HAMPSHIRE SOCIETY. 315 



and there over the county; where now the rank thistle, and 

 coarse swampy grass are nodding in the wind, shall be cleared 

 of the superabundance of vegetable growth — their rich soil 

 turned over by the ploughshare's bright edge, and made to give 

 life to, and nourish large fields of waving maize and flowing 

 grain. Our farmers are beginning to see that these waste por- 

 tions of their lands, from which, heretofore, no profit has been 

 realized, may be made to yield a rich reward for labor spent in 

 their improvement ; and with them to be convinced of the 

 practicality of a thing, is but father of the consequent and 

 corresponding action. 



The proof of this remark may be demonstrated by the evi- 

 dence of one's senses, as he rides leisurely along after his own 

 steady mare, and not behind the fierce iron horse, through the 

 villages and back parts of the large towns in our vicinity. The 

 sturdy ploughman has sworn entire and speedy destruction to 

 all noisome swamps, where pools of stagnant water collect, 

 that load the surrounding air with poisonous vapors ; and, 

 consequently, St. Patrick-like, to the vile snakes and frogs with 

 which they are filled. The benefits of such improvements are 

 not seen in the increase of the farmer's wealth alone, but they 

 are found, too, in the more healthy, physical and moral devel- 

 opment of the community around. For a more explicit state- 

 ment of these benefits, we refer you to the valuable report of 

 Prof. W. C. Fowler, the last year's chairman of the committee 

 on reclaimed meadow lands. We will only remark, that man's 

 highest wealth docs not consist in the number of dollars with 

 which his pocket-book is lined, nor yet in the broad expanse 

 of his paternal acres ; there is a wealth of intellect — a wealth 

 of soul, compared with which the wealth that money can give 

 dwindles into insignificance, and deserves not the name. 



It would be curious and instructive, to trace out the inti- 

 mate connection that exists between the cultivation of the 

 useful, as well as the more ornamental and scientific arts of 

 husbandry, and the greater expansion of the intellect and the 

 heart, that must necessarily be the result of such a direction of 

 one's energies. It was in consequence of such a union, that a 

 Coleman, and a Downing — men who were ever quick to see? 

 and keenly alive to all of beauty Nature and her works show 



