INTRODUCTOa-Sr ESSATTS- 



REMARKS ON THE GENERAL CONDITION OF AGRICULTURE 

 IN THE UNITED STATES. 



The cultivators of the soil in the United States, may be di- 

 vided into four classes: the great farmer, as he is usually cal- 

 led, who improves from two hundred to one thousand acres of 

 land; the common farmer, who cultivates from fifty to one 

 hundred and fifty or two hundred acres ; the third class is 

 made up of professional men, mechanics and traders, or specula- 

 tors, who live in the country, and do not make the business of 

 agriculture their principal object, but calculate to derive from 

 it some profits which may contribute to their living ; and the 

 fourth, of those who cultivate a garden only. Among all 

 these, but few are willing to be confined exclusively to the em- 

 ployment of cultivating the soil ; but would pursue some specu- 

 lative object by which they may gain something without earn- 

 ing it. The science of agriculture can never be expected to 

 arrive to its most perfect state, unless individuals will make it 

 an exclusive object of pursuit. In the United States, where ev- 

 ery man is at liberty to pursue any and every sort of business, 

 by which he would improve his condition, any legislative regu- 

 lation which would controul this liberty, would be considered 

 an infringement of our natural rights, and could not be enforced. 

 The wisdom of individuals, aided by the influence of public o- 

 pinion, may coincide, so as to make some of our citikens exclu- 

 sively agriculturalists. The great farmer, to increase his 

 wealth, too often calculates more on the number of acres which 

 he may possess, than on his efforts to increase their productive 

 powers ; and would sooner engage in any speculation, by which 

 he might increase the dimensions of his farm, than bestow his 

 labor in useful improvements on the land he already possesses, 

 and which might increase the quantity of those productions, 

 without which the soil is of no value. We offen see afaroaer 

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