316 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



authority, that similar cases of the rapid increase in 

 the products and value of farms, consequent upon an 

 improved system of management, are to be found in 

 Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. Although 

 these cases are isolated ones, they nevertheless 

 serve to show the practicability of vastly increasing 

 the value and products of our exhausted lands. 



Among the causes which have essentially con- 

 tributed to the deterioration of our 1 r.vds and the 

 consequent depression of our agriculture, I consider 

 the following as prominent : 



Ignorance of the principles of agriculture ; 



The want of a sufficient outlay in the manage- 

 ment of our farms ; and 



The low estimation in which the employment has 

 been held by all classes, including farmers them- 

 selves 



Agriculture has too generally been considered a 

 business requiring mere physical power, with which 

 the principles of natural science had little or nothing 

 to do. To plough, sow, and gather the crop has 

 been the general routine of farming operations, re- 

 gardless of the poverty which our practice was in- 

 flicting upon the soil and upon our children. Like 

 the reckless heir of wealth, we found ourselves in 

 possession of a treasure; and without inquiring for 

 what purpose it came into our hands, or realizing 

 our obligations to husband and preserve it for oth- 

 ers, we have squandered it lavishly, through our ig- 

 norance or our folly. True, we have been occasion- 

 ally admonished of our error by the schoolmen, 

 who, wrapped in abstract science, and knowing little 

 practically of its application to husbandry, have as 

 often tended to confuse and mystify as to enlighten 

 and instruct. Hence the prejudice which has arisen 

 against book-farming. But science and art are now 

 uniting their labours, and are deriving mutual aid 

 from each other on the farm, as they have for some 

 time been doing in the manufactory and in the shop 



