[ 293 1 



However fhort and defedive the above account 

 of the ftate of Agriculture in this kingdotn at dif- 

 ferent periods may bej yet I hope I have made it 

 appear — that it is much indebted for its prefcnt 

 improvements to learning and civilization — that 

 whatever deficiences it (liil labours under, they are 

 owing to a defe(fl in the education of farmers in 

 general — that it hath a clofe connexion with other 

 branches of fcience — that learning and experiments 

 muft go hand in hand — that the propofals of thofe 

 fenfible and learned men above quoted, for efla- 

 blifliing fchools of Agriculture, were founded on 

 enlarged views, fubftantial grounds, and the greateft 

 propriety — and that the little attention which has 

 been paid thereto can be attributed to nothing elfe 

 but certain temporary circumftances, which retard 

 improvements of one kind or other in every age. 



Agricultural Societies were not eflablilhed when 

 thofe gentlemen w^ote : and it can hardly be fup- 

 pofed that, whatever propriety or utility there might 

 have been in their plan, they alone could fuddenly 

 turn the regard of the nation to a fubjedl of which 



it had then fcarce any idea. The cafe is now 



otherwife. Agriculture hath arifen, like a ftar of 

 the firft magnitude, in our hemifphere; and many 

 of the wife men of our nation, of all ranks, are 



Vol. I. U continually 



