228 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



For the last twenty years or more of his life he was Sec- 

 retary of the English Board of Agriculture. Scotland, 

 France and Gei-many in these days made proportionate ad- 

 vances ; each learning from others, and each encouraging 

 in itself inquiry and experiment resulting in lasting good. 



Coming to our own land, we find our fathers surrounded 

 with difficulties and dangers. And here let us be just to a 

 noble ancestry. That stereotyped phrase, "The beaten 

 tracks of the ancestors," as applied to the early settlers of 

 this land, is a libel on worthy men and women ; they were 

 progressive. We do not, cannot see the country as they 

 saw'^it, — a wilderness with a climate and soils quite unlike 

 those of their nativity. 



The obstacles they removed were out of sight before we 

 were born. The bridges we cross with their well-graded 

 approaches have been so familiar to our eyes, that we forget 

 the toil of our ancestors under many difficulties by which 

 these blessings were secured to us. 



The thoughtful man who sees more to be done than he 

 can possibly^do, aims to do the most important thing first; 

 and in all temporal matters the most important thing is to 

 provide for immediate wants. Thus they were required to 

 provide first, shelter, then food, —as their imported supply 

 would soon be exhausted, — and protection against hostile 

 Indians and wild beasts. They were distant from all out- 

 side sources, but were ready in utilizing the resources of 

 this new world. The Indian corn was at once made an arti- 

 cle of supply and cultivation for future use. 



In the cultivation of those crops introduced from their 

 early homes they had to learn by actual experiment what 

 could be made to be of practical use here. The methods and 

 implements with which they had been familiar were crude 

 and clumsy ; stock was poor and the opportunities for im- 

 provement were limited in the extreme. The wonder is that 

 they accomplished so much. Theirs was the foundation 

 work, but the visible progress was in store. 



In 1747 the first of a series of essays on agricultural topics 

 was published by Jared Eliot, a Connecticut clergyman ; 

 but with few exceptions no marked progress was made till 

 after the Revolution, when, having "fought for peace," 



