596 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



which our position as a neAv country is widely different from 

 the old regions of Europe, where the land has turned off a 

 thousand crops, and has thus become exhausted to an almost 

 uniform degree, that is, so far as the richer and minute ingre- 

 dients are concerned. In England or Belgium, for example, 

 the cultivated lands have been by a long series of cultivations 

 and rotations brought to a standard, which is perfectly w^ell 

 understood and recognized. Long leases are entered upon 

 with agreements for several series of rotations, with specifica- 

 tions as to the extent of tile underdraining and other improve- 

 ments, the relative shares landlord and tenant shall bear in the 

 outlay, and the precise condition in which the soil shall be re- 

 turned, so far as the elementary ingredients of fertility are re- 

 garded. In these countries, all the facts touching the exhaus- 

 tive effects of different crops, the value of manures and the 

 like, are precisely known. The tenant boldly invests thousands 

 of dollars in manures, engages corps of workmen for each de- 

 partment, for the plough-man and the hay-maker, the cattle- 

 herd and the swine-herd know nothing of each others's art, and 

 so little is there of uncertainty or question in the results, that 

 extraordinaries of seasons or political events excepted, a given 

 return for the capital invested may be looked for. A change 

 in the duties of five or ten per cent, would unsettle the arrange- 

 ments, or even involve in ruin thousands of farmers. In fact, 

 all the agricultural operations of these countries have a more 

 close analogy to commercial or manufacturing business, than 

 to what we know as farming. The sheep husbandry of V^'er- 

 mont, the cotton planting of our Southern States, the flour 

 raising of the West, which have much in thein of the charac- 

 teristics of commerce, are the only kinds of our husbandry 

 similar to the agriculture of Great Britain. 



Our system has quite a different set of relations, moral as 

 well as financial. It has its advantages and disadvantages. 

 It provides more fully for the most glorious realization of the 

 husbandman's condition, — independence, living within one's 

 own kingdom — freedom from the hazards of capital borrowed 

 and at stake, of discounts and losses, of tariffs, and ups and 

 downs of prices current. If he cannot grow very rich, he is 

 not likely to fail. Instead of investing his thousands in ma- 



