The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1883-01-04
Farmers Yirtues and Deeds.

IAmerican Register.l
The Agricultural Review, Joseph
II. Real, editor, 80 Park Row, New
York city, is the foremost publication
of its kind in the United States. Ad-
vance sheets from the next months
number are before JUS. These are sure
ly sectional and designed to direct i'm
migrants and migratory Americans to
districts along the isothermal line of
New England. We would be better
pleased ii the Review would inquire
whether southern and western lati-
tudeS be not equally attractive to
farming populations. Southern farms
cost less and produce more and a great
er variety of crops. And yet the Re
view devoteS the TWENTY-FIVE closely
printed pages before us to commenda-
tons of hyperborean regions, in which
wheat must constitute the sole mar
ketable crop.
Farming, as the Review insists, is
becoming an exact science; but it Is
beginning its upward march. The
great mass of workers in the soil are
on the outer edge of progress. With
the rapid advance of civilization their
wants have increased, and while many
have surrounded themselves with the
comforts and some with the luxuries
Of life, the great proportion have Sc
cured but few of either, while the in
creaSing development of civilization
adds to their wants. Intelligent farm
ers can no longer delve, as their ia
theirs did, satisfied with life of hard.
ship and toll, and deprived of every
comfort and privilege. Past genera.
tions Of farmers were content to spend
lifetime clearing up a farm fol
their children to enjoy. Other men
were on a par with them
then, or if a few degrees above
the farmer recognized the station and
paid homage to mercantile or profes.
sional superiority. But railroads, tel.
egraphs, steam, and the thousand dis.
cOverieS and inventions, have raised
the standard of living; and more than
that. the vocation OF the farmer has
come to be recognized as most hon.
CRADLE. The farming class is recog-
niZed as the conservative element OF
society; they are, as class, the least
inclined to agitation and radicalism
There is no communism or Hubbell-
ISM amongst them. Religion and mo.
rality find their main and chief support
with them. But they are also the en-.
terpriSing class. They develop new
countries, found new towns, and are
! always in the forefront in the march
LIBERALIZATION and improvement. This
seems strange paradox. and We
have never seen the point discussed
but it needs only the exercise of the
power of memory to show that the
farmer is always the first settler. Id
goes to a new country, clears ant
plows the land, and produces the crop
Others follow him, and when a sutfi
cient number have located in sec
ton, and the first steps are made to
wards the improvement of nature, the
mechanic comes; then the tradeSmaI
and professional man; schools anC
churches follow; banks, and all the
elements of the town, come in, anC
we have a city. The only excep
ton to this in the settlement o.
the entire United States, with it,
hundreds of thousands of villages
towns and cities, scattered over thou
sands Of miles OF territory, and repre-
senting a rapidity and extent of devel
opment never before witnessed, is IL
the mining districts and lumber re
gions. The farmer, therefore, doe
more than furnish the commerce Of
the world. He originates the growth
of the country, from its single house
in an unbroken, uninhabited region
and Pounds the great city, with it!
manufactures, fine arts, great ware
houses, palatial residences, shipping
and all that makes life, in this las
quarter Of the nineteenth century, thu
grandest experience that man has evel
known.