Agricultural Society of Philadelphia, xlili 



uninterrupted succession, the worst of all bad husbandry. — 

 These are " stubbled in''^ (the phrase of new settlers) till the 

 land is exhausted, and produces nothing but sorre/ and other 

 execrable vegetation. The timber rots and falls, sometimes 

 dangerously to men and cattle. It is burnt and destroyed, 

 when the field, after a useless waste of time, is cropped 

 again. Fencing, fuel, building, implements, &c. call for tim- 

 ber — but it is distant or gone. The jfield is choaked with 

 briars, worthless shrubs, and other pests, and its cultivation 

 is generally more expensive than if well cleared originally, 

 and occupied by wholesome and productive crops, either of 

 grain or grass. 



Many of us are interested in new lands — and all of us, 

 from public motives, wish to introduce a better stile of 

 clearing and cropping into our new countries. Information 

 from several new settlements (particularly some in the state 

 of New- York) is favourable to a far better plan, of both 

 clearing and cropping. It is, to till less ground cleared 

 perfectly ; and crop, according to circumstances, as near as 

 practicably to the rules of good husbandry. Labourers are 

 mot there in greater plenty, than elsewhere, in such settle- 

 ments ; and yet the settlers succeed and thrive. 



Our object is therefore, to obtain and promulgate every 

 species of information ; and thereby be enabled to recom- 

 mend and encourage better modes of clearing, and a more 

 advantageous, as well as reputable stile of husbandry, in our 

 new countries. 



There are in these countries, many intelligent citizens^ 

 who may, and it is hoped will assist in both example and in- 

 vestigation. But some of these have not correct ideas on 

 this subject. They conceive that the art of husbandry, for 

 the most part, consists in restoring, or creating fertility, 

 which in neV lands is the gift of nature. But the fact is, 

 that fertility without good management, like a savage in pow- 

 er, and subject to no civilized regulation, as often exerts it- 

 self mischievously as profitably. It frequently ruins by de- 



