The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1881-08-25
DIVERSIFIED FARMING.
A Paper Read by e.. NJ. Polk
TO the Convention of
Farmers and Busis
ness Men
Assembled at jackson,
Tennessee Thursday,
August lIth.-

$ examples. The nation that ignore
the lessons of the past makes little o
t no progress, and has TO work out it
: own destiny rs it Iowly evolved from
: its own dear bought experience.
The United States Of America wai
peculiarly favored in taking It's plac,
among the nations of the world in til,
, 18th century, when the teachings O
the past had garnered from all tim,
hatever was worthy of adoption and
perpetuation for the good of men: ia
the philosophy of government; in the
acts promoting the material prosperity
and happiness Of peoples; and in the
high attainment Of mental and moral
excellence all OF which during good
government, plenty, contentment,
! prosperity, happiness, peace, progress.
and the glory which is reflected from
pre-eminence IN the near approach to
that consummation of divine wisdom
which so benifIcently regulates and
rules under perfect laws, the physical
world-a world created to secure the
ultimate amount Of possible good to
man.
1t is our glory that we have appro-
priated much that is admirable in the
teachings of the past, aud that we
have still further evoked from the
realms Of the unfettered mind grand
triumphs, now ministering to the com
f rt, prosperity and happiness Of man
in the physical, political, social and
intellectual worlds, undreamed of and
unintelligii'le to the peoples who CROP
ed in the twilight Of the old past.
But we have on the other hand, to
our shame, refused to learn from the
lies and unwisdom Of our pre- le-
cessors much that should be avoided
and contemned because of the ruin
and destruction which similar practi-
ces have brought to the mat .rial pros
perity OF individual and collective man.
BY far the most ruinOus and de-
structive Of these follies inherited
from the past is the tenacIty with
which we cling to the old Roman
practice in agriculture of extracting
all fertility from the soil that feeds
us, and returning nothing until the
soil is rendered too poor to support
but a meagre AMI half pauper popu-
Iation. This is an evil of the greatest
magnitude, and really brings about,
eventually, more dreadful consequen
ces than the worst of government.
How singular the fact that today,
in the scientific construction of farm
ing implements, especially those made
FOR saving muscle labor, We stand
unrivalled, whilst we, especially in
the South, as far excel all ether peo-
pies engaged in agriculture in reckless
ly destroying the fertility of our soil,
upon which the material prosperity,
the happiness = in short the very civ
ilization aud enlightenment We boast
entirely depends. So fully and COM
pletely is this true, that the line which
marks out the capacity Of the soil for
the production Of human food Of any
and all countries, except those domi-
mated by despotism, is the line which
establishes, DEGREES and crystaliizes
their decree in barbarlsm, semi eivili-
zation, civilization or refinement.
Then the productive capacity Of the
soil is necessity, whichshould engage
our most anxious solicitude. This can
MY be maintained, through time, by
diversified farming" in a judicions
system of rotation of crops, supplement
tied by aids from the application Of an
imal manure.
If historians would look for the true
cause Of the rise ard decay of nations, the
growth and subsidence Of civilization 4
the growth aud decay Of commerce,
the Aougishing and laaguishing of the
arts and sciences. the forward AID
backwaSd movement in the philosophy
Of the s,ieace OF government, they
might find the most pot ient Of all causes /
IN the success or decay Of practical
n .ricultupey instesd ofhmting iicti~l
iious causes fon patent facts.
To one other cause iv a greater /
degree, than destructive tiIlage,
impoverislsiisg without, at the same
time, feeling she soiI is due the
d,stitution and despair which hangs Its }
dark pail oves the once productive
and denseiy districts, with their
shronge1 aud weakly cities which
border upon the Mediterranean sea-
now too poor. iu their exhausted and
impoverished condition to more than
support a meagre "a wellnigh pau
per = population, and heuce a nom
pro sressiye people.