Newspapers / State Agricultural Journal (Raleigh, … / May 14, 1874, edition 1 / Page 2
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2 Mate- rtctftotal elfoanwl. North C aro 1 i na F o re ver ! : r : IlICIIARD T . FULGIIUM, : CONDUCTING EDITOR AND PUBLISHER. EDWAED POU, CLAUDE B. DENSOff, ASSOCIATE EDITORS. ' ' JAMES II. TIIIGPEN, Tabboro, X. C, Editor Department of Agriculture. REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS in EVERT SECTION of the SOUTH. ESDOBSED THE K. 0. AGEICULTUEAL SOCIETY. Official Organ of tlie ' State Grange. Secretaries of Subordinate Granges are fully author ized to solicit, receive and receipt for subscriptions to the State Agricultural Journal. v II. J. CORBELL, ESQ., of Ralefgln isqur dniy regu larly authorized Travelling Agent. J ' JST3- W. J. WOODWARD, ESQ , of the New Yor,k South Is fully authorized to make contracts for the State Agri cultural Journal, - 4?- Receipts by others than those named above, except the Editorial Corps and persons showing their commissions, will not be considered valid. ' : . . t ; RALEIGH, THURSDAY,- MAY 14, 1874 NORTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 14TII ANNUAL FAIR: .RALEIGH, OCT. 10th to OCT. 17th, 1874, Officers and 'Executive Committee: . PRESIDENT I ( ' T. M. HOLT, Haw River, North Carolina. VICE-PRESIDENTS (STATE AT A ROE J ! . Col. J. M. Heck, Raleiarh, ' Hon. j. W. Norwood, HillsT , Maj. J. A. Engelhard,. New Hon. W S. Battle, Tarboro, Hanover,- Dr. C. Mills, Cabarrus. ' . 7 ' PERMANENT YICE-PRESHDENTS I i Hon. K. P.-Battle, Wake, Hon. R. H, Smith, Haliiax,? O ' Capt. Jno. S.Dancyj Edgecombe. ;J VICE-PRESIDENTS (CONQRESSIGK AL DISTRICTS) : v 1st District. . 5th District Paleraon John, Pasquotank, D. W. Ken, Alamance, W. A. mount, tfeautort. . A. U. liege, uaviason. 2d District. Gth District. - Petes E. Smith, Halifax, T. H. Brem. Mecklenburg, 1 XT Ctnnti-n W ilo nn lo m ixa A T.ioLr AnCATI 3d District. 7th District. G. Z. Fie'nch, New Hanover, E. Belo, Forsythe, W. A. Faison, Sampsou. M. L. Holmes, Rowan. . j 4th District. 8th District. Mlon. J. U. Gorman, Wake, S. C. Sheton, Buncombe, K. A. Capchart, Granville. T. G. Walton, Burke. .EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE : ' f , Dr. W. J. Hawkins, Warren, Dr. G. W. Blacknall, Wake, . Gen. R. F. Hoke, Wake, C.-G. Yates, Guilford, ' John G. Williams, ' v L. C. Jones, Cumberland, Col. I. J. Young, Granville, JP. Prairie, Wake, W. G. Upchurch, Wake, A. Pope, New Hanover, Col. Jos. J. Efwin, Burke, L. W. Humphrey, Wayne, Hon. W. A. Smith, Johnston, N. S. Harp, Wake, ' Col. S. L. Fremont, New Col. Wm. Jchnston, Mecklen Hanover, r burer, ? - ". Capt. W. II.YGreen, 41amance,W. F. Askew, Wake, Capt. A. B. Andrews, Wake,. John C. Blake, ,4 len 11. Adams, " A. Creech, Jordan Stone, i " W.J. Hicks, - ! W. C Stronach, Wake. -' : TREASURER '. P. A. Wiley, (ex officio Member of the Executive Com j - mittee,) Raleigh. secretary: ' ... R. T. Fulghum, (ex officio Member of the Executive Com " mittee,) Raleigh. ? . OFFICIAL. : R. T. -Fulghum, SeVy. Pateiit-Extensioii Atuses. , ' One of tho provisions ; of the Constitution of the United States is that : ' "The Congress shall have power to pro mote thp progress of science and useful arts, by securing, for limited times, to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their re spective writings and discoveries." It is of patents that we talk to-day. The framers of our national constitution acted wisely in authorizing Congress to secure to inventors for limited times the exclusive right (o their discoveries. The object of patents is to promote the progress of useful arts. rlien a man lias consumed time, labor and money, in planning and perfecting! an in yention useful to mankind, it is a righteous thing to give him, as a compensation, the erclusive ownership of that invention for a limited time. He and his heirs a'nd as signs ought not to own the idea or combina tion of ideas forever in fee-simple; for, per ha2s,.he was only a few days ahead of some one else in presenting his invention to the public. But it is wise and just ancl politic in the government to stimulate inventive genius by giving it for some certain time' the ownership of its combination of ideas.' Tile people will all endorse patents and even patent extensions when conferred in con formity with the spirit and object of the constitution. But certain abuses have crept into this department of legislation that should be fully exposed and unqualifiedly; denounced through the country. We see it stated that a mammoth combi nation, owning an important sewing-machine patent, that is about to expire, have sent $59,000 to Washington to be used in the initiatory lobbying, necessary to secure their fourth renewal f their patent for seven yearsi Ihey have already had it twenty-eight years almost the term of one generation of men. They have already made millions of dollars out of their royalty, keeping sewing-machines up as high as fifty and sixty dollars that will be sold for fifteen dollars as soon as the letters patent determine.;. But they want more, more of the people's -money ! Because I they control money by the million, they un- blushirigly propose to ask Congress in ef fect to give them yet other millions. The sewing-machine patents have already accomplished all the objects of patent laws. They have given ' the owners princelyxfor tunes. The success of this example gives all the encouragement to inventive genius that can be extracted from it. The people have borne tho tax : cheerfully for one gen eration. It is time now to take off the burden- It ought not to be laid on the back of the second generation. ' . Many persons do, not kjiiow that all our leading sewing'-machines soil in England for a little more than lrlajf the prices asked for them in this country. Our patent laws do notlprotect them in England. Iiet the people speak but. Let the press denounce the project. Let the voter inter rogate his Congressman, or his candidate for doiigress about it. Let the Congressman who wishes to, come before his constituent with clean hands . and a clear' conscience, consider well the proposition before he votes for'it. It was disgraceful to have credit Mo- ibilier stock distributed in our legislative halls where it would "do the most good.' Let us hope we-may be spared the deeper degrada tion, in the eyes of the world, pf having a similar distribution of setting machine stock. Atlvaiicetl Mental Culture Among- the Farmers. - . 5 BY JOnN S. LONG. Many persons, illiberal in their views, and shortsighted in their prophecies, have been of the opinion, that farmers as a class should not be admitted to the higher mysteries of intellectual expansion and enjoyment. They have thought and said that pnly profession al men .should be thoroughly equipped with the furniture which a collegiate orxmivervf sity education can bestow. And this fatal error admitted, at the very threshold, of life, by perhaps the' large majority of the tillers of the soil, has been the direful spring from which. has flowed a multitude of evils upon t)ie agricultural interests of this country. 'A'niong the .ancients, agriculture was not considered a mere muscular development, j a mere physical illustration of the hardy qualities which are presumed to give effect iveness and skill to the plow and to the; reaper. All over classic Italy are found the splendid -remains of villas and country. resi: d en ces, whose foundations were laid and whose marble walls were built up by the educated taste ' of citizens, whose noblest pride was experienced in the fact that they were proprietors of the land, and that their wealth had been ' accumulated from its im provement. Virgil, Cicero and a host of other illustrious statesmen ; and authors, .turned away from the cares of Staleand the anxieties of authorship, to contemplate and.1 enjoy the landscapes and-luxuries of their own farms. And in England, agriculture has furnished perhaps a larger proportion of talented men to politics, to literature and to positions of civil prominence and influence than any other avocation. The great land ed aristocracy, whose intellectual culture is on an average superior to that of any other class of men in the world, take as much in terest in their blooded stock, in the success ful labors of their tenants, and 1 in the in creased fertility of thejr estates, as they, do in the marriage of the Duke of Edinburg, or in the effects of the Geneva Arbitration The trouble with us is, that we have per mitted our extreme . pplitical prejudices against what we choose to call aristocratic notions, to set us in opposition to the ' ad- ing by the sweat of their brow. Thus it has come to pass that the majority of farmers excuse themselves from the thorough educa tion of their children with the affirmation that it is not needed to qualify them for the duties of the farm. Now see the effects of this false system upon the social refinements and pecuniary profits of agriculture. The farmer, starting out with the illogical theory that a finished mental training is not required for the exi gences of agricultural life, willj as a matter of course, undervalue the ' priceless beiiefits which such a training will bestow, lie will place a discount upon polished manners, hold in contempt the indulgence of aesthetic iucliaations, regard thte classical and philo sophical student as a vagabond and interluper, and elevate upon the altars cf Lis devotion the mere exemplars of shrewdness, industry and economy. Then when his children come in contact with the perfect gentility and courtly etiquette of circles where cultivated endowments are rated at their proper value, they show to a disadvantage by the side ot those who have been carefully and thoroughly trained. But this is by no means the worst consequence of such a ruinous ayetetn. We wish it were. ' The real profits of the farm are not dependent upon the steady industry aad self-sacrificing energy of the proprietor and his laborers, but upon the outside .combina tions of capital, upon the unseen currents of legislation, and , upon the ingenious contri vances of speculators and sharpers to plunder the farmer of his , revenues. Think you that a skillful manipulation of the soil, or an ex traordinary knowledge of fertilizers and crops will successfully grapple with these difficul ties ? Every avocation in the country has been sending forth its intelligence and learn ing to forsre fetters of adornment for the fair. limbs of agriculture. While the farmer has been holding to his spelling-book and primary arithmetic, 'and, like a little boy swimming on bladders, .has been afraid to risk himself in deeper water, the great monopolies of the na tion have been subsidising the, most powerful intellects and the sharpest scholars, to takeadi vantage of his honest simplicity, to deprive him of his earnings, to shackle his liberty of action, to mortgage his little, property, to con trol the marketable value of his products, and to plunge him in a maze of embarassmentt? almost beyond the hope of recovery. In the meantiine, he holds to the fastnesses of his purchased or ancestral property, grum bling at the inequalities of taxation, finding fault-a.t theheartless cruelty of legislators, and hoping against hope, for the arrival ot the day when the rights of agriculture shall be protect ed, aud-the lords of the soil shiill be really. the monarciisof their own material interests. Now how much better it would be, to go at once to the bottom of the difficulty, and apply the only relief which can reach the necessities of l.Jn ItJrtn ' Wo Ar nrf line! tat tr nffirm that if the farmers of this country had .paid one-halt the attention to educatiou'which thby have devoted to the improvement of their estates,- they would to day be independent of the whole system of banks, railroads and mercan tile combinations. - If they would ha ve a part in the making of laws, they must quality their sons to be law-givers, and their daughters to be mothers of jurists and Of statesmen. If they would successfully countermine tie cun nine eftbrts of adventurers and commercial spies, to buy Up and control the political in fluence of popular assemblies, they mu.st bring out the oratorical power that is in many far mer's boy, and drill the 6tal wart young plow man in the principles of civil government, and in the electrical knowledge which will make him a dangerous adversary for tricksters and demagogues. And it they would have the entire policy of this nation shaped to satisfy the wants of agriculture, and - to gratify the reasonable demands of a class who are the au thors of all national prosperity and power, they must make the more physical dutjea of the farm, so far as their children are con cerned, continually subordinate to their thor ough mental development It is a very im nnrtant thirip for a farmei'a son to be indus- I O , manager othis fath- write. We by no means an enemy to they have done i great deal of good, and with competent officers to superintend and direct them- they ought to become an influential agenej in the it tellectual growth ,of our- peo ple. But our observation has taught us, that, in the agricultu -al districts, there is a strong tnmntatinfi to trial; a thorn n nn'morr tnoan: rf mental culture in hardly an individual Case, but to consider them amply sufficient for all the purposes of the farm. A very intelligent t corrective of this evil is suggested in the cort- duct of several neighborhoods wo have visited, whe're a score Or tdore of earnest centlemen have got together, united their means, and made up - very handsome salaries to attract tfiacAtfirs of talpi t and 'srrholarlv attainnifnta j ... moves one of tha most objectionable features of the comnion school system, the appropria tion of mean salaries tosecure competent teach- - ' ITT- - 1 "l.l'r , .1 " . " ci o. ii i; tauiiUji Luipiuj uimus aim aeeom plishments for any service in this age and. gen eration without a suitable recompense. If we desire thorough instructors, we must make generous paj-ments. We must abandon the stingy theories which have caused ns to rob the intellects of our most promising youth, to dwarf their j.mbition and their faculties, while they have been left to the conclusion that there is no brilliant eminence in the path way of the f arm er's boy. And abve all, re membering thai things are "pot necessarily im possible because they are difficult, let us aim at the highest grades ot intellectual training for the sons and suggestion OB lias daughters of the farm. rTho already ben made, and we heartily endorse it, that the agricultural class es should at once set on foot ari institution of learning, to be organized and operated in their owiv interests. It would necessarily take much time to consummate such an enterprise. But its ultimate certain. success would be absolutely trious, to become a good er's business, and to show a prompt intelli gence to generalize correctly in the difficult questions which are submitted to his jndgment. :.j But if all these things are tobe accomplish ed at the expense of his intellectual culture, if in making him a good farmer lie is to be left an ignorant citizen,- then the guardians of his youth are tearing down their own ram parts, dividing their own garrison, and pre paring a shamefnl capitulation to the enemies r Uf anvinn fnra Tniinsinn snn lmnrnTAmpnt vanced culture of men who earn their Jiv &uu An Wft hmV farmwa instified in ii T . . . . ' . - looking to our system ot common schools, to meet the educational deuciencj ot which we V Memorial Day. In the revolutions of seasons, bpnng is once again by bur sides, with her lap all tilled with flowers. And fr )m her bounty, our fair daugh ters give the first frqits of beauty and grace to the memory of our departed heroes.; It matters not what judgment' may be formed oi tne causes, tud true cnaracter ana lasting ef fects of tlie war; whether it werer po&sible to' avoid the strugg e or not. Those questions, our people may safely leave to the arbitrament of time. Judges yAt unbom may deteriiiiue for pos teritv what manier of men were the Southerners of eighteen hunt red and sixty-one. The philoso- -Tihfirs and statesmen of another atre mav declare . ... . I . ' . ' what evils mirht have been avoided, and what good accomplished .by the success of that gigan tic effort. We will not assume to decide, but it is certainly our privilege to remember. -, Ingratitude, basest of all the vices, is; said' to be the besetting sin of nations. Forgetfulness, alas, too often soreads her nail over the sublimest efforts, the deepest throes, the most agonizing struggles pf mar . The gi-ass spr ngs over the deepest furrow of the plough, the Tine and tendril hide the rugged chasm. Nature seems ver to invoke some air-r ministry to hide out of sight all that is terrible in her convulsions. The memories thai come, thronging: to our hearts on Memorial Day are losing some of their bitterness, some of the poignant anguish that rent our souls, ii the fearful years, immediate succeeding the great struggle. While we do not forget the innumerable privations, the, hard and hopeless toil of pur fathers, and sons, and broth- ' ers, their struggles, and sufferings, their -wounds, captivity, starvation, blood, and death; .while our . heart goes out ik deepest sympathy to the wid ow and the orphan, whose journey of life has ever since been shadowed by the recollections of the valley of death, yet it is not as it once was. - We feel that for the heroic dead there is not only mourning put glory. We know that their valor has been written in the chronicles of the asre all over the world, that their imperishable renown has given a sacred benison to the soil fVinf Wyta tVipm that dvinf thev frare tlipmciolvpc! ' VUUW , I J O 7 J O ' w . w a cheerful sacrifice to the birth of a country's fame. We know that freed from mortal cares, theirs is the happy re ward vouchsafed unto those who have obejrejd the call of duty. Who would not exchange an imperial throne for the cofiin of a Lee ? ' CrA VtlAoa tVi! wrTnTi nf nnr land ! Vs:fn1e in purity, theirs are fit hands to keep ahght the torch of memory, and lead us with each recurring year to the altars of patriotism, there not only to sorrow for the loved and lost, but to rejoice in their fidelity to principle, to honor their devotion to duty, and so to perpetrate their fame from age to age and generation to generation. 4-
State Agricultural Journal (Raleigh, N.C.)
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May 14, 1874, edition 1
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