672 



ments shall the progress be regular and rapid ? It is the object of ag- 

 ricultural fail's, true agricultural papers and schools, to accomplish the 

 last mentioned result. And ^hen we consider the character of the 

 American peo^ile, not trammeled by old institutions and habits, but pro- 

 verbially given to change, and the facilities for imparting information, 

 the imposibility of any new discovery or in\"ention remaining long a se- 

 cret, the rapid increase of population, and consequently of markets, the 

 immigration of men from other counti'ies, bringing with them the re- 

 sults of experiment in other lands, and the truly creditable eftbrts now 

 made for the advancement of this mother of arts and of men, the pros- 

 pect is most gratifying to every lover of his country and of his race- 

 There are two rival methods of farming ; farming by rote and farm- 

 ing by science. The former is traditional and hereditary. Like the 

 crowns of despots and the customs of eastern peasantry, it descends 

 from father to son. The leading impulse of it is habit. Like the off 

 ox in plowing, taught to walk in the furrow, and the nigh ox, 

 taught to walk on the hard edge, the farmer by rote plods on in the 

 old track, ne^'er looking up nor around, and exhibits no more thought 

 than his plow, or than an empty barrel rolling down hill. Farming 

 by science implies study and reflection, an adoption of the old plan when 

 the old plan appears the best, and when not, the adoption of a new. 

 ^ The same classification will apply to every branch of industry. Na- 

 poleon excited the astonishment and indignation of the veteran gener- 

 als whom he conquered, by violating, as they said, all the classic rules 

 of military operations. Poor simpletons, they did not undei-stand till 

 too late, that Napoleon was fighting according to science ; that he was 

 profoundly vei-sed in all the laws which they followed, and that therein 

 lay his strength ; that he looked beyond those regulations, to their prin- 

 ciples^ and thus was able for himself to form new laws, and that not one 

 of them were so thoroughly instructed in the art of war as himself, and 

 that therefore he was their superior. Charles Lyell, the famous geolo- 

 gist, who has traveled through this. country and observed closely its in- 

 stitutions as well as its soil, has lately expressed his opinion, that the 

 Americans owe more of their wealth and prosperity to the free adop- 

 tion of new methods of obtaining desired results, especially in the de- 

 partment of manufactures than to the. cheapness of their land, the fer- 

 tility of their soil. The cotton-gin, the steam-boat, the reaper, and hua- 



