42 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



ed. Agriculture is strictly a science, and should be 

 confjidered as such. The principles that govern and 

 control matter are many of them already understood ; 

 and no one has any pretensions to the title of a 

 thorough farmer who is not able to apply such as 

 are known to his course of practice in the field. 

 Many men express surprise at the well-known fact, 

 that the most skilful and successful farmers we have 

 in the country are men who have been bred to other 

 pursuits, and never had the management of a farm 

 till they purchased one for themselves, and assumed 

 the business of the farmer without any previous ex- 

 perience. We think there is nothing surprising in 

 this result. These men brought to the business of 

 agriculture that fund of knowledge they had already 

 acquired, and which, unfettered by long-established 

 modes and habits, they were at liberty to apply di- 

 rectly to their new pursuit. They had no deep- 

 rooted prejudices in favour of unscientific methods 

 of cultivation to shake off — methods which too many 

 farmers venerate, simply because they were follow- 

 ed by their fathers ; and hence they were prepared 

 to adopt the best courses, and to follow the paths 

 that scientific research has demonstrated must lead 

 to success. 



Another, and, we are inclined to think, more ac- 

 tive cause in retarding the progress of agriculture 

 in this country than any we have mentioned, is to 

 be found in the too great diffusion of agricultural 

 capital and labour ; or, in other words, we cultivate 

 too much land to do it well. The desire of great 

 farms is a striking trait of American farmers. As 

 fast as they acquire capital, they spend it in purchas- 

 ing more land. When there is no longer any ad- 

 joining theirs to be purchased, they go to the wide 

 West, and expend their hundreds or thousands in 

 buying prairie sections, or " corner lots" in some of 

 the future cities promised in that broad region. 

 They may be making money by this process ; they 



