MODERN HIGH FARMING. 7 



two essential elements its equatorial situation giving it heat, and 

 the shape of its land humidity; and it was also the only portion 

 which arose out of barbarism. 



Without going so far back into the history of this country for ex- 

 amples in favor of our argument, we need only have turned to the 

 sandy plains of California, where, until they were quite recently sub 

 jected to irrigation by the ingenuity, enterprise and enormous capi- 

 tal of a civilized community, nothing met the traveler's mournful 

 gaze but the contemplation of a sterile desert; but where are now 

 displayed all that marvelous exuberance of soil that has never failed 

 to characterize a virgin country when the natural physical elements 

 have not been wanting. 



It would be useless in such a work as this to attempt to trace the 

 progress of agriculture back to the wandering husbandmen who 

 roamed from place to place with their immense' flocks until, by the 

 eventual adoption of a fixed abode and the expenditure of time and 

 labor, a certain price or value was accorded to their land ; and we 

 must therefore content ourselves with the broad statement that un- 

 til long after the commencement of the present century the agri- 

 cultural arts, as practiced by the most advanced of the European 

 communities, differed but in trifling details from those exercised by 

 the ancient Romans and described in Columella's great work ' ' De 

 Re Rustica" 



Alarmed by the falling off of crops and general signs of the ex- 

 haustion of their soils, the European scientists have been moved to 

 bring to bear upon the question the acquired knowledge of the 

 geologist, botanist and chemist, and to such men as Liebig, Lawes, 

 Gilbert, Dumas, Boussingault, Barral, Malagati, Payen and George 

 Ville we are now indebted for a progress which has enabled us to 

 become almost independent of natural causes, and for a literature of 

 applied and applicable truths second to none in value and importance 

 throughout the whole range of scientific investigation. 



That a goodly number of intelligent American agriculturists 

 have awakened to all this, and have long been following in the foot- 

 steps of their European brethren, is proved by the extension of 



