The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1877-05-30
ISLAND HOME.
The Estate of Perez Dicl1in-
son. ESQ.


It was with no niggard hand that ma
tureformed and moulded EastT tennessee,
this land of mountain, vale and flowing |
water. Art has not been SO profuse I
The men who Immediately succeeded |
to the proprietorship of the Cherokee
the generation that was borne upon the |
waves of civilization that first rippled |
over the Allegheny ranges-were of the
most absolute utihtarian type, as gen.
eral rule >; men of robust bone and
muscle, of thorough physical develop.
ment, generally content with the mere
necessities of life. They were perfectly
fitted to the arduous and perilous work
to which their destiny had assigned
them, to wrestle with the wilderness, to
subdue its wilds and to subjugate its
savage occupants. It was theirs to
rudely carve from rugged, pristine ma
velop, to improve, to embellish, to beau
tify. Indeed at that day their ideas had
not in any section obtained the control
and direction of rural and agricultural
affairs. And, for a long time, weary
long time, so inveterate his habit and
son; unaltered, unimproved, the old
traditional opinions, modes of life, GUS
toms and practices descended from gen
Grafton to generation, not only retarding
progress, but destroying the native ele-
ments of fertility and defacing the fea-
81 IL
bull-tongue and Indian corn, severely
true to their baneful mission, wasted and
exhausted the virgin fertility, and the
remorseless axe spared not. Perhaps it
could not have been otherwise. Men
| softened by the high culture and refine
ments of polished life are not suited to
grapple with the hardships and priva-
tons of a savage land. The forefront of
the occupation and reduction of a new
and wild land must be composed of diff
ferent material; of men of firm bodies,
| Injured to toll, UNCONSCIOUS of fear, ever
ready for the labors of the field, the
war path and the chase. 1t is not until
after their work is accomplished, that
the fair superstructure of improvement,
under the plastic hands of science, art
and taste, and bathed in the light of the
sunshine of peace and security, begins
to arise.
Thought of these truths, the natural
capabilities and susceptibilities of our
country-their deterioration, and the
causes of it, and the manifest reaction
airy and counter tendency of the day,
was forcibly and wildly brought to
mind by hasty visit to, and slight in
spection of, Island Home, the estate OF
PEREZ DICKINSON, Esq, near Knoxville,
with which the writer was recently
favored by that polite and hospitablt
gentleman.
1t has been asserted that retired law
yers make successful farmers. Whether
the legal profession be justly entitled
to this high compliment and browning
distinction or not, as rule, will moi
here be debated; it may be safely assert
ed, however, that the truth Of the OBJ
servation has had in the past but Sigh
practical illustration in East Tennessee
But, however this may be, Mr.. Dickiu
son has certainly indicated the claim
of the retired merchant to agricultural
honors. A most successful merchant
, in the true and large sense of the term
! the founder of not only the largest ant
most solid mercantile interest in Knox
vile, perhaps in the State, but TIN
, pioneer of the mercantile enterprise o
/ that city, he is now rendering to tn,
country the more valuable service of
, practical demonstration of the tractabil
ity of its soil to Improvement, and o
| its scenic and landscape formations t.
tasteful and elegant adornment. TIL
: writer, previous to the occasion men
toned, had not seen the estate of Mr.
| Dickinson, but he is informed that whel
> it came to his hands, and when he con
t ceived and undertook the work of it
| Improvement, it was worn and wasted
bleak and dreary; but now, under tn
: magic touch of science, improves
| method and taste in rural affairs, s.
, much and so ignorantly disd aimed ant
t condemned by the majority of our farm
: ers, it is at once a thing of beauty ant
a spot of teeming fertility. We wOult
{ like every land owner in the country t.
] survey the results that have here beer
{ attained, and which are obviously il
c near and speedy accomplishment an
: fruition; for, in this department o
Y human effort it is pre-eminently tru
d that to see is to believe. Such ocula
t instr uction is of more value, becaus
e more authoritative and conclusive tha
much reading. The idiotic prejudic
7 so rife in the country against boob
a farming" as the best agriculture
Y methods and practices are often derisive
{ ly termed, can be overcome and reno
: ed in this manner with more facilit.
: than by any other, until which consum
4 nation, we will add, there can be n
. hope for much progress.
{ 1t should be repeated that one sue
excmplar as the farm of Mr.. Dickinso
t exhibits is of more value, and will exel
= else wider and more salutary infuenc
8 than the reading of many volumes. l
e this case it seems that faith must proceed
the means; incredulity of better wa
than the old must be overcome befOr
the former is adopted, to do which
something more than statement an
narrative, however well authenticated
in this pursuit of life, the most impoi
tant of all, seems to be required. FroI
e such an observation 1t is to be learne
/ that farming is not a mere manual art
+ and the farmer, a mere artisan, who's
: success depends alone on the exertio
j of physical force and energy; that farm
a ing, properly understood and practiced
] is a highly intellectual pursuit, requil