270 UTILITY OF AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 



would be perceivable, at one view, how large a sum 

 the difference would be between the gain ot^ a negligent, 

 and that of a skilful culture, on the mass of crops in the 

 whole district. The great difference in the profits of 

 farras, equal in extent and quality of soil, would lead us 

 to inquire: Is it in the quality of the implements? Is it 

 in the character of the stock ? Is it, that in one case, ar- 

 tificial means are made use of to make manure, and not 

 in the other? Is it in the greater economy of the 

 household ? Is it that tl e wet meadow is on one farm 

 ditched and warmed with a coat of gravel, and not 

 on the other? Is it that the fruit trees are pruned 

 and kept clean, and the soil kept open around them 

 while young, in the one case, and not in the other? 

 Is it that the barn is open between the boards, and 

 lets in the weather, so as to injure the hay in one 

 instance, and not in the other ? Is it that the farmer in 

 one case ploughs his land in the fall, and in the other 

 does not? Questions of this sort would naturally arise 

 in seeking the results for the year, and the answers to 

 them would furnish a mass of valuable facts, that Djight 

 lead to reform. Farmers should be awakened to feel 

 that they are united by the ties of interest, and that by 

 lending the aid of their council and experience to teach 

 each other, they may one and all be beuelited. To this 

 end, it might be useful to «hew the sum of the produce 

 of one farm added to that of another, and that of all the 

 farms of u county, or state, gathered into one gross 

 amount, and held up as an object of interest and impor- 

 tance, and set in comparison with other counties or 

 states. For though a general knowledge of agriculture 

 may be diffused over a great country, it is found by ex- 

 perience, that it cannot be materially improved unless 

 by comparing the various practices which subsist in dif- 

 ferent parts of the same country. Whenever men unite 

 in a common object of interest and honor, whatever in- 

 telligence and activity belong naturally to the few, are 

 always in a greater or less degree transfused into the 

 whole. 



JMany of our fiirmers when they see accounts of ex- 

 traordinary crops raised in our country, are apt to sup- 

 pose, that the difference between a common crop, and a 



