8 MR. patson's address. 



their wages. Upon large farms, numerous and long lines of fence 

 are to be kept in repair, taxes are to be looked after, work cannot 

 be so economically done, because much of it is at a distance, and a 

 large number of laborers must of necessity be employed, who to use 

 an old adage, if they are not very carefully looked after, will be likely 

 to drink out of the broad end of the tunnel, and hold the little one 

 to their employer. I must not be understood to say that no man can 

 profitable/ manage a large farm here. All rules have their excep- 

 tions. But I do say, that there are very few Bonapartes in agricul- 

 ture, and that the great body of us are fit only to serve in the ranks. 



It is doubtful indeed, if these large farms are the most profitable 

 anywhere ; for in countries where the cost of labor is almost nominal, 

 small farms are said to produce the largest income. Stretching along 

 at the foot of the Alps, those ever memorable mountains, whose lofty 

 summits, white with eternal snows, reach far above the clouds — the 

 birth-place of the glacier and the avalanche — is that province of Italy, 

 which has been often called the garden of Europe. Its inhabitants 

 are farmers, and very few farms contain more than seventy-five acres, 

 yet the best authority asserts that these small farms bring more to 

 market than the large ones, and that there is no country in the world 

 which can dispose of so large a portion of its productions as Pied- 

 mont. True the soil is rich, deep, if you please, alluvial. The cli- 

 mate is moist, and the situation of the land makes it susceptible of 

 being easily submitted to irrigation. After all, the main-spring of 

 this abundant fertility is thorough tillage, which consists only on small 

 farms. 



We have not the same natural advantages, but the deficiency can 

 be partially supplied by hberal manuring. Without this, you may 

 plough the soil and subsoil, eradicate every noxious weed, studiously 

 watch the progress of infant vegetation, and not get half a crop. And 

 not only must we manure liberally, but our manures must be adapted 

 to the different soils and different crops. 



Here, most certainly, there is a wide field for improvement. The 

 Chinese are said to be familiar not only with the relative value and 

 efficacy of manures, but to understand and apply without loss, that 

 which is best fitted to stimulate and support each kind of plant. 

 With us, agi'icultural chemistry has made rapid advances within a 

 few years. Yet in practice, I question very much, whether the an- 

 cients were not better cultivators of the soil than we are. "What 



