1S46.] European Agriculture. 237 



rent which some farmers pay exceeds thirty-five thousand dollars. 

 These undoubtedly are strong cases but even admitted, we are 

 satisfied that the wealth of England is immense. 



General appearance of the country. — We are always anxious 

 to know how a country looks. Upon this subject Mr. C. contrasts 

 our new country with old England, whose lands have been under 

 cultivation and produced sustenance for man since the time of Julius 

 Caesar and long before. The American traveler who expects then 

 to see girdled trees, charred stumps, smoking brush heaps, or new 

 black lands, in the first stage of taming and subjugation, will be 

 disappointed. It is true there are moors and fens, and heaths, 

 but upon the latter a man may cast his eye and perhaps survey at 

 a glance thousands of acres without a standing tree or a fence to 

 intercept the range of vision, yet the general aspect of the coun- 

 try is smooth, closely shorn and shaven. Smooth carpeted lawns, 

 with perhaps clumps of trees, wuth castles and turrets in the dis- 

 tance, is the kind of scenery which costrasts so strongly with 

 ours. Cultivation there is clean, like a man washed, shaved and 

 dressed for the Sabbath. A fact, however, which Mr. Coleman 

 states, and what we should by no means expect in a country so 

 rich, and yet so full of laborers, is that in England and Scotland 

 there are full 10,000,000 of acres. in heath or moor, and all sus- 

 ceptible of being brought into productive cultivation. This high 

 cultivation, however, which is generally observed, this excessive 

 neatness of the fields, this exact and measured culture is not only 

 beautiful, but, in the long run, Mr. C. considers more economi- 

 cal than American slovenliness. Does it take more time to lay 

 over the turf evenly and smoothly like the plaits in a shirt ruffle, 

 than to hackle it with interrupted short furrows, here gouging 

 out a hole and there letting the plow slide upon the top? Certainly 

 not. Mr. Coleman is right, and his hint to his countrymen ought 

 not to be lost. But alas, we learn after all that there are some 

 Americans in England, there are stone heaps which have lain for 

 half a centur)', and unsightly rubbish to boot, on farms, which it 

 would seem must have been in the hands of some easy quiet 

 Jonathan rather than under the thorough management of an Eng- 

 lish farmer. 



