376 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



industry, and capital, either in the form of education, money, 01 

 credit ; the risks are not greater : the road to a reasonable com 

 petence, which is all to which a good mind should anxiously 

 aspire, is as certain as is common in human affairs ; extraordi 

 nary success which I do not say it is criminal to desire, but 

 even lawful to aim at is not unfrequently attainable : but, what 

 is better than all, the gains of agriculture, where the labor by 

 which those gains are secured is honorably and justly providec 

 for, and its products disposed of without any betrayal of con 

 science, are so unalloyed, so untainted by corruption, so clearly 

 in themselves not the occasions of privation, but the very in 

 struments of good to others, that one reposes on them with 

 entire and grateful complacency, and their value to the winner is 

 more than quadrupled. My friends, I know, will pardon my en 

 thusiasm, which, like a half-smothered fire, is continually bursting 

 out in this way. If it sometimes sheds a flickering light by its 

 blaze, it never burns to destroy ; and if, in respect to that noble 

 pursuit which Heaven first ordained for man, it awakens in any 

 pure and honest minds, not crazed with speculation nor hardened 

 and corrupted by the too common tricks of trade, any gentle 

 vibrations of sympathy, I shall feel that my two mites have 

 found their way into the great treasury of public good. 



The eminent success of the market-gardeners near London 

 depends on several circumstances in their management, which I 

 will point out. In the first place, the land is thoroughly drained, 

 so as not only to cut off the springs which might render the 

 wetness of the land permanent, but likewise to carry off speedily 

 the rain which falls. In the next place, the land is completely 

 trenched, to the depth of from two to three feet, with the spade. 

 This serves two purposes ; first, to assist in the drainage by giving 

 a free passage into the principal conduits of the rain as it comes 

 down ; and next, to enable the roots of the plants freely to extend 

 themselves in search of food. In trenching, it is necessary to 

 keep the top soil at the top, and not to bring the lower stratum to 

 the surface, or to suffer a large portion of the cold earth to be 

 mingled with the rich mould. This requires some little calcula 

 tion. The soil of the first trench made across the field must be 

 completely thrown out ; and so likewise the top soil of the 

 second trench. The bottom soil of the second trenching is then 

 to be thrown into the vacant space of the first, and the top soil 



