413 



the earth from an uncultivated wild into one vast storehouse of subsist- 

 ence and enjoyment. 



What can be more acceptable to the patriot and philanthropist than 

 to see their fellow men raised above the degrading influence of tyran- 

 ny and indolence, to the free and laudable enjoyment of the bounties of 

 their Creator. To see the cultivated country — the waving fields of gol- 

 den grain — the fragrant meadow — the flocks and herds gamboling up- 

 on the green sward — the beautiful garden and the tasteful dwelling — 

 while the owners of these good things are under the influence and gui- 

 dance of the principles of our holy religion, and elevated by the refine- 

 ments of science ? They partake of the fruits of their own industry, 

 and feel a proud consciousness that they eat not the bread of idleness 

 or fraud ; that their gains are not wet with the tears of misfortune, nor 

 wnmg from their fellow men by avarice or extortion. Well may men 

 thus cultivated and thus employed sit down under their own vine and 

 fig tree, without fear or molestation, and shed a healthful influence upon 

 all around them. # 



It might, perhaps, be supposed that nothing new could be advanced 

 upon the subject of Agi-iculture. Since this has been an occupation 

 which has engaged the attention and study of man from the earliest 

 ages of his existence, it might be supposed that the experience of many 

 generations would have systematized this department of knowledge, and 

 reduced to certainty those rules upon which practical success depends . 

 Yet so far is this from being the fact, that through our ignorance of 

 Nature and its laws, from a want of pei-severance and observation, and 

 a rigid analysis of cause and eflect, nothing has been more devoid of 

 system, or more uncertain in practice, than the profession of Agricul- 

 ture. The question then arises, in view of the increasing importance of 

 an improved system of Agriculture, how shall the end in view be ob- 

 tained. Among the most obvious methods of securing this object, is 

 that pursued by almost every other vocation, viz: an association of ef- 

 fort Instead of the farmer working at random, or by the light of 

 such aids as his own experience suggests, let his knowledge be enlarged 

 and his information extended by an interchange of opinion and fami- 

 liar intercourse with others in the same pursuit. If in other pursuits it 

 be necessary to concentrate into a sort of common stock, all the partic- 

 iilar knowledge which can be . collected ; if the man of science must 



