30 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



a bare subsistence can be procured : and, in conse- 

 quence of this, many methods of farming are there 

 adopted, which could not, at the prices of labour and 

 agricultural products, be otherwise than ruinous here. 

 For instance, weeding wheat and other kinds of grain 

 is a very common practice there ; and multitudes of 

 women and children earn their bread for a consid- 

 erable part of the season in this manner. It is clear 

 that this operation cannot be introduced among our 

 farmers, though its effects in keeping the soil clean, 

 and in increasing the amount of the crop, must be 

 evident. Another consequence, too, of the cheap- 

 ness of labour, is, that many operations are perform- 

 ed by hand, and at a far greater expense of time, 

 which are accomplished by the aid of implements 

 here, and in one fourth of the time. 



But it is to climate that the principal points of dif- 

 ference in the agriculture of the two countries must 

 be traced-; and this is what should be kept most dis- 

 tinctly in view when comparisons between English 

 agriculture and our own are instituted. England, 

 though in the latitude, and most of it north of Que- 

 bec, has a milder climate than our Middle States ; 

 and this fact should not be lost sight of in adapting 

 the agriculture of that country to this. In the Uni- 

 ted States (we speak particularly now of the North- 

 ern and Middle states, as it is these that are more 

 influenced by English agriculture than the South), 

 the summers are much hotter and the winters much 

 ("older than in England : hence some plants that re- 

 qiiire a great degree of heat will succeed better here 

 than there ; while many plants will bear the winters 

 of England in the open air, that perish when exposed 

 without protection to the intense cold of our winter 

 months. A great number of thermometrical obser- 

 vations show that the average temperature of the 

 three months of January, Februarv, and March in 

 England is about 37o, 42°, and 47oj and that of the 

 three months of June, July, and August about 63°, 



