PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURE. 17 



the sea and confined the rivers, made canals, and were inces- 

 santly pumping to keep out the water. Just think of the diffi- 

 culties the Dutch encountered and overcame to carry their 

 farming to such a high degree of prosperity as it has attained. 

 Hence come the Dutch breed of cattle. Look at the small farms 

 in Switzerland. Their mountains are higher, nearer and more 

 precipitous than those of New England, and ice and snow per- 

 petually crowning the mountain tops, suggest summer and 

 winter at the same time. Yet their little meadows are very 

 productive ; herds of fine cattle graze upon the mountain sides, 

 and their butter and cheese made at their little chalets or cheese 

 houses high up in the hills, are famous. I have seen the Swiss 

 farmer distributing liquid manure with a long-handled dipper ; 

 and sometimes transporting up the steep hillsides his barnyard 

 manure in a basket on his back. His oxen bear the yoke on 

 the forehead, and his cows are often harnessed like a horse. 

 Look at Assyria, once a great empire. The plough sculptured 

 on the stones of ruined Nineveh is the same as yet used in the 

 adjacent country. The furrow is turned and the seed covered 

 at Aleppo at this day just as they were in the days of Job and 

 Amos. The plough of modern Mexico, Spain and Italy, is very 

 little improvement upon that of ancient Rome. Considering 

 what an inefficient instrument it was, it is not to be wondered 

 that some of the Latin authorities thought the best thing to be 

 done in agriculture was to keep the plough going. Mixing soils 

 is equivalent to manuring, said Theophrastus. 



" Quid est agrum bene colere ?" asked Cato. 

 " Bene arare." " Quid secundum?" " Arare." 

 " Quid tertium?" " Stercorare." 



And this is not far from the main philosophy of it at the 

 present time. 



CONGRATULATIONS AND HOPES. 



A retrospective view of the progress of the last sixty years 

 reasonably entitles us to congratulate ourselves upon the great 

 advance that has been made. The improvements in the plough, 

 in the drill, in the hay and grain cutters and harvesters, and 

 threshing machines ; in the steam-engine for work or transit ; in 

 the combination, manufacture and use of fertilizers ; in husking, 

 shelling, grinding, churning, baking, cooking, and in sewing, 

 3* 



