NEW HUSBANDRY. 11 



difference, however, in the state and condition of the 

 two' countries, that produced important modifications 

 in the action of these changes. There the popula- 

 tion was great, and the quantity of land limited ; and 

 the necessities of that population enforced the adop- 

 tion of the New Husbandry by the strongest of mo- 

 tives, the avoidance of starvation. Here land was 

 abundant ; and no serious evils, so far as regarded a 

 supply of bread, could arise ; the difficulty to be 

 guarded against was only the deterioration of soil 

 to which the action of the Old Husbandry subject- 

 ed lands. Of course, little attention, on the whole, 

 was paid to the matter by the great body of Ameri- 

 can farmers ; and although it was well understood 

 that the lands in the older settled parts of the coun- 

 try had lost much of their productiveness, and that 

 the new system would remedy this alarming and in- 

 creasing evil, still the mass persisted in their ancient 

 habits, depending on migration to new lands hi the 

 West when those of the East should cease to reward 

 the labours of cultivation. 



That such a feeling was erroneous could be doubt- 

 ed by no reflecting mind ; and, fortunately for the 

 country, various causes combined to show the im- 

 policy of such a course. Nature herself, in such an 

 extended country as ours, has interposed checks to 

 the general prevalence of such impressions. The 

 evils and privations necessarily consequent on a re- 

 moval 'from an improved district to an unimproved 

 one are not without their influence ; experience has 

 also shown, that at great distances in the interior, al- 



