38 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



when riding one day in one of the rough vehicles of the coun- 

 try, wliich was crowded with priests, monks and farmers, a most 

 intelligent man with whom I was conversing, as we drove along 

 the luxuriant banks of the Bay of Naples, told me that he cul- 

 tivated a certain tract of land, — which appeared to me as he 

 pointed to it on the hill-side, with its orange trees in full fruit 

 and blossom, like the garden of Eden, — that he was obliged to 

 pay seventy-five per cent, of all he could make it produce, in his 

 various taxes and rent ; that this was certain, and that he would 

 not complain if he could be sure of the remaining twenty-five 

 per cent. ; " but, to tell you the truth, Signore Americano," 

 (in a whisper,) " these gentry," — signifying by various wink- 

 ings and shruggings of the shoulder, that he meant his clerical 

 friends in the long robes, — " are pretty sure to have their share 

 of that, too." 



Starting then from this point as an established fact, that the 

 American farmer is more fortunate than the farmer of other 

 countries, in owning his farm, and in thus having every incent- 

 ive that can be conceived, to constantly improve it, let us glance 

 at what he has already done, or what has been done for him by 

 modern science, in the way of improvement, and then at what 

 he ought to do, or how he ought farther to avail himself of 

 modern science, if he regards his own interest or liis own duty. 



The husbandmen of antiquity, as well as those of the middle 

 ages, and even those of a comparatively recent period, were 

 destitute of many advantages enjoyed by the modern cultivator. 

 Neither the practical nor the theoretical agriculturists of those 

 periods had any correct knowledge of geology, mineralogy, 

 chemistry, botany, vegetable physiology or natural philosophy. 

 But these sciences have given the modern farmer command of 

 important agents — elements and principles of which the ancients 

 had no idea ; the precepts of their writers were conformable to 

 their experience, but an exi^lanation of the principles on which 

 they prescribed practices, was rarely if ever attempted by them. 

 Nature's most simple modes of operation were to them inexpli- 

 cable, and their ignorance of causes often led to erroneous 

 calculations with regard to effects. 



We have now much knowledge of the nature and properties 

 of manures, mineral, animal and vegetable ; of the best modes 

 of apply ing.them, and the particular crops for which particular 



