436 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



" That the state of agriculture in the northern part of Amer- 

 ica, in our own provinces, and in New England, was generally 

 what the state of agriculture in Scotland was eighty or ninety 

 years ago. 



" What has been their mode of procedure ? 



"The forest was in the first place cut down and burned, 

 after which the ashes were scattered, and a crop of wheat and 

 oats was sown ; when this crop was cut down, another was 

 sown ; but they did not always remove the straw — they do 

 not trouble themselves with any manure. The second year 

 they sowed it again, and harrowed it, and generally took three 

 crops in succession. When they can make no more out of it, 

 they either sow grass seeds, or, as frequently, let it seed itself. 

 They will then sometimes cut hay for twelve, fourteen, sixteen, 

 eighteen or twenty years in succession ; in fact, so long as they 

 can get half a ton an acre from it. The land was then broken 

 up, and a crop of oats taken ; then potatoes, then a crop of 

 wheat, and then hay for twelve years again ; and so the same 

 course was repeated. Now this was the way in which this 

 land was treated ; this was the way in which this exhaustion 

 is brought about. This exhaustion existed in Nova Scotia, 

 New Brunswick, Lower Canada, in Upper Canada to a consid- 

 erable extent, over the whole of New England, and extending 

 even into the state of New York. Well, but what steps 

 were they taking to remedy this state of things ? Were they 

 doing anything to bring back the land to a productive condi- 

 tion? and in order to do this, were they taking steps to put 

 any knowledge into the heads of those who cultivate it ? Now 

 on these points he was happy to say that he could speak very 

 favorably." 



So said Professor Johnston, and it must be admitted that his 

 account is far from flattering. In some respects it is scarcely 

 just, at least in the oldest settlements in New England. But 

 soon after I heard it, I found consolation in meeting with the 

 report of a German, after a visit to England, who represented 

 the farmers of Great Britain as being quite as far behind his 

 own countrymen as we are represented to be behind them. 

 Probably there is some foundation for criticism in both cases. 



