4 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



in that condition of life seldom extends beyond the particular 

 service to which he has been trained, is a judgment of which, 

 upon further consideration, an enlarged mind would not be tena 

 cious. In respect to any other matter of importance, it would 

 not be the most likely way of obtaining full and authentic infor 

 mation. Why should it be deemed so in respect to agriculture ? 

 This art, in its improved condition, combines so many arts and 

 such various subjects of inquiry and observation, that a close 

 scrutiny and long-continued inquiry are as indispensable to a 

 thorough knowledge of it as they are in respect to any of the 

 branches of commerce or manufactures. 



After travelling many hundreds of miles over this rich and 

 highly-cultivated country, and seeing many of the landlords, and 

 tenants, and laborers, in their own domiciles and homesteads, in 

 their stables and fields, and enjoying the most free communica 

 tions, I feel that I have, as it were, only begun to see what is to 

 be seen, and to learn what is to be known, and that every step 

 of my progress is developing new and valuable objects of inquiry 

 and remark. 



II. PARTICULAR OBJECTS OF INQUIRY. 



What should an agricultural tour embrace ? To this the 

 proper answer is, Every thing connected with the cultivation 

 of the earth, the production of food for man and beast, and the 

 condition of those to whom agriculture is a business and profes 

 sion. In my preface I have enumerated generally the objects of 

 inquiry. The various operations of husbandry, the implements 

 by which these operations are carried on and facilitated, the 

 plants cultivated, and the live stock produced and maintained, 

 constitute the principal subjects to be observed and treated but 

 the subdivisions into which these great topics spread themselves 

 are very numerous, and it is as important to consider them in detail 

 as in the gross. It may be expected by some persons that I 

 should merely point out in what respects foreign differs from 

 American agriculture ; or, otherwise, that I should only suggest 

 for adoption in the United States such methods of culture as, in 



