XIX 



The subject of agricultural improvement is now arresting 

 attention strongly throughout the civilized world. Men on the 

 European continent, so long the arena of bloody conflict and 

 the burial-place of slaughtered millions of the human race, are 

 now delighting in the arts of peace. Those, who hold the 

 destinies of nations in their power, seem more inclined than 

 ever to make some atonement to outraged humanity by mul- 

 tiplying the comforts and improving the condition of the 

 oppressed and injured victims of an insatiate avarice or a 

 guilty ambition. Fields, often reddened with the blood of the 

 slain, now wave with golden harvests : and upon the smoul- 

 dering ruins which marked the dreadful track of war and hate, 

 have risen again the peaceful and happy villages, resounding 

 with the hum of industry and the choral songs of plenty and 

 contentment. Oh ! when will the great and mighty ones of 

 the world love above every thing else the sweetest and noblest 

 pleasure to be found on earth — that, in the presence of which, 

 the pomp and revelry of courts and palaces is an empty bubble, 

 the pleasure of living to do good and to make others happy. 



England is waking up from a protracted sleep, and is noAV 

 prosecuting the subject of agricultural improvement with ex- 

 traordinary enthusiasm, and an array of the finest talents in 

 the kingdom. France has instituted several pattern farms and 

 schools for agricultural instruction, and has adopted a system 

 of obtaining agricultural information and returns from every 

 portion of her territory. Her methods are most exact, and ex- 

 ecuted with extreme punctiliousness. Austria is diligently 

 seeking agricultural information at home and abroad. Den- 

 mark has now been, for two or three years, prosecuting with 

 great care an agricultural survey ; and her reports have already 

 reached eight or more large octavo volumes. One of the most 



