A EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



not as with the bold and adventurous Genoese the discovery 

 of a new and unknown country, yet it was to me an unexplored 

 country; and it was, in truth, almost the first time I had realized 

 the greatness of the enterprise upon which I had embarked. 



Some persons may smile at the application of such language 

 to a mere agricultural tour. Things are great or small by com 

 parison ; and that work may be considered great to any one, 

 which,, ip its proper performance, demands the exertion of all the 

 talents which he may possess. I cannot but look upon an agri- 

 e y It ura taur in Europe, in the present condition of the art and 

 science, for in both lights it has now come to be viewed, as 

 most important combining a variety of inquiries and observa 

 tions which would severely tax the highest powers that might 

 be applied to this object. It is for me to assume only the hum 

 ble office of a pioneer in this great work ; and if I can be so 

 happy as to render some essential service to my country, in facil 

 itating the labors of those who shall come after me, in effecting 

 a small clearing that others may more easily bring the field into 

 a state of complete and productive cultivation, I shall be consoled 

 under all the imperfections of my attempt with the conviction 

 that I have not labored in vain. 



I cannot help feeling that there is a high responsibleness 

 attached to my undertaking a responsibleness not merely to 

 the kindness of friends, on both sides of the water, who with an 

 extraordinary liberality and good will have favored the enter 

 prise, but to the great cause itself of agricultural improvement ; 

 that the information collected and given might be drawn from 

 authentic sources, selected and combined with judgment, and 

 presented in a condensed, compact, and practical form. 



A person who has had no experience in such a matter, who is 

 not accustomed to such investigations, can form no just idea of the 

 difficulties of accomplishing in this case what one would desire 

 to do ; and of the impediments, and, I regret to add, in many 

 cases the vexations and disappointments, which, in its prosecu 

 tion, he will be compelled to meet with. Before I left home, a 

 friend in many respects highly intelligent, and eminent for his 

 sound judgment, and, withal, a liberal and devoted friend of an 

 improved agriculture said to me, &quot; that there was nothing to 

 be learned in England ; that he himself had travelled much in 

 England, by post, and had occasionally alighted and talked with 



