MEANS OF IMPROVING OUR HUSBANDRY. 67 



commodities which we consume in the North T Or 

 shall we, animated by the enterprise and love of in- 

 dependence which were, wont to animate our fathers, 

 take it resolutely in hand to provide abundantly for 

 ourselves, by encouraging and enlightening agricul- 

 ture, elevating its character, and stimulating it to 

 new efforts by suitable honours and rewards ? 



As regards the means of improvement, much has 

 been done and much is doing by the agricultural 

 periodicals of the day. The first of these was estab- 

 lished at Baltimore, by John S. Skinner, in 1819 ; 

 and we can now enumerate nearly twenty that are 

 diffusing light, awakening enterprise, and inciting to 

 industry in every section of our country. Probably 

 one hundred thousand farmers are now deriving in- 

 struction and improving their practice from the pe- 

 rusal of these journals ; and it is not extravagant to 

 say, that the benefits they are dispensing to the na- 

 tion are equivalent to millions of dollars every year. 

 But what is one hundred thousand compared to the 

 gross agricultural population of the union I and how 

 much greater would be their benefits if these jour- 

 nals had access to every farmhouse, or even to every 

 schoolhouse, in the state ! Besides giving much 

 that is useful in the science, or the first principles 

 of husbandry, they are continually advising their 

 readers of every improvement which is being made 

 in the practical operations of the farm ; of new seeds 

 and plants^ and the mode of cultivating them, and of 

 every improvement in labour-saving machines. 



By concentrating, as it were in a focus, the prac- 

 tical knowledge of the country, and then scattering 

 it, like the solar rays, into every corner of the land, 

 to fructify the earth, thus rendering it subservient to 

 the benefit of all, some individuals have been enabled 

 no obtain a clear profit of fifty, one hundred, and even 

 one hundred and fifty dollars on an acre, who had 

 never obtained a profit of thirty dollars before. And 

 the benefits of these splendid results are not confined 



