inscriptions which they bear, the solid, granite pyramid of his glory lasts from age to age, imperishable, seen afar off, looming high over the vast desert, a mark, a sign, and a wonder, for the wayfarers though this pilgrimage of life. [Footnote 46: A prominent lawyer and statesman of North Carolina.] * * * * * =_Jesse Buel, 1778-1839._= (Manual, p. 504.) From "The Farmer's Instructor." =_152._= EXTENT AND DEFECTS OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. We have associated, gentlemen, to increase the pleasures and profits of rural labor, to enlarge the sphere of useful knowledge, and, by concentrating our energies, to give them greater effect in advancing the public good. In no country does the agricultural class bear so great a proportion to the whole population as in this. In England one-third of the inhabitants only are employed in husbandry; in France, two-thirds; in Italy, a little more than three-fourths; while in the United States the agricultural portion probably exceeds five-sixths. And in no country does the agricultural population exercise such a controlling political power, contribute so much to the wealth, or tend so strongly to give an impress to the character of a nation as in the United States. Hence it may be truly said of us that our agriculture is our nursing mother, which nurtures, and gives growth, and wealth, and character to our country.... Knowing no party, and confined to no sect, its benefits and its blessings, like dews from heaven, fall upon all. ... Our agriculture is greatly defective. It is susceptible of much improvement. How shall we effect this improvement? The old are _too old to learn_, or, rather, to unlearn what have been the habits of their lives. The young cannot learn as they ought to learn, and as the public interests require, because they have no suitable school for their instruction. We have no place where they can learn the _principles_ upon which the _practice_ of agriculture is based, none where they can be instructed in all the modern improvements of the art.