262 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



intelligence of the farming population in Great Britain is con- 

 cerned with its system of husbandry. No ; this depends, com- 

 paratively speaking, upon the character of a few individuals, — 

 upon the landlords, and the principal land-agents. And in re- 

 lation to these, nothing is more freely conceded in that country, 

 than that the improvements have been confined to such, among 

 them, as have appreciated science, and worked in conformity 

 with its fundamental principles. 



Still, all may not be convinced that we, of New England, need 

 any considerable modification in our agriculture. " What," 

 say they, " are we not making, on the whole, very satisfactory 

 crops? Are we not prospering beyond any other people on the 

 face of the globe? Then let us adhere to the prudent maxim, 

 of letting well-enough alone." Yes; this might do, if the well- 

 enough of others would only let us alone. If these contented 

 persons could stop the advancing ideas of their children, in re- 

 spect to a higher enjoyment of the comforts of life and a more 

 expensive education, — if they could keep taxes down and the 

 produce of western lands out, — they might get along, for half a 

 century longer, with the present average crops of 25 bushels 

 Indian corn to the acre, of 12 of rye, 15 of oats, a couple of cart- 

 loads of potatoes, a ton of English hay, with the customary live 

 stock, the old orchard, and the meagre garden-patch. This 

 fashion of cultivation might answer, I say, if the world of enter- 

 prise elsewhere would wait upon them, or, still better, if it would 

 have the goodness to retrograde. But since it consents to do 

 neither, but, on the contrary, is steadily advancing, there re- 

 mains no alternative for such persons, but either to participate 

 in the movement, or else to see their sons quitting their homes 

 for the West, or the ocean, their daughters entering the cotton- 

 mills, and their farms sliding from under them into more enter- 

 prising hands. 



But, happily, the speedy remedy to any threatened stagnation 

 or decline in New England farming, is in the hands of her peo- 

 ple. The example of individuals among us, who are already 

 beginning to reap a rich reward for the increased assiduity with 

 which they are applying themselves to the improvements of the 

 day, is fraught with the highest encouragement. Let land-own- 



