BASIS OF PROSPERITY. 49 



uct in our national census of 1840, the yield of the entire 

 country was but 10,250,000 tons, and it had increased in 1850 

 to only 13,838,642 tons. But iii 1860 we cut and cured over 

 19,000,000 tons, while in 1870 the product was stated at 

 27,316,048 tons, an increase of more than 100 per cent, in 

 twenty years. The money-value of this crop cannot, there- 

 fore, be less than $300,000,000, to which is to be added at 

 least an equal amount for the value of grass for summer 

 pasturage, making an aggregate of over $600,000,000 for the 

 grass and hay crop of the country. 



That the quality, and consequently the value, of the hay 

 made now has vastly improved over that made a half-century 

 ago, no one at all ftimiliar with the subject can entertain a 

 reasonable doubt. A great amount of thought and experi- 

 ment has been directed to the best methods of production and 

 of curing, while machinery has given us a greater control 

 over the seasons, or rather has enabled us to avoid the ex- 

 posure to the exigencies of the weather, to a vastly greater 

 extent than was possible within the memory of men still 

 living. 



IMPROVEMENT OF STOCK. 



Let us see now what effect this progress has had upon the 

 number and quality of our cattle. There can be no doubt 

 that the idea of the possibility of improving the common 

 stock of the United States was first suggested by the great 

 results obtained by the early improvers of stock in England. 

 The present advanced position of the stock interest of this 

 country can be traced directly to the practical labors of Bake- 

 well, the Messrs. Cully, Colling, Bates and others, just as 

 the first impetus which these distinguished breeders received 

 can be traced to the efforts of such men as Lord Kames, "to 

 improve agriculture by subjecting it to the test of rational 

 principles," and Jethro Tull (1740), the inventor of the 

 horse-hoe, the drill-husbandry, and many other bold and ad- 

 vanced notions. Tull launched out bravely into the field of 

 experimental agriculture, and boldly threw open the door of 

 improvement never again to be closed, and this new-boru 

 spirit of progress very soon appeared to spread ; for it was 

 only about ten years after him, or about 1750, when Bake- 

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