AGRICULTURE: ITS DIGNITY AND IMPOR TANCE. BY JOHN A. DIX. WE are informed by the most ancient of human records, that the cultivation of the earth was one of the first occupations of men; and as we emerge from the darkness and doubt which envelope a later period in the history of our race, we find it ranked in the annals of the most distinguished nations, among the highest and most honorable pursuits. Egypt, principally through the extraordinary fertility of her soil, renewed by the annual inundations of the Nile, which were turned to the best account by artificial structures and by the laborious industry of her inhabitants, became one of the most wealthy and powerful of the nations of antiquity. Among the Samnites and Latins the national religion was associated with the labors of agriculture and a pastoral life. At a later period, the public domain was parcelled out in small portions among the great body of the people, an agricultural priesthood, under the name of "fratres arvales," was instituted, and every encouragement which the law could afford was extended to the cultivators of the soil. When Rome had reached the height of her power, her most eminent citizens were seen, like the humblest, laboring in the fields with their own hands. It was the privilege of the agricultural class for several centuries to fill the ranks of the Roman Legion; her civil and military commanders were sought for at the plough, and her rewards for great services to the commonwealth consisted of donations of land. In Greece, agriculture, though honored in some of the principal states, never attained the same importance that it possessed in Rome. Nor is it surprising, when their physical and political condition is considered. In Sparta, all manual labor except that which related to war was performed by slaves. The face of Attica was broken, furrowed by hills and vales, and her soil not fertile. Yet agriculture was not wanting in dignity in Athens. Xenophon, the leader of the Ten Thousand in their masterly retreat, wrote treatises on practical husbandry, and when driven from his native city gave public lectures on the science. Such was the dignity of agriculture in ancient times. In the countries of Europe, the state of agriculture varies with peculiarities of climate, soil and political organization. In Russia the earth is cultivated almost exclusively by serfs, subject to the arbitrary will of the noble who owns the soil. Manual labor in any art, almost necessarily partakes of the character of those by whom it is carried on; and in Russia, therefore, agriculture, as an occupation, is degraded. In the northern parts of Italy, in the Netherlands and Holstein, and in some of the German states, the soil, under judicious systems of husbandry and an elaborate culture, has attained the highest degree of productiveness. In France a new impulse has been given to agricultural improvement, by the extreme subdivision of the soil, which has grown out of the law of equal succession, and the confiscation and sale of lands belonging to the church and to the expatriated nobles who followed the fortunes of the Bourbons. But in none of these countries has agriculture gained the distinction which it possesses in England. The great landed proprietors belong to the nobility. They are foremost in the proceedings of agricultural societies, at fairs and cattle shows, and in all matters connected with the rural economy of the kingdom. Through the operation of the corn laws, the bread stuffs of foreign countries are, in seasons of ordinary abundance, excluded from her markets, and a monopoly is thus secured to her own grains. Though the effect of this system of exclusion is to make the great body AGRICULTURE. 313 of the people eat dear bread, it has given an extraordinary impetus to her agricultural industry. In 1760 the population of Great Britain was seven and a half millions; in 1831 over sixteen millions. In 1760 the total growth of grain of all kinds in the kingdom was about one hundred and seventy millions of bushels; in 1835 it was estimated at three hundred and forty millions-just double. Though the increase in the quantity of grain produced, falls somewhat short of the increase of her population, it is a matter of astonishment that an island, having less than double the surface of New York, and a considerable portion of it broken and inaccessible to the plough and the harrow, should be capable of sustaining fifteen millions of inhabitants. Yet it is supposed that its agricultural produce might still be doubled, and that at least thirty millions of people might be subsisted without importing grain from abroad. Without intending to institute any invidious comparison between different branches of industry, it may be said, that in importance, agriculture stands preeminent. It is the great fountain from which animal life derives its support; it supplies the materials on which almost every other species of labor is employed; and it furnishes to man the occupation most favorable to his happiness and his moral elevation. To give a country the highest degree of wealth and power which it is capable of attaining, agriculture must be sustained by commerce and manufactures; but it may dispense with both the latter and yet retain its prosperity. The condition of the United States is favorable to all these pursuits; but whatever may be the fate of our commerce and manufactures, we must, as an agricultural country, rank among the first nations of the earth. In this field of labor we fear no competition. The productions of our agriculture have but one limit the demand for them. Centuries must elapse before they will be limited, as in the densely populated states of Europe, by the powers of the soil. We have not only the ability of expanding to an immense degree, by means of our vast unoccupied domain beyond the lakes and the Mis sissippi; but we have the ability of increasing to an indefinite extent upon the surface we now occupy. With these prospects before us the importance of our agricultural industry cannot be overrated. The estimate in which it is now held, falls far short of its true value. Just opinions have made and are still making some progress, but agriculture cannot attain its true rank, until it shall be regarded, like the learned professions, as one of the direct avenues to honor and wealth. In a country like our own, in a course of most rapid developement, the temptations and excitements which are presented to the young and sanguine, in the pursuit of fortune, prove, unhappily, an overmatch for the sober occupations of agricultural industry, and its slow but certain rewards. The healthful labors of the field are too often abandoned for the confinement of the counting room and the lawyer's office, or for hazardous pecuniary enterprise. Yet how many a merchant who has fallen a victim to an overstrained credit; how many a lawyer who ekes out a scanty subsistence for himself and family by a plodding, laborious profession; how many an adventurer in speculation, who has seen his air-built fabrics fall, one by one, to the ground, would have improved his condition in regard to health, respectability and fortune, by devoting himself to the pursuits of agriculture! ONCE While in slumbers wrapt I dreamt of Fame, To seize with eager hand the laurel twine, A sense of gloominess that would not part, I found myself accursed when thinking to be blest! Joy! joy! those dreams were changed: I slept again, |