188 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part I. 



capital, who have all the best implements of Europe ; by the poorest settlers this is not 

 the case, from want of stock ; and by the native American farmers, from indolence, which, 

 according to all accounts, is their general defect. An American labourer is most expert 

 at the use of the axe and the scythe ; the spade he handles in a very awkward manner, 

 and has no idea of banking, hedging, clipping or cutting hedges, and many other oper- 

 ations known to every labourer in a highly cultivated and enclosed country like Britain. 

 But the versatility of talent of an American labourer amply compensates for his inex- 

 perience in these operations, and is more useful in his circumstances. In handling the 

 saw, the hammer, and even the trowel, the British labourer has no chance with him. 

 Most of them can build a house, mend a plough or waggon and even the harness, and 

 kill and dress sheep and pigs. 



1171. Field labours in America require to be performed with much greater expedition 

 than in England. The winter is long and severe, and the transition to spring is sudden ; 

 this season in many provinces only lasts a few weeks, when summer commences, and the 

 ground becomes too hard and dry for the operations of tillage. The operations of seed- 

 time must therefore be performed with the greatest rapidity. The climate of New York 

 may be reckoned one of the best in North America. There the ground is covered with 

 snow, or rendered black by frost, in the beginning of December, and continues without 

 a speck of green till May. Ploughing generally begins in the last week of April ; oats 

 are sown in that month ; and maize and potatoes about the middle of May. By the end 

 of May the wheat and rye which has stood the winter, the spring-sown corn, the grass, 

 and the fruit trees appear as forward as they are at the same period in England. There 

 is very little rain during June, July, and August. Cherries ripen in the last week of 

 June; by the middle of July the harvest of 

 wheat, rye, oats, and barley, is half over ; 

 pears ripen in the beginning of August ; maize 

 {fig- 159.), rye, and wheat are sown during the 

 whole of October ; corn is cut in the first week 

 of September ; peaches and apples are ripe by the 

 end of the month ; the general crop of potatoes 

 is dug up in the beginning of November ; and 

 also turnips and other roots taken up and housed ; 

 a good deal of rain falls in September, October, 

 and November, and severe frosts commence in 

 the first week of December, and, as above stated, 

 continue till the last week of April. Such is the 

 agricultural year in the country of New York. 

 Live stock require particular attention during 

 the long winter ; and unless a good stock of 

 Swedish turnip, carrot, or other roots, has been 

 laid up for them, they will generally be found 

 in a very wretched state in April and May. 



1172. The civil circumstances of the United States are unfavourable to the domestic 

 enjoyments of a British farmer emigrating thither. Many privations must be suffered at 

 first, and some, probably, for one or two generations to come. The want of society seems 

 an obvious drawback ; but this Birkbeck has shown not to be so great as might be imagined. 

 When an emigrant settles among American fanners, he will generally find them a lazy 

 ignorant people, priding themselves in their freedom, and making little use of their 

 privileges ; but, when he settles among other emigrants, he meets at least with people who 

 have seen a good deal of the world and of life ; and who display often great energy of 

 character. These cannot be considered as uninteresting, whatever may be their circum- 

 stances as to fortune ; and, when there is something like a parity in this i-espect and in 

 intellectual circumstances, the social bond will be complete. It must be considered 

 that one powerfully operating circumstance must exist, whatever be the difference 

 of circumstances or intellect; and that is, an agreement in politics both as to the 

 country left and that adopted. For the rest, the want of society may be, to a 

 certain degree, supplied by the press ; there being a regular post in every part of the 

 United States, and numerous American and European newspapers and periodical works 

 circulated there. Birkbeck mentions that the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, the 

 Monthly and other Magazines, and the London newspapers are as regularly read by him 

 at the prairie in Illinois, as they were at his farm of Wanborough in Suffolk ; and that 

 all the difference is, that they arrive at the prairie three months later than they did at 

 his British residence. We have seen sketches of the houses erected by this gentleman, 

 and by some others who have settled around him, and we consider them as by no means 

 deficient either in apparent commodiousness or effect. They remind us of some of 

 the best houses of Switzerland and Norway, {fig. 160.) Birkbeck and part of his 

 family were drowned in crossing the Wabash in 1825, an event which must be deeply 



