214 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



unless it is moistened by the rain or the dew. Here we toil, un- 

 til the approaching frost compels us to gather in the scanty har- 

 vest. We are obliged to sell the best of our products, to meet 

 our expenses. Our horses and working cattle eat up the better 

 portion of what is left, while our half-starved cows, and other 

 stock, get the poor remainder — always thankful if perchance a 

 lock of decent fodder comes within their reach. The conse- 

 quence is, our new milch-cows, with scarcely flesh enough to 

 prevent the skin from adhering to the bone, are worth but little 

 more in the spring than they were in the autumn. Our manure 

 heaps are no larger than they were the previous year. We can 

 neither cultivate more land nor to better advantage. The result 

 of all our labor is, that, by going the same round from year to 

 year, we can barely get enough to keep soul and body together, 

 and never find time to advance one step in the path of improve- 

 ment. We are content to imitate the example of the elder Laird 

 of Dumbiedikes, whose dying charge to his son you will all rec- 

 ollect, — "Jock, when ye hae naethingelse to do, ye may be aye 

 sticking in a tree; it will be growing, Jock, when ye're sleeping. 

 My father tauld me sae, forty years sin,' but I ne'er fand time 

 to mind him." 



The Influence of Science and Capital, Railroads and Manu- 

 factures, on Agriculture. 



[Extracts from an Address by E. H. Derby, Esq., at the last Fair of the Mid- 

 dlesex Society of Husbandmen and Manufacturers.] 



In estimating the importance of science and capital to agri- 

 culture, we learn, from the lessons of experience, that a fertile soil 

 alone does not carry agriculture to perfection. Should we seek 

 the spots where agriculture gives the largest and most remuner- 

 ative returns for a given space, we should find them, not on the 

 fertile banks of the Nile or Ganges, the rich plains and valleys 

 of Sicily, or the prairies of the West, where a virgin soil and 

 low prices attract so many youthful cultivators. You must look 



