1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



437 



most instances, the thorn rankles in his besom, 

 and he feels that he has made an immense sacri- 

 fice to his unfortunate attachment to the spot 

 where an unkind destiny has cast his lot. Most 

 probably he yet hopes, at some fuiuic period, to 

 break away, and looks upon the soil and institutions 

 of his liither scarcely as liis own — certainly as 

 not his chiMren's. I invite all such, and all who 

 from the accounts of others may be troubletl with 

 this Icll spirit of emigration, to follow me in the 

 calculation I am about to make, by which 1 hope 

 to convince them that the diHerence is not so great 

 as perhaps they imagine. But first, le' them look 

 around and scan more narrowly the circumstances 

 of those whom they so much envy. 1 do not ask 

 them to look at men who left us with reputations 

 impaired, or broken fortunes. To such men, almost 

 any change is for the better, because it gives new 

 habits, new energies, and above all, new hopes. 

 Their gain is not to be easily estimated —it is 

 moral rather than physical. But look at those 

 who left here "well to do at home," to better their 

 condition. Count their slaves, count their acres, 

 count their children — the noblest portion of their 

 wealth. I do not ask you to count their friends, 

 or to trace the connections which these children 

 may have formed, or to enumerate those sad hours 

 which bear them back to their native land. But 

 ask them how much clear money they have on 

 hand each year, after nil is paid, and then inquire 

 how much property they can purchase with it. If 

 you can per'^eive no great accession to their visi- 

 ble wealth or comfort--, if they number no more 

 slaves, and have no broader lands bought and paid 

 for, what avails any high imaginary value, which 

 in confirmity with the fashion of that country, 

 they may place on what they have? and how 

 much sweeter are the bought and barren luxuries 

 of a foreign land, because purchased with more 

 money ? Let me ask them to do one thing more 

 if it is in their power, to go and inquire of their 

 friends or relatives, if. laying aside all affectation, 

 and speakingin the honest sincerity of their hearts, 

 they do not wish they had never left their native 

 state — nay, if they do not yet indulge the hope, 

 vague perhaps, hut very comforting, of one day 

 returnincr thither. 



GOVERNaiENT AND AGRICULTURE IN MASSA- 

 CHUSETTS. 



[From the July No. of the North American Review.] 



An address at the Annual CattU shows of the Wor- 

 cester and the Hampshire, Hampden and Frank- 

 lin Agricultural Societies, October, 1838. By 

 Henky Colman, Commissioner lor the Asri- 

 cultural Survey of the state. Boston: Otis. 

 Broaders, & Company. Svo. pp. 23. 



Agriculture, the first pursuit of civilized man, 

 has been the last to receive the direct attention 

 and patronage of governments. Commerce, navi- 

 gation, manufiictories, the machanicand fine arts, 

 science and letters, had commanded much respect 

 and reached high degrees of excellence, before the 

 cultivation of the earth, either for the purposes 

 of profit or embellishment, found favor among the 

 affluent and enlightened, or was deemed an object 

 worthy of the careful consideration of statesmen 



and legislators. But, when nations have reached 

 an advanced po.«ition in prosperity and refinement, 

 and other more attractive or lucrative branches of 

 industry have been so extended as to employ a 

 large portion of the population, an itnmensely in- 

 creased amount of products is required to meet the 

 augmented demand of consumption ; and the ne- 

 cessity of rendering the earth more prolific be- 

 comes so a|)parent, that what had been improvi- 

 dently neglected, and was, in fact, the most sub- 

 stantially momentous interest of the country, at 

 last imperiously commands the most grave con- 

 sideration. 



As the commercial and mechanical enterprise 

 and capacity of England began to be rapidly de- 

 veloped after the accession of Elizabeth to the 

 throne, the demand for subsistence became so much 

 greater than the domestic supply, that vast quanti- 

 ties of wheat were annually imported, until, by 

 bounties, and an improved system of tillage, the 

 wheat crops of the island were so much increased, 

 as not only to be sufficient for the supply of all the 

 inhabitants, but to become a staple of exportation. 



Still there was not that general and strong inter- 

 est excited, for advancing the science and art of 

 agriculture, which has been so conspicuously 

 evinced within the last fifty years, before the great 

 land proprietors actively cooperated for collecting 

 and diffusing intelligence throughout every portion 

 of the kingdom ; for, although there had been 

 several eminent writers on rural economy, from 

 Fitzherbert, in 1534, down to the practical and 

 admirable Tull, in 1730, whose successful experi- 

 ments and valuable treatise form an era in the 

 history of British tillage, very few of the actual cul- 

 tivators of the soil bestowed any attention on the 

 literature of their profession, till Marshall, Young, 

 Anderson, Bakevvell, and Sinclair, became distin- 

 guished, by their numerous, interesting, and inval- 

 uable publications. 



But the greatest, and perpetually operating im- 

 pulse was given by the establishment of a Board 

 of Agriculture in 1793. when Surveys of all the 

 counties in England, were immediately undertaken, 

 in conformity to a method which had been sug- 

 gested by jVlarshall, several years before, to the 

 Society of Arts in London. The reports of the 

 several commissioners being very voluminous, as 

 they contained exact details relating to practical 

 operations in every department of rural economy, 

 digests were made to render them more available, 

 by the indefaiisrable projector and collaborator in 

 the execution of this enlarged and efficient plan for 

 advancing the important interests of the whole 

 country. But even in that reduced form, with the 

 other materials which he had individually collected 

 during a period of nearly twenty years, which had 

 been devoted to the subject, lor compiling "A 

 Compendious System ofEnglish Agriculture," the 

 work consists of fourteen volumes. 



The expenditures of Great Britain having 

 ••;ipidly and immensely increased from the com- 

 unmcement and during the progress of the war 

 which followed the French revolution, and nearly 

 half of the whole revenue being derived from 

 direct taxes and the excise, it became of still greater 

 consequence to the land-owners and their tenants, 

 from whom that vast amount of income was chiefly 

 received, to render each acre more productive, by 

 the introduction of every possible improvement in 

 the science and art of cultivation, which genius 



