IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL. 53 



CHAPTER VI. 



IMPROVEMENT OP THE SOIL. PRELIMINARY OPERATIONS. 



If we put into the hands of the manufacturer a sack 

 of wool, a bale of cotton, or a bundle of flax, it is always 

 understood, that these materials, eminently calculated as 

 they are to administer to our wants and our comforts, 

 must necessarily be wrought by the manufacturer into 

 fabrics, and thence be transferred to the tailor, to be 

 converted into wearing apparel, before they can be use- 

 ful for the great purposes for which they are so admira- 

 bly fitted — to protect and embellish the human form. 

 When we pass our meats and our vegetables into the hands 

 of our wives, daughters, or domestics in the kitchen, it 

 is well understood by every one, that before they are fit- 

 ted for the primary purposes of life — for our nourishment 

 and the gratification of the palate — they must undergo 

 the culinary processes of cooking. And when we are 

 presented with a goodly soil, prolific in all the substantial 

 blessings of fife — the primary source of our food and 

 clothing — we are admonished by every thing around us, 

 that if we would enjoy these blessings, in all their purity 

 and richness, we must, like the manufacturer, the tailor, 

 and the cook, exert those powers and faculties which God 

 has given us for this purpose, in rendering this soil what 

 it was designed to be, a fountain of temporal blessings. 

 The manufacturer, the tailor, and the cook may abuse 

 their trusts, and, from ignorance or indolence, spoil or 

 waste what it is their interest and their duty to improve ; 

 and the husbandman may, by a reckless course, pervert 

 the high trust confided to his care, in the management of 

 the soil. They have each their assigned duties. The 

 means of usefulness are before them. They are endowed 

 with capacities for manufacturing the cloth, making up 

 the garment, cooking the food, and rendering and keeping 

 the soil fertile ; — and their reward, certainly in temporal 

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