IMPROVEMENTS IN NEW YORK STATE. 279 



slave-holders, we ought to exercise Christian forbearance, 

 too, for they have a very difficult part to play. They 

 are sore pressed with the difficulties of their position, 

 and he would be wiser almost than man who could at 

 present show them a reasonable and safe mode of escape 

 from them. How fortunate for us that the vast terri 

 tory they occupy forms now no part of the British 

 dominions ! 



I have mentioned how much, according to the personal 

 experience of Dr Beekman, the agriculture of the banks 

 of the Hudson has improved since the final abolition of 

 slavery in the State of New York. Other agencies 

 are now at work to carry it still farther in advance. 

 The agricultural practice of North America generally 

 has been, and is still, of an exhausting kind. On this 

 point I have already dilated in a previous chapter. 

 Every year, however, takes into this State, and plants 

 upon its more capable land, some of what, for distinction s 

 sake, we may call the second best class of Scottish and 

 English farmers. These men where they settle find 

 much still undone, which they know well how to do. 

 Every year, also, is pouring upon the land some of the 

 wealth accumulated by commercial pursuits in this great 

 trading community. The same propensity to own and 

 cultivate a bit of land when he has retired from business 

 actuates the merchant in New York as in England, and, 

 as with us, the energy and regular habits of his former 

 life are brought by him to the farm he comes to till. From 

 these and other causes, zealous improvers have sprung 

 up in different parts of the State ; fathers have begun 

 to ask where their sons could learn better methods than 

 their own ; and, in Seneca and other counties, there are 

 already, as in our better Scottish and English counties, 

 some of the more skilful farmers who receive pupils into 

 their families for practical instruction in the art of culture. 



We have seen how large a proportion of the House 



