Jl Discourse on Agriculture. xxv 



I have mentioned the disadvantages, with which one of the 

 best cultivated countries in Europe has to struggle, neither 

 invidiously, nor vauntingly. My intention is to show, that 

 sound principles and good practice will bear up against all 

 impediments. And I have contrasted our situation with theirs, 

 with no other view, than to animate us, who do not labour un- 

 der similar difficulties and burthens. Nothing is wanted to 

 enable us to profit by the fortunate circumstances in which we 

 are placed, but a general conviction of the magnitude of the sub- 

 ject, and the will to take advantage of them. Although the 

 British government has wisely established a most respectable 

 board of agriculture, the great landholders do not call on Her- 

 cules, without putting their own shoulders to the wheel. Their 

 agricultural improvements have been chiefly accomplished by 

 private exertion. True, we cannot compete with the expen- 

 ses unsparingly incurred,by their nobility, gentry and some of 

 their clergy, who withhold neither money nor pains to attain 

 their objects. But when our people, and those who represent 

 them, are convinced of the necessity of measures for the ad- 

 vancement of our agriculture, the capabilities and enterprise 

 of the American character, will achieve all that could be wish- 

 ed on the subject. 



My observations on the general subject, will not apply to all 

 the branches of it. They chiefly relate to those districts of 

 our country, cultivated by a white population. From all I 

 have heard, or know, of those parts of the United States 

 wherein the labourers are coloured, the sic vos non sobis is 

 strongly marked, and the want of agricultural knowledge 

 (forming our judgment from their practice) either of system 

 or principle is the most conspicuous. Of course, all that has 

 been said of the necessity of falling on some means to spread 

 this kind of information, would be to them most highly bene- 

 ficial. That the proprietors of the soil of those countries, 

 should have left this subject so long in a state of almost total 

 neglect and inattention, has always been to me, not only a 

 source of poignant regret, but of utter astonishment. No 

 landholders of our country exceed, and a great proportion do 



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