12 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



though all the necessaries of life can be produced in 

 abundance, there are comparatively few things' that 

 can be grown and forwarded to a distant market 

 with the expectation of profit ; and it was also seen 

 that, if the productiveness of old lands was not equal 

 to that of new, the profits of cultivation were not, 

 in the aggregate, so much inferior as at the first 

 glance appeared. More than all, examples were not 

 wanting of public-spirited and intelligent farmers, 

 who, by adopting a course of husbandry that had 

 succeeded so well abroad, proved most satisfactorily 

 that worn-out lands could be restored to fertility by 

 skilful cultivation ; that the progress of deterioration, 

 so prevalent in the older states, could be checked ; 

 and that the productiveness and consequent value of 

 eastern lands could be so greatly increased as to 

 render a resort to the virgin soils of the West unne- 

 cessary to those who were already in possession of 

 eastern farms. 



In bringing about this state of things, the names 

 of Livingston, Powel, and Duel have an honourable 

 pre-eminence. Others effectively co-operated ; but it 

 may be said that to these men the high praise is pe- 

 culiarly due, of calling the attention of the public 

 mind to the advantages offered by the New Husband- 

 ry. . Unfettered by habits unfavourable to change, 

 and unaffected by a blind veneration for ancient usa- 

 ges, so pernicious to advances in the cultivation of 

 the soil, these men, and particularly the last named, 

 entered upon the business of agriculture with a de- 

 termination to avail themselves of whatever light 



