HISTORICAL NOTICES OF AGRICULTURE. 19 



fashioned by those of the fatherland. This is easi- 

 ly observable in our literature and our laws, and not 

 less strikingly so in our agriculture. With some 

 few modifications, then, such as may be traced to 

 climate, or the different social conditions of the two 

 countries, the agriculture of the United States may 

 be said to resemble that of England very closely. 

 The circumstances in which the American farmer 

 finds himself placed, has forced him to adopt meth- 

 ods of farming at variance with those of older and 

 more densely-peopled countries, and often at vari- 

 ance with the opinions of those most deeply skilled 

 in the theory of agriculture. In Great Britain and 

 other European countries, land is dear and labour is 

 cheap ; as a matter of course, the farmer of the old 

 country is led, by a regard to his own interest, to 

 make the most of his land, while in this country 

 there is the same inducement to make the most of 

 what labour can be commanded. This leads to an 

 extension of farms and of cultivation, which forms 

 a striking contrast to the lim.ited farms and high 

 culture of the English or Flemish farmer; and 

 though, by being carried too far, it forms an evil of 

 no trifling magnitude, it is one which must gradual- 

 ly correct itself as population becomes more dense, 

 the West generally settled, and the temptations to 

 emigration from that source lessened by the action 

 of these causes. 



The geographical and meteorological condition of 

 the United States, as compared with that of Great 

 Britain, has not been without a decided influence in 

 modifying the character of our agriculture. Tliia 

 country embraces, owing to its geographical posi- 

 tion, a range of climate and production greater than 

 the whole of Europe. While we can grow to any 

 imaginable extent the cereal graminae of the North, 

 our southern limits stretch into the tropical climate 

 so far as to give us the two great productions of 

 cotton and sugar, articles beyond the range of Eu- 



