38 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



in the several sectioiiS of our country would be leiss •. 

 but still it is considerable. 



That these average productions might be greatly 

 increased, does not admit of a question ; that the in- 

 terests of agriculture demand that such should be 

 the, case, is equally clear. By attention to the se- 

 lection of seed and the preparation of the soil, an 

 addition of ten per cent, to these averages might be 

 easily made ; experience shows that such is the 

 fact ; and a multitude of individual instances might 

 be adduced to prove that this has already been done 

 by skilful and intelligent farmers. 



The causes which, in our opinion, have tended 

 more tlian any others to depress agriculture, and 

 prevent its receiving the attention it demands, as 

 well as to reduce the profits which should reward 

 the labourer, are the following. First, a want of 

 respect in the agricultural interest for their own 

 profession. There is a feeling in certain portions 

 of the community (principally among those who 

 have done nothing to increase tlie productive capital 

 of the country themselves, and who may be termed 

 the drones of the social compact), that personal la- 

 bour is disgraceful, and that the cultivator of the 

 soil is little better than a slave. Strange as it may 

 seem, this feeling may be said to be promoted and 

 perpetuated by the conduct of farmers themselves. 

 There are too many men among us — men who have 

 good farms, and who might employ their sons upon 

 them, with the certainty that honourable compe- 

 tence would be the result — who prefer to see them 

 exposed to the fluctuations and uncertainties of mer- 

 cantile life, or involved in the temptations and per- 

 plexities of professional life, rather than honest, 

 high-minded, intelligent cultivators of the soil. For 

 this evil, and it is a serious one, the remedy ia with 

 the farmer. His sons should be well educated; hut 

 they should be taught to feel, what in fact is the 

 case, that in the actual dignity and usefulness of 



