16 IMPROVEMENT OF OUR AGRICULTURE 



measure, upon the returns which the soil makes to agri- 

 cultural labor. It therefore becomes the interest of 

 every class, to cherish, to encourage, to enlighten, to 

 honor, and to reward those who engage in agricultural 

 pursuits. Our independence was won by our yeomanry, 

 and it can only be preserved by them. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE IMPROVEMENT OF OUR AGRICULTURE PRACTICABLE AND 

 NECESSARY. 



To render agriculture more productive, and beneficial 

 to all, it is necessary that its principles should be better 

 understood, and that we should profit more from the ex- 

 perience of each other, and by the example of other coun- 

 tries which excel us in this great business. It is true of 

 the manufacturing and mechanic arts, that our citizens do 

 profit greatly by the improvements which have been made, 

 and are continually making, in these arts, whether in 

 Europe or in America. If an improvement, tending to 

 economize labor, to simplify manipulation, or to produce 

 certainty in results, is this year made in any part of Eu- 

 rope or xAmerica, in these arts, it is known, — it is adopted, 

 and it profits the artisans and the manufacturers of our 

 country, in the coming year. Thus the improvements of 

 the civilized world, in the manufacturing and mechanic 

 arts, are made subservient to our use in the short space 

 of a twelvemonth. Is it so with agriculture ? We are 

 sorry to say it is not. Mr. Coke, one of the most en- 

 lightened agriculturists of this or any other age, who has 

 been the means of converting a large sandy, and compara- 

 tively barren district, into one of great productiveness and 

 wealth, has said, that his agricultural improvements, and 

 they have been manifestly great, have hardly extended 

 around him more than at the rate of three miles a year, — 

 such have been the prejudices, and such the ignorance 

 of the agricultural population. It is from these causes — 



