422 



E UHOP E AN A G Rl C L LT L RE . 



the use, since, within the memory of persons now living, farmers 

 in the vicinity of Alhany were accustomed to cart the manure 

 from their barns on to the Hudson when frozen, and in the 

 neighborhood of Montreal on to the St. Lawrence, that, at the 

 breaking of the ice in the spring, it might be carried away by the 

 stream. Even much more recently, in some parts of the country, 

 farmers, when they have found the piles of manure round their 

 barns accumulated to an inconvenient size, have preferred to 

 desert them, and build other barns, rather than be at the trouble 

 and expense of removing these heaps. One is often amused at 

 hearing people boast of &quot; the wisdom of our ancestors ; &quot; and, to 

 be consistent, we should expect to see such persons adjusting the 

 equilibrium of a bag of grain upon the horse s back by putting 

 the corn in one end and a stone in the other. 



When I come to treat of the implements of husbandry, I shall 

 describe an English plough ; at present I have to deal only with 

 the operation itself. 



I think I may say that, in England and Scotland, the art of 

 ploughing has reached perfection, and that it is unrivalled and 

 unsurpassable. This at least is my opinion, which must be taken 

 at what it is worth. I cannot conceive how it can be improved ; 

 and this not in rare instances, and at ploughing matches, but I 

 may say universally. In some cases, the work has been done 

 better than in others ; but I have not seen an example of bad 

 ploughing in the country ; I have not seen one which, in the 

 United States, would not be pronounced superior. 



LXXVIII. THE ENGLISH CHARACTER A DIGRESSION. 



It may be thought a little out of the way, but I will take this 

 occasion to say, that the English know what right lines are. It 

 is but just to say of them that of which I am convinced, after a 

 familiar and close observation, that they are an upright people ; 

 that they have, with as few exceptions as are ordinarily to be 

 expected in a commercial community, none of that slyness 

 which some men chuckle over as a commendable quality, but 



