage in the more exalted ~
employment of selling needles, and buttons,
and tspe?"
If agriculture is ever elevated to the dig
nifty of learned and scientific profession,
sound thinking and careful study must
achieve that object; hard manual labor on
thefarm, separated from the outside world,
can never attain SO high purpose. 1t re-
quires union and combination among farm
ers, by. the thousand and million, to i'm
prove their natural advantages, both men
tai and material, or they will soon become
the mere laborers of a monied aristocracy,
paying high impost duties on every thing
they buy, and high taxes on their farms,
and whatever else they call property. Our
intellectual progress is too unequal, leaving
the owners of the soil too far in the rear.
They are picked up as stragglers and held
as prisoners in the great battle Of life.
Farmers must consider the weighty duties
of the elective franchise, and not regard the
right to vote like the right to drink water,
which one may use or not as suits his taste.
Bad voting is bad farming, because it OPP
crates to destroy the value of half the crop
raised. Why is il that out of some q, 000, 900
acres of land in Tennessee, so large por-
ton yields no income to any one, and so
many acres have been more or less impoV-
erished? Unwise voting has brought the
State into this condition. Nothing but
wise voting can cure the disorder. Combi-
nations, too many combinations, stand be-
tween producers and consumers of the
products of the soil. Too many middle
men live, and often wax fat, by doing a
great deal of unnecessary WORK. Good
highways and cheap railways viii do some
thing to increase the value of farm products
and farms. By judicious combination Of
capital and labor, farmers can make these
improvements. They must learn to help
one another by wise legislation, ard the
abatement Of taxes. Large public debts
and high taxes to pay the interest should
be wiped out forever. To neglect our pub
lie duties and interests is to invite laws that
will in the end consume the value of our
lands, with ali their improvements. 1t is
time to act on the defensive, with view
to pay less for supplies and receive more for
crops. Tennessee agriculture is justly en-
titled to progress in this direction.
VARIETIES OF THE RASPBERRY.