268 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



of land from the feudal shackles of long entail and 

 primogeniture-by-law, as the prime and fundamental 

 rule of Justice to society in the matter of the Soil. 

 The change that we want is but little, but that little 

 underlies and interpenetrates the whole economy of 

 agriculture as a national business ; and renders 

 every acre uncultivated, or half cultivated, through 

 the operation of legal trammels upon the owner, a 

 robbery upon the Laborer, the Capitalist, and ulti- 

 mately on the public purse. It is the first, and the 

 most natural of Savings'-banks to the humble, as 

 well as of Investments to the wealthy capitalist. It 

 is endowed with the most natural and versatile apti- 

 tude to the capabilities of both ; it belongs to the 

 Spade as well as the Plow. It is evident as an 

 instinct to every mind, and needs neither proof nor 

 argument, that the soil is the "primest, eldest," 

 investment of our capital ; to risk our national earn- 

 ings and accumulation in any other channel till this 

 field is first exhausted, is a course that men may 

 indeed be driven to by the operation of foolish laws 

 or customs, but which few, from either will or cir- 

 cumstance, would voluntarily choose. It needed no 

 small ingenuity of folly, no small "method in our 

 madness " to produce that timidity and reluctance 

 of investment in the soil which the disposable capital 



