TO JOHN BARTRAM. 51 



have brought to this reservoir ; therein I throw old lime, ashes, 

 horse-dung, &c., and twice a week I let it run, thus impregnated. 

 I regularly spread on this ground, in the fall, old hay, straw, and 

 whatever damaged fodder I have about my barn. By these simple 

 means I mow, one year with another, fifty-three hundreds of ex- 

 cellent hay per acre, from a soil which scarcely produced five 

 fingers [i. e., Oinquefoil, or Potentilla Canadensis, Z.] some years 

 before." " This is, sir, a miracle in husbandry ; happy the country 

 which is cultivated by a society of men whose application and 

 taste lead them to prosecute and accomplish useful works." " I am 

 not the only person who do these things (he said) ; wherever water 

 can be had, it is always turned to that important use ; wherever a 

 farmer can water his meadows, the greatest crops of the best hay, 

 and excellent after-grass, are the sure rewards of his labours. 

 With the banks of my meadow ditches, I have greatly enriched my 

 upland fields ; those which I intend to rest for a few years, I 

 constantly sow with red clover, which is the greatest meliorator of 

 our lands. For three years after, they yield abundant pasture ; 

 when I want to break up my clover fields, I give them a good coat 

 of mud, which hath been exposed to the severities of three or four 

 of our winters. This is the reason that I commonly reap from 

 twenty-eight to thirty-six bushels of wheat an acre ; my flax, oats, 

 and Indian corn I raise in the same proportion. Wouldst thee 

 inform me whether the inhabitants of thy country follow the same 

 methods of husbandry?" "No, sir; in the neighbourhood of our 

 towns there are indeed some intelligent farmers who prosecute 

 their rural schemes with attention ; but we should be too numerous, 

 too happy, too powerful a people, if it were possible for the whole 

 Russian empire to be cultivated like the province of Pennsylvania. 

 Our lands are so unequally divided, and so few of our farmers are 

 possessors of the soil they till, that they cannot execute plans of 

 husbandry with the same vigour as you do, who hold yours, as it 

 were, from the master of nature, unincumbered and free. Oh, Ame- 

 rica !" exclaimed I, "thou knowest not, as yet, the whole extent 

 of thy happiness ; the foundation of thy civil polity must lead thee, 

 in a few years, to a degree of population and power which Europe 

 little thinks of !" " Long before this happens (answered the good 

 man) we shall rest beneath the turf; it is vain for mortals to be 

 presumptuous in their conjectures : our country is, no doubt, the 

 cradle of an extensive future population ; the old world is growing 



