The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1867.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 236, 8 October 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1867.

Amidst the excitement of political struggles and the strife of parties, the conflict of interests and the discoutent which governmental tyranny and mismanagement have engendered, it is consolatory to . reflect that the busy machinery of industrial life continues in full and active play, and that the great work of production goes on in beautiful and beneficial disregard of the bickerings of politicians and the financial pressure under which the country is laboring. To a veiy large number of our population the fall or rise of the barometer is a matter of infinitely higher importance than the rise or fall of a Ministry; aud a few days' rain, which should clothe arid pastures with succulent grass, and fill our tanks with an abundaut supply of water, are a greater boon than the formation of an immaculate and infallible Cabinet. Among those who are foremost in promoting the best in- • terests of the colony, let us be grateful to tbat class whose occupation is of all others the most precarious, while it is also of the highest importance to the whole commuuity. We believe it was Burke who said that the 'first creditor upon every State was the plough,* and agriculturists have unquestionably the first claim upon the Government for encouragement, aud upon the people for sympathy and support. Pursuiug his avocations in an isolated manner, and depending for their success, in very many instances, upon causes quite beyond human control, the farmer is placed at a disadvantage as compared with the merchant, the manufacturer, and the tradesman, aud it is only by the exercise of an almost stoical patience and a courageous perseverance that he can bear up agaiDst the disasters to which he is continually liable, owing to blight and flood, and the ravages of devastatiug insects; while the isolation, inseparable from the very nature of his pursuits, and the hiuderances to success which that isolation involves, can only be obviated by periodical gatherings and regularly recurriug exhibitious both of produce and of the most improved methods of raising it. Successful farming, it has been well observed, is that which insures to the land a constantly accumulating fertility, in conuection with remunerative results. But how these objects are to be secured, canuot be learned from theoretical disquisitions, nor from the practice of any one individual. All science is but the deduction of a law from an accumulation of facts; and whenever a perfect science of agriculture shall have beeu arrived at, it will repose upon this same basis. Meanwhile we must go on multiplying observations, mutually communicating separate experiences, and comparing individual results. This we take to be one of the purposes aimed at by the Agricultural Show which has for some years past taken place annually at Richmond, as well as that of begetting a spirit of emulation and rewardiag excellence and enterprise. It is unfortunately true that on the last few occasions this Show has not called forth all the interest in this community which its importance demands, and consequently the exhibitions have been anything but adequate representations pf the resource*,

I • 'II e ither agricultural or mechanical, which we have at our disposal. We trust however that the proposed removal of the Show to Nelson will form a new epoch in the fortunes of the Agricultural Society, and that the next exhibition will amply illustrate the progress which has been made during the previous year in many particulars, but more particularly as regards the quality of our farm stock, and also with respect to the mechanical appliances which modern ingenuity has iuveuted, either as substi- | tutes for manual labor or for the more effectual cultivation of the soil and garnering of its produce. It is in fact to these mechanical appliances that we are chiefly indebted for much of the superiority which modern agriculture enjoys over that of the ancients. Every student of classical literature will bear us out in the assertion that ' Xenophou, Virgil, aud Cato, to say nothing of the Byzantine Emperor who wrote or caused to be written the agricultural manual entitled ' Geopouica Geoponicorum,' were as well up in farm practice as many a shrewd farmer ot the present day. But the steam-plough, the reaping-machine, the threshing-machine, and au infinite variety of implements which mechanical science has piessed into the service of the husbandman iu our day were of course unknown to the author of the Georgics aud to the writers of whom mention has beeu made. Equally unknown and uucoujectured were the immense improvements which have been effected in the breeding t of stock and the multiplication of its varieties, within the last hundred years. And what hus been commenced aud carried on with so much enthusiasm and success in the mother country is beiug contiuued in New Zealaud under arduous circumstances, which redound all the more to the honor of those engaged in the work, inasmuch as cur breeding stock has to be brought iu the first iustance, at great risk and no small cost, from the other end of the world; so that the difficulty of the enterprise enhances the importance of the achievement. Let us hope that the show of our Agricultural Society, to which we thus early invite attention, will exhibit many of the results of this fine spirit of enterprise, while we tmst that it will also prove in its general aspects that the untoward eveuts of the past two years, in so far as the agriculture of the country is concerned, have caused no relaxation of those energies, no intermission of tbat effort, no abatement of that courageous conflict with adverse influences and depressing losses, which are characteristic of British colonists geueraliy, and of the Cultivators of the soil in particular.