Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1876-06-01
agricultural department.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.

Cicero, the great orator and moral philoso
pher of the Romans, in his work usually
called "Ofces" makes use of these remarka
BILE words: "Of all modes of enriching ones
self, none is better, none more profitable, none
more pleasant, none more becoming free
man, than manuring and tilling the earth"
1t is long time since the great Roman
deliberately penned this sentence for the ben
eft of his son, Marcus, then a student at
Athens; but time has only proved its wis
dom. In the previous portion of the section
which contains this sentence, he had, with
great calmness, pointed out certain occupa'
tions as degrading and proitless and unwor-
thy of high-toned Roman. The main
points in the sentence are the pleasantness,
proftableness and digni6ed character OF Ag'
riculture. What Cicero said to Marcus, is
still true, and true in every land.
Agriculture is a pleasant occupation. The
cares that hang around almost every other av'
ocation of life are, comparatively speaking,
absent from the life of the farmer. Instead
of being menial, dependent upon others, he
is the peer of the great. All are dependent
upon him for bread. All his surroundings
are pleasant. The sunshine and the shade are
agreeable. The music of the birds charms
him, and the growing crop fills his soul with
delightful feelings. To him work is pleas
ure; to work hard is no drudgery. The pure
air fills his veins with pure blood, and con-
tinual labor makes him healthy and strong.
If his conscience is at rest he can lie down
and sleep soundly and sweetly after hard
days work, and get up in the morning re-
freshed in body, and with joyful heart.
His face may be sunburned and his hands
brawny, but his heart is joyful. It's difficult
to conceive anything material in its nature
better calculated to fill the soul with pleasant
emotions than to see crop, which has been
planted and worked by our own hands, ma
turing for the harvest We see visible re-
turn for our labor, and the soul is callous, in
deed, that does not experience, under such cir
cumstances, graCeIul emotlohs.
Not only is agriculture pleasant, but it is
also profitable. Compared with any other
avocation, it is the most profitable. In va
rious other ways men amass fortunes in a
short time; but those fortunes that are made,
as if by magic, are wasted as quickly. About
nine-tenths of the merchants fail, and what is
accumulated by the other tenth rarely passes
through two generations. There is no other oc-
cupation in which so many have succeeded in
making an honest and comfortable living, and
in which so few have failed. There is great
show connected with many of the other avo-
cations. The young farmer sees the great
display of the merchant and concludes that
manuring and tilling the ground is slow way
to amass fortune This is true only in ap-
pearance. There are very, few men who grow
permanently rich in any other way but by
manuring and tilling the ground.
But manuring and tilling the ground is
honorable 1t is, in the language of the great
Roman, worthy of free man. No sensible
man ought, with the facts before him, toques-
tion this statement. No man can, with more
propriety be called producer than the far
mer.
However rigidly true it may be that ma.
nuring and tilling the ground is pleasant,
profitable and digni6ed occupation, multi
tudes of our Southern people do not think so.
The farm is deserted for some other place,
where the odium of sunburnt face and
brawny hands may be avoided.