No. 1. 



Improvident Society. 



15 



them over the land, instead of urging men 

 to labour and waste their strength by toil ? 

 With these few general remarks I will 

 now proceed to the subject more particularly 

 before iis. You have all, probably, been 

 pestered as I have been, with instructions 

 from ignorant people as to how our land 

 should be managed. You have probably had 

 the Cultivator, the American Farmer, or the 

 more distant Farmers' Cabinet, recommend- 

 ed to you by some of those envious and jeal- 

 ous persons, who saw how quietly you took 

 life, and how little you troubled yourselves 

 with its concerns or your own ; and who 

 hated you for your content, and for being 

 master of your own time, and understanding 

 how to make use of it. These persons for 

 reasons best known to themselves, no doubt 

 selfish ones, recommend you to take these 

 periodicals. What is there in them of any 

 value to you ■? You have placed before you 

 examples of what they call industry, — that 

 is, of men who make themselves miserable 

 with anxiety and toil; of men who strive to 

 get a few more dollars than nature intended 

 they should, by what they call improving 

 their land, and raising a little more wheat, 

 or corn, or potatoes. We stand on an emi- 

 nence so lofty, as to look down on these 

 struggles to gain a few cents. Our aim is 

 ease, quiet — to do nothing, and to let things 

 take care of themselves. Ignorance to us 

 is bliss, then why should we interest our- 

 selves in matters that disturb us, that oblige 

 us to be active and anxious; and which might 

 very probably put on us the cares of wealth. 

 Why should we allow ourselves to be con- 

 trolled by those sordid feelmgs that put in 

 motion and govern so many people ] No, 

 let there be some high minded and generous 

 enough to look with contempt on what weak 

 and foolish people call industry. How did 

 Adam improve his land, or Noah, or Methu- 

 selah, or any of the ancient Christians or 

 pagan philosophers'! Farmers' Cabinet's, 

 Cultivator's, and other expensive publica- 

 tions did not exist in those days. Men were 

 not told to their face, by impertinent and in- 

 trusive neighbours, that their farms were 

 going down, when they were only left to 

 the kind and paternal care of nature. In 

 those days they trusted more in Heaven 

 than they do now. If they wanted water, 

 they struck a rock; if they wanted some- 

 thing to eat, manna and locusts were found 

 for them ; and if they wanted clothes, they 

 made sufficiently good ones from leaves of 

 trees and skins of animals. Were they 

 what we now call industrious? far from it ; and 

 there is no doubt we should be treated as they 

 were, if we did not make our land unfit to 

 bear manna or locusts, by constant manuring, 



and by other devices that designing men have 

 put upon us. And we surely have trees 

 enough to supply us with leaves, and dogs 

 and cats enough for other garments. Even 

 the hogs in the streets of our large towns, 

 with whose skins they now cover trunks 

 and saddles, would make strong and durable 

 pantaloons. Nature then has provided us 

 with everything; it is only our own per- 

 verseness that causes us to misuse and mis- 

 apply our advantages. 



But in this improving our land, do not we 

 destroy many beautiful plants — is not the 

 fragrant toad flax far handsomer than a po- 

 tatoe — the daisy than a cabbage — and mul- 

 lens and garlic, than onions or beans? No 

 one will pretend to make a comparison ; yet 

 all these gladdening as they do, the eye of 

 the lover of nature, we must eradicate, un- 

 der this system of improvement, and turn 

 our fields to mere grass or grain. In the 

 neighbourhood of that pretty city, Philadel- 

 phia, there are many who act up to our 

 ideas, and no doubt reap the full advantage 

 of them. You may see there large fields 

 set out with the daisy, and most tastefully 

 interspersed with clover and grass, so as to 

 give a pleasing appearance to the fields, far 

 superior, in fact, to any grain, or to that 

 coarse and vulgar plant, the potatoe. Then 

 the labour and expense of this improving is 

 very great; and if we were willing to go 

 through the labour, which I am thankful we 

 are not, where should most of us find the 

 money? or if we had this, which, thanks to 

 our own exertions, we have not, who would 

 do the work? Those who advocate this 

 wild and ridiculous system, insult you by 

 tellmg you that you must take care of your 

 manure, and make as much as you can. 

 And then our system of managing our cat- 

 tle, differs from that of those who indulge 

 themselves in what is called improving their 

 land. We do not confine our cattle to dirty 

 barn-yards, to trudge all winter through wet 

 dung, up to their knees, and nibbling a little 

 dirty straw; but we let them roam about, 

 and eat the rich, nutritious, dead grass, that 

 lies cither on the public road, or near our 

 own fences. This certainly is a very supe- 

 rior system to that of enclosing the cattle. 

 In some of these agricultural periodicals 

 against which I have warned you, you will 

 find — I understand from others, for of course " 

 I never see them — recommendations as to 

 the preserving what they call the juices or 

 liquors of the manures, as if they were 

 speaking of cider or whiskey. They mean, 

 by this, you will be astonished to learn, the 

 having pits or reservoirs for it to run to, 

 whence it is taken ofl^in carts and sprinkled 

 over the grass or some other crop. This 



