INDIANA FAEMEE.
Vol. VII.]        INDIANAPOLIS, IND., JUNE, 1858.
[No. III.
The Farm vs. The City.
The farm is the natural home of man. Placed
in any other condition he naturally degenerates,
both physically and morally, and soon acquires
an inferior type. It may be that the Tree of
Life had no natural existence, anterior to man's
creation, but in every other respect the Garden
of Eden was nothing more than a well arranged
farm. It was a place where the wild and useless productions of nature had been cleared off,
and such vegetables as were suitable for food for
man, and for such animals as man should domesticate, planted in their stead. When Moses
tells us that "The Lord God took the man and
put him into the Garden of Eden, to dress it
and to keep it," he informs the world that man
was, not only made to work, but that he is, in
every respect, better off when in that condition
• requisite to produce that which he must consume.
Man cannot maintain, unimpaired, his individuality, without the aid of light, heat and
electricity, with a freely circulating atmosphere
about his person. The city may afford him
light, heat, and electricity, but it cannot afford
him a pure atmosphere, without which heat and
electricity are injurious, because they heighten
the effect of a poisonous atmosphere, just as they
increase the vital and renovating influence of
pure air.
Cities are at best a necessary evil, and should
never be considered the abode of man, in successive generations.
We talk about the rise and fall of empires,
yet how few there are who note the fact that no
empire ever fell until the wealthy became too
proud to work, and cities, and city influences,
predominated over the country. An Agricultural people, so long as they held to their agriculture, never fell. Switzerland, with her rural
predominance, has never been conquered. The
Roman Empire was invulnerable, until the city
VOL. VII—5.
of Rome numbered about four million inhabitants. Agriculture made Rome strong. Her
strength gave her conquests. Her conquests
brought her slaves. Slavery degraded labor,
and the wealthy ceased to work. As work was
held to be degrading, and laboring men below
par, those who could live without work moved
into the city for better society, and thus the
City op Rome became the Roman Empire.
The British Empire has lengthened out its
days, by legislating in favor of Agriculture;
but as it was in the days of Rome, so is it now
in England. The soil is owned by a few individuals, and the tenantry is so degrading as to
destroy the spirit of those who cultivate the
soil, and Great Britain must abolish her land
system, and limit the amount of soil, which any
one man may own, to that which he can cultivate, or cease to be the master of the seas. If
England does this she will protract her time.—If
she does not her day is short. The English
people are beginning to wake up to the importance of this last resort of that Empire, and
their government will take prompt action in
the premises.
Here, however, in the United States, where
the agricultural interest is as ten to one, compared with all other interests, our national government has systematically witheld from agriculture the slightest encouragement. The agricultural statistics, collected by the Patent
Office, are hardly ever permitted to reach the
eye of a practical farmer, but are divided out
by members of Congress between themselves,
to be given as bribes to office holders, and professional men, to secure their political influence.
The sanctum of every political Editor,—the
office of every Post-master, Lawyer, Doctor,
and county officer, is stacked full of agricultural reports, sent to them by members of Congress, whilst one copy cannot be found in the
hands of a farmer, in all the land, unless he