JOSEPH T. BUCKINGHAM'S ADDRESS. 417 



And, pleased, indulge the cheering hope, 

 That time will bring a plenteous crop; 

 Shrewd Common Sense sits laughing by, 

 And sees his hopes abortive die ; 

 For, when maturing seasons smile, 

 Their sheaves will disappoint his toil ; 

 Advised, this empty pride expel — 

 Till little, and that little well. 

 Of taxing, fencing, toil, no more 

 Your ground requires when rich than poor, 

 And more one fertile acre yields 

 Than the huge breadth of barren fields. 



The late Henry Colman, whose labors in the cause of agri- 

 culture can hardly be estimated too highly, states that " the 

 great and distinguishing difference between British and Ameri- 

 can agriculture consists in the entire freedom of the cultivated 

 fields of England from rocks and stones. Wherever they ex- 

 isted, they have been removed, and there is nothing to impede 

 the progress of the plough. In England, too, on all the im- 

 proved and cultivated lands, there is a neatness and finish, that, 

 at once, strikes the eye with pleasure ; every thing is done, as 

 it were, by line and measure ; the corners and headlands are 

 thoroughly cleared ; the ditches are kept unobstructed ; the 

 crops are drilled in straight lines, and a recently ploughed field 

 resembles a plaited rufiie from the ironing-board of a neat laund- 

 ress." Such exactness, he adds, is exceedingly beautiful ; and 

 though it may appear at first to consume much time, it will be 

 found more economical in the long run, than the slovenly way 

 in which things are often done in many places, which he does 

 not choose to name. 



Another peculiarity of British farming, which it might be 

 well for the American farmer to adopt, is the economy in fenc- 

 ing. There are many farms in England with scarcely a sub- 

 division. Pastures for sheep and cattle must, of course, be sep- 

 arated by fences, of some kind or other, from the cultivated fields 

 and meadows ; but these seem to be all the fences, which are 

 absolutely necessary. " The loss of land (says Mr. Colman) 

 by too many fences, the loss of time in cultivating numerous 

 small fields instead of one or two large ones, on account of the 

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