160 RUTA BAGA CULTURE. [PART I. 



men in the worst times of oppression. I would 

 not exchange the friendship of one of these men 

 for that of all the Lords that ever were created, 

 though there are some of them very able and 

 upright men too. 



117. Then, if I may be suffered to digress a 

 little further here, there exists, in England, an 

 institution, which has caused a sort of identity 

 of agriculture with politics. The Board of 

 Agriculture, established by Pitt for the pur 

 pose f sending spies about the country, under 

 the guise of agricultural surveyors, in order to 

 learn the cast of men's politics as well as the 

 taxable capacities of their farms and property ; 

 this Board gives no premium or praise to any but 

 " loyal farmers," who are generally the greatest 

 fools. I, for ray part, have never had any com 

 munication with it. It was always an object of 

 ridicule and contempt with me; but, I know 

 this to be the rule of that body, which is, in fact, 

 only a little twig of the vast tree of corruption, 

 which stunts, and blights, and blasts, all that 

 approaches its poisoned purlieu. This Board 

 has for its Secretary, Mr. ARTHUR YOUNG, a 

 man of great talents, bribed from his good prin 

 ciples by this place of five hundred pounds a 

 year. But Mr. YOUNG, though a most able 

 man, is not always to be trusted. He is a bold 

 asserter ; and very few of his statements proceed 

 upon actual experiments. And, as to what this 



