RUT A BAG A CULTURE 



Indeed, sorrowful to relate, he is become a religious fanatic, and 

 this in so desperate a degree as to leave no hope of any possible 

 cure. In the pride of our health and strength, of mind as well as 

 of body, we little dream of the chances and changes of old age. 

 Who can read the &quot; Travels in France , Spain, and Italy,&quot; and 

 reflect on the present state of the admirable writer s mind, without 

 feeling some diffidence as to what may happen to himself ! 



119. LORD HARDWICKE, who is now the President of the Board, 

 is a man, not exceeding my negro, either in experience or natural 

 abilities. A parcel of court-sycophants are the Vice-Presidents. 

 Their committees and correspondents are a set of justices of the 

 peace, nabobs become country-gentlemen, and parsons of the 

 worst description. And thus is this a mere political job ; a 

 channel for the squandering of some thousands a year of the 

 people s money upon worthless men, who ought to be working 

 in the fields, or mending &quot; His Majesty s Highways.&quot; 



1 20. Happily, politics, in this country, have nothing to do with 

 agriculture ; and here, therefore, I think I have a chance to be 

 fairly heard. I should, indeed, have been heard in England ; but, 

 I really could never bring myself to do any thing tending to im 

 prove the estates of the oppressors of my country ; and the same 

 consideration now restrains me from communicating information, 

 on the subject of timber trees, which would be of immense benefit 

 to England ; and which information I shall reserve, till the 

 tyranny shall be at an end. Castlereagh, in the fulness of his 

 stupidity, proposed, that, in order to find employment for &quot; the 

 population,&quot; as he insolently called the people of England, he would 

 set them to dig holes one day and fill them up the next. I could 

 tell him what to plant in the holes, so as to benefit the country 

 in an immense degree ; but, like the human body in some com 

 plaints, the nation would now be really injured by the com 

 munications of what, if it were in a healthy state, would do it 

 good, add to its strength, and to all its means of exertion. 



121. To return from this digression, I am afraid of no bad 

 seasons. The drought, which is the great enemy to be dreaded in 

 this country, I am quite prepared for. Give me ground that I 

 can plough ten or twelve inches deep, and give me Indian corn 

 spaces to plough in, and no sun can burn me up. I have men 

 tioned Mr. CURWEN S experiment before ; or, rather TULL S ; 

 for he it is, who made all the discoveries of this kind. Let any 

 man, just to try, leave half a rod of ground undug from the month 

 of May to that of October ; and another half rod let him dig and 

 break fine every ten or fifteen days. Then, whenever there has 

 been fifteen days of good scorching sun, let him go and dig a hole 

 in each. If he does not find the hard ground dry as dust, and the 

 other moist : then let him say, that I know nothing about these 

 matters. So erroneous is the common notion, that ploughing 

 in dry weather lets in the drought ! 



122. Of course, proceeding upon this fact, which I state as the 



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