6 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



imaginary, of what belongs to our neighbors. It is not enough 

 that our own children are handsome, good-tempered, clever, and 

 accomplished ; but we insist upon it that those of our neighbors 

 are ugly, morose, and ill-endowed. Perhaps agriculture presents 

 a more limited field for any ill-natured emulation than almost 

 any other department of life. Here men cannot conceal their 

 discoveries and improvements. Here there cannot be long any 

 monopoly of advantages. Here men perceive how rapidly and 

 widely improvements and discoveries extend themselves. In the 

 present condition of the world, for a man to pretend to keep any 

 distinguished agricultural improvement to himself would be 

 very much like his holding up his umbrella before the sun, so 

 that it might not shine upon other people. All he can be sure of, 

 in this case, is to keep himself in the dark. A liberal and intelli 

 gent mind perceives at once, that the light which his knowledge 

 or improvements shed upon others, is always reflected back upon 

 himself. 



III. SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. 



It must be admitted, however, that although a good deal of 

 selfishness and bigotry might remain, for, alas! how can it be 

 otherwise as long as human nature is human ? there is a spirit 

 of liberal inquiry abroad in respect to agriculture, blazing in the 

 valleys, and beaming from the hill tops, and every where diffus 

 ing an invigorating, a stirring, and a healthful radiance. One of 

 the wisest of our race, who applied his heart, as he says, to un 

 derstand wisdom, has told us that there is nothing new under 

 the sun: what is, has been; and the human mind is not likely 

 to spring suddenly a mine of truth, which has never before been 

 touched ; nor may it expect at once to accomplish the solution 

 of recondite problems, which have baffled the most penetrating 

 and puzzled the most sagacious minds. It would be the gross 

 est injustice to many men of the brightest powers, of profound 

 investigation, and of most liberal and disinterested views, who, 

 though they have gone out, have left a brilliant track behind 

 them, to say that agricultural science has never before been 



