204 AGRICULTURE. 



draw from the gentle slopes and softened vales which we 

 occupy so unprofitably, and restore them to our predeces- 

 sors, the elk and buffalo, the wild boar and stately stag, 

 who at least did not weary heaven and earth with their com- 

 plaints. We are not unreasonable. We admit any farm- 

 ing, which pays the rate of profit due, on a comparison 

 with other trades, to its pleasantness, to its salubrity, and 

 to the even tenor of its way, without deteriorating the 

 freehold, to be positively good. If it pays a higher t rate, 

 or if it improves a freehold, it is comparatively better. 

 If it does both, it is good in the superlative degree. When 

 we speak on behalf of the agricultural interest, we can 

 enter into no compromise with farming which does not pay. 

 Without claiming to be eloquent, we think that we could 

 get up a fine sentence, and assure the farmer that it is his 

 high destiny to provide sustenance for the race whose 

 ancestor God formed in his own image ; and that when he 

 makes two ears of wheat grow where one grew before, he 

 may glory in being the benefactor of mankind. But we 

 are afraid that the self-importance which we might conjure 

 up would fade away before a distress for rent and taxes, 

 and that the sight of two stacks of wheat where only one 

 stood before, would fail to cheer the heart of the bold 

 peasant "his country's pride," or to dry the eyes of the 

 mother of his children, when they had once been placed 

 in the schedule of the bailiff. No ! The object of farm- 

 ing is gain. Whether an agriculturist grows bread to 

 strengthen man, wine to gladden his heart, oil to make 

 him of a cheerful countenance, or opium to poison him ; 

 whether his barley be made into wholesome ale or delete- 

 rious gin, he has but one concern does the cultivation 

 pay ? The landlord manufactures and brings to market 

 corn and beef; the cotton-lord muslin and calico. Inci- 

 dentally, the one class of products feeds mankind, and the 

 other clothes them. But the price, not the application, 

 concerns the producer. That is the commercial principle ; 

 and the closer either party sticks to it the more probable 



