Oration delivered before the Agricultural Society. 7 



of the earth was a ftore-houfc of food for plants, and this quan- 

 tity was greatly increafed by the converfion of wood into allies 

 by clearing. It is not wonderful then, that for fomc years 

 newly-cleared fettlements fliould abound in produce, and 

 require litde more labour than that of ploughing and reaping ; 

 for during this period the provifion is wafting, which for 

 centuries had been accumulating. But the time will come, 

 and indeed in many places now is, when the land, repeatedly 

 wounded by the plough-fliare, and exhaufted of its richnefs, 

 fliall be too weak, of itfelf, to make plants grow with their 

 former luxuriance. This may be called the sera of fy ftematic 

 agriculture, , when man, taking the earth from nature's hand, 

 bare of manure, is fo to manage and difpofe it artificially, that 

 it fhall yield him firft a fubfiftence, and then an overplus to 

 grow wealthy upon. How far art may go in this fpecies of 

 improvement is yet unknown, as the ultitmatum of fertility has 

 never yet been reached. As far as experiments have been 

 made, we find die earth liberally affording its produce, in 

 proportion to the labour and {kill beftowed in its tillage ; and 

 as the ingenuity and invention of man may increafe to an 

 unknown and inconfiderable degree, fo may the improvements 

 • and arrangements of hufbandry keep pace tiierewith, until the 

 mdft fruitful fpot that now exifts, may produce a tenfold 

 quantity, and the land which now fupports an hundred m,en, 

 give equal enjoyment to a thoufand. RecoIlc6l, for inftance, 

 v^hat agriculture has done in two countries, naturally very 

 unfavourable to it, Switzerland and Scotland ,• compare their 



