104 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



instruments. But while every proper precaution is taken to 

 secure a good moral character in the teacher, and all practicable 

 guards are placed over his conduct by his success being made 

 entirely dependent upon its correctness, a good deal, certainly, is 

 done ; and better minds, and persons of higher qualifications, from 

 the success of these experiments, may presently be induced to 

 seek these situations, in a country where the means of subsist 

 ence and profitable employment are, from the redundance of the 

 population, becoming every day more difficult. 



It is to be regretted that the farmers in general perhaps it 

 would be more just to say, that many farmers look with very ill- 

 humor upon the allotment system, and are opposed to granting 

 land for these objects, even when their landlords desire it. I have 

 found no instance of a landlord opposed to it, though I have 

 found with them a prevalent disposition to limit the allotment to 

 a very small size. I am not willing to impute motives where 

 they are not avowed. I have seen too many instances of the 

 highest and best minds acting under very partial and mistaken 

 views, in a manner unworthy of them, to allow me to commit 

 myself by any harsh judgment. The farmers, it is said, are 

 prejudiced against allotments, because the crops obtained under 

 this limited and minute cultivation throw their own inferior crops 

 into the shade, or, by demonstrating what the land is capable of 

 producing, may induce their landlords to raise their rents. It is 

 alleged, further, that the farmers are not willing in any way to 

 diminish the dependence of the laborers upon their favor, as it 

 might give them the power of demanding a higher rate of wages. 

 The farmers, in the next place, it is said, are not willing that 

 their laborers should appear in the public markets as sellers of 

 produce, which, if the competition was not to be regarded as 

 affecting prices, yet it might inspire them with a hurtful sense of 

 their own importance. I report here only the suggestions of 

 others, and presume to hazard no judgment. The motives 

 named are, alas ! but too consistent with the weakness and the 

 too often unrestrained selfishness of human nature. Every man, 

 certainly, has a fair right &quot; to live ; &quot; and the duty of every just 

 man is &quot; to let him live.&quot; Blessed will be the day, if come it ever 

 should, when every man will learn that his own true prosperity 

 is essentially concerned in the prosperity of his neighbor, and 

 that no gratification on earth, to a good mind, is more delicious 



