62 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



glory of the nations we have namrrl. Great Britain 

 now wields the trident, and the world is made tribu- 

 tary to her workshops. Hut, great as she is in 

 commerce and in manufactures, these are consider- 

 ed secondary and auxiliary to her agricultural great- 

 ness. Land is the basis of her national wealth ; it 

 is the surplus marketable produce of her soil, says 

 Sir John Sinclair, that is the source of all her polit- 

 ical power, and of the personal enjoyment of her 

 citizens ; and there is no source of domestic indus- 

 try or of foreign commerce, he adds, that can in 

 any respect be put in competition with the improved 

 cultivation of her soil. The agriculture of Great 

 Britain employs but two thirds of her population ; 

 and yet the surplus products of her soil suffice to 

 feed and support the other third, and to assist in 

 supplying our deficiencies.* Our population is at 

 least five sixths agricultural, yet during the lust two 

 years we have had to import about ten millions 

 worth of breadstuff's to supply our deficiency in this 

 first element of life ; and even in the most favoura- 

 ble seasons, the exports of the surplus products of 

 our northern soil have been merely nominal. 



We will state one fact, derived from official docu- 

 ments, which will demonstrate, beyond the power of 

 refutation, our downward course in this great branch 

 of national industry. It is this: the average in- 

 crease of breadstuff's, passing from our canals to 

 tide waters, from the great grain district of the West 

 (the Flanders of America), has amounted to three 



* The reader must not infer from this that Great Britain has 

 ordinarily a surplus of agricultural produce beyond her own 

 wants. In favourable seasons she produces about enough to 

 feed her population ; but is obliged to import breads) u Ms. some- 

 times to a large amount, when there is a partial failure of crops. 

 That Great Britain, with her limited territory and dense popu- 

 lation, should occasionally have to do this, must be expected ; 

 but the circumstances of our own country are so entirely dif- 

 ferent, that it must be owing mainly to bad husbandry that we 

 tuould ever be subject to such necessity. 



