76 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



New York, and it may be said, too, of Boston, for example, there 

 are extensive tracts of land, (in some cases constantly saturated 

 with water, and rendered comparatively worthless ; in others, 

 visited regularly by the tide, and producing an inferior herbage, 

 that might be exchanged for what would be far more valua 

 ble,) which might be embanked and drained, and reduced to 

 cultivation, for an expense which, under such circumstances, 

 their enhanced and constantly-increasing value would much 

 more than repay. Such examples as I have described, if they 

 have no direct application to the United States, cannot be with 

 out a most salutary influence in stimulating inquiry and effort ; 

 in inducing reflecting and inquisitive minds, and men of bold 

 enterprise, to look about them, and discover, if possible, what 

 means are within their reach of remedying evils under which 

 they labor, of honestly improving their own condition, and with 

 that, of course, the welfare of the community. 



English husbandry, on account of a diversity of climate and 

 soil, and because, likewise, of many circumstances in our social 

 condition, may not be well adapted to the United States; and to 

 follow out its rules, without a just discrimination, would be 

 quite sure to end in disappointment and loss : but, in the perfec 

 tion to which the art is carried, in the application of the most 

 enlightened and scientific inquiry to its improvement, in the 

 strong and indefatigable interest taken by persons of the highest 

 influence in its advancement, and in the actual gains and various 

 improvements which it has already accomplished, it reads a most 

 important lesson, to the farmers of the United States, to remit no 

 exertion, arid to apply all their energies to the advancement of 

 an art involving the most wholesome and an unexceptionable 

 application of labor, and constituting the great source of subsist 

 ence and comfort, and the basis of national wealth. 



XCIX. THE DRAINAGE OF FARMS. 



1. CLIMATE, AND CONDITION OF THE SOIL. The climate of 

 England, from its high latitude and insular character, is not 

 damp merely, but wet. On the western coast, and far to the 



