De^. F:xtracts from the Gcorgiail LettcrSf lie. 5^7" 



negro fellow with a couple of palfrcjs at a half trot, for plow- 

 ing, had discoloured the land at the rate of 3 and 3 J acres a- 

 day. 



From the two first instances one is ready to suspect, that th2 

 elementary powers of Nature are debilitated hy time. 



The plains adjoining to the probable site of Great Babylon^, 

 now possessed by the stupid Mussulman^ have not that amaz- 

 ing fertility they had in the days of Herodot. 



The laiid of Jewry,. less extensive and equally mountainous^ 

 is now more sterile than Wales. 



The instance from the western world, one would think, ex- 

 hibits Dame Nature, man unopposing, proue to luxuriate 3 still 

 in her prime. 



\The fertility of regions is often the c^Jvctof human industry^ 

 Campania, once the garden and granary of Italy, is now a stink»- 

 ing poisonous waste, from the depopulation made by barbarism 

 succeeded by slavish superstition. Grass uncropped, on level 

 land, v/ill in time give a surface of morass. 



A continuation of good husbandry, with judicious maniir- 

 ings, deepens the soil from. year to year. Short leases and 

 frequent scourging crops, while they deteriorate^ diminisli. 

 Limeshells laid on shallow grass ground with a clay bottom will 

 in few years render it arable. 



Besides moral and political, there are natural and preterna- 

 tural causes aiTccting fertility. Situation with regard tomoun^- 

 tains, woods, bogs, bays, seas, iish-banks and the ocean : the 

 sun, the sky, the climate, the exhalations^, the effluvia, the foun- 

 tains, the floods-'— all tliese aiid more, singly, or in multifoli 

 combination, give or with-hold bread from man. 



N^i^wfoundland, Cape Breton, and the south-eajtern skirt of 

 the peninsula of Nova Scotia, being within the range of tlu 

 bank fogs can never be made frugiferous. 



Ireland has her weeping sky. Berkley, graceful and pro-. 

 found,, was biit an ideal patriot when he wrote his Querist, so 

 far as it regards corn husbandry. Drain the boo- of Allen ani 

 all other bogs, green Erin will never ageee with che plow, 

 but as it is subservient to flax and pasturage. What avails the 

 flattering prospect of Jyne and July,, if it is It) fall a sacrillce to 

 the Atlantic rains of August and September ?■ In granting 

 bounties on grain exported, the parliament of that kingdom 

 made a well-ijitentioncd tlTovt. Still they were tugging against 

 the stream. 



Her numerous harbours, by far the best in Europe, seem as 

 if intended by Providence to invite Ireland to plow another ele- 

 ment. Time was, ^vheu she grew the best oak in the world, 



TUfi;. 



