MODERN HIGH FARMING. 



CHAPTER I. 



GENERAL INTRODUCTORY REMARKS INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE 



ORIGIN OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE ITS PROGRESS IN 



AMERICA. 



7J GRICULTURE may be truly said to be the foundation stone 



/ i or rock upon which is built every nation's riches, since the 

 oJ productions of nature are the materials of art ; and it is un- 

 deniable that the prosperity of the whole human race has always 

 been dependent upon three powerful physical agents Climate, Soil, 

 and Food. 



The first thing necessary to the cultivation of a community is 

 wealth, as without it there can be no leisure, and without leisure no 

 opportunity for the development of the intellectual faculties and the 

 acquisition of that knowledge upon which the progress of all civili- 

 zation depends. 



As will be shown by a very brief retrospective examination, the 

 rapidity with which capital is accumulated in a new country must 

 vary in accordance with the nature of its climate and the fertility of 

 its soil the latter regulating the returns made to any given amount 

 of labor and care, the former regulating the energy and the conti- 

 nuity of that labor. 



The only portions of the American Continent which could lay 

 any claim to civilization before the appearance of Europeans, were 



