8 



subjugated country was parcelled out among the military 

 chieftains of an invading army, and its inhabitants reduced 

 to a state of vassalage. The policy of these great land- 

 holders, who were to be ths future lords, barons, and no- 

 blemen of the realm, has been to retain their estates in their 

 own families, and rent them to the laboring poor. Hence 

 the distinction of landlord and tenant has become universal. 

 Where the landed property is in the hands of a few, and 

 the great mass of the people poor and dependent, the rich 

 landlord will impose on his tenants rents and exactions to 

 the full extent of their strength. The humble laborer has 

 nothing, and can acquire nothing. He has neither skill, nor 

 leisure, nor means, nor motives, to make any experiments 

 or improvements. A bare subsistence is all he can expect, 

 and this is the goal of his highest ambition. The lords of 

 the soil, instead of planning, directing, and superintending 

 improvements on their estates, are off on excursions of gal- 

 lantry, or at court basking in the sunshine of royalty, or at 

 the banquet revelling in luxury. The extravagance and 

 dissipation of the landlord, and the poverty and depression 

 of the tenants, have caused " the land to mourn." 



I have glanced at the past, that by comparing the present 

 state of agriculture with its low and degraded state in for- 

 mer times, you may perceive how much has already been 

 done under every disadvantage — that a beginning has been 

 made — that many impediments have been removed — that 

 stronger inducements are furnished — and that, like St. Paul, 

 you have only to " thank God and take courage," to per- 

 fect what is wanting. 



The general principles, necessary to be observed by the 

 agriculturist, are few and simple. It is an established law 

 of nature that death sustains hfe. Some species of animals 

 are supported by the death of others, and some by the de- 

 struction of vegetables. Animals, which have been found 

 most useful to man, are wholly of the latter kind. The first 



