INTRODUCTION. 4 
of his general {kill in the courfe of cropping his arable, and 
of ftocking his pafture, to have a fpecial regard to the cleannefs 
and neatnefi, and confequently the greatelt produétivene/s, of 
his hufbandry: a duty which he owes to the- community, 
and in the negleét of which he is a highly-culpable member 
of fociety; for though his bargain may be fo eafy, and his 
foil fo good, that even under flovenly management he may 
be able to pay his rent, and get money, the community is 
fuffering a conftant lofs by his mif-management; and ftill 
further by His bad example, fo far forth as that example has 
an influence on other young and inexperienced farmers.*— 
In the prefent ftate of population, to which we have alluded, 
and for which we ought feduloufly to provide; when the 
general-complaint of tao Jittle land being under cultivation 
feems to be too well-founded, fpecial care fhould be taken, 
by the beft poffible ceconomy, to render what we have in 
the greateft degree produdlive. A flovenly farmer is one of 
the greateft internal enemies of his country. To a man of 
common difcernment, the appearance of many of our lands, 
in particular diftrifts, is at once mortifying and difguftful; 
to the benevolent and patriotick obferver, it is often afiictive. | 
For though the general fertility of this comparatively-happy 
ifland, under the benign influences of the Author of Nature, 
is fuch, that famine rarely invades, however unworthy of 
univerfal plenty, the mafs of its inhabitants; yet it cannot 
* It is well known, that on a farm where one of the publick trials 
of ploughs was made for the premiums of this fociety, the foil was 
fo full of couch-grafs, that large roots were taken out after the 
ploughs feveral yards long. The farmer was of courfe bantered on 
his fyftem of hufbandry. He afferted the utility of couch-grafs for 
feeding his cows—and fatall better reafoning at defiance, by affert- 
ing, that he had “ proved the goodnefs of his farming by laying by 
* sool. per annum, for twenty years paft! And fo, let thick as can 
“* do better, try.’’! 
but 
