IUDOE BUEL'S ADDRESS. 317 



of the artisan. A new era is dawning upon the vis- 

 ion of the farmer ; new light is illuming his path, and 

 a new interest and new pleasures are urging him on 

 to improvement. He begins to study the laws which 

 Providence has ordained for the government of im- 

 proved culture, and he finds, in their application to 

 his labours, the means of increasing profits and of 

 high intellectual enjoyment. And the more he stud- 

 ies and is guided by these laws, the more does he 

 become satisfied of former errors and his compar- 

 atively limited sphere of usefulness. Science is 

 probably capable of rendering more important ser- 

 vices to husbandry than to any other branch of la- 

 bour, and presents a wider field of useful study to 

 the cultivator of the soil than to any other class of 

 society. 



The deficiency of farming capital, or, rather, the 

 stinginess with which capital is employed in im- 

 proving and maintaining the condition of our lands, 

 is another cause of declension in the profits and 

 character of our agriculture. The farmer is too 

 prone to invest his surplus means in some new bu- 

 siness, or in adding to his acres instead of applying 

 them to increase the profit of his labour and the pro- 

 ducts of his farm. He either works more land than 

 he can work well and profitably, or he diverts to 

 other objects the means which would yield a better 

 return if applied to the improvement of the soil. He 

 is apt to consider twenty or thirty dollars an enor- 

 mous and wasteful outlay upon an acre of land or 

 upon a choice animal ; and yet the interest of this 

 outlay will be ten times paid by the increase of crop 

 or the increase of the animal ; and, in most cases, the 

 principal also will be returned to him in the course 

 of two or three years. Many of the most thriving 

 farmers in Southern New- York, New-Jersey, and 

 Pennsylvania make a quadrennial expenditure of 

 twenty dollars or more to manure an acre ; and it 

 has become a maxim with them, that the more the 



