AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



mind is carried back to the cloudy period of unwritten history, 

 when, the forest.and the chase not sufficing for his want.-', man 

 was constrained to solicit vegetable diet from the bosom of his 



bounteous mother — Earth. 



The origin of government, the dawn of legislation, the crude 

 elements of civilization, and the first essays of the plough are 

 nearly contemporary. Situated within the terra incognita of 



primeval antiquity, let us bequeathe such theories to the specu- 

 lations of philosophy, and pass on to that epoch when a >till 

 augmenting population demands a commensurate Bupplyof food. 

 The rude cultivators of this second period, living dispersed at 

 wide intervals, without communication by roads, and isolated 

 within the seclusion of a domestic circle, suffered the disadvan- 

 tage of knowing nothing beyond the results of Ife'eir own indi- 

 vidual experience. Gradually this obstacle to progress -was 

 removed : neighborhoods and villages brought their knowledge 

 into a common focus. 



Various contending practices were contrasted. The head 

 was now summoned to cooperate and act in unison with the 

 hand; and agriculture thus became an assemblage of customs, 

 habits, and traditions, unconnected by any pervasive theory. 

 And for thousands of years did agriculture thus continue a 

 mere art, — embellished, indeed, by Virgil in all the fascination 

 of poetry, — yet still a shapeless, empiric art,without connection, 

 rotation, mutual dependence, or principle. During this pro- 

 longed period the human mind seems to have slumbered in 

 stupefied fascination over every subject of inquiry. Men talked, 

 argued, imagined, supposed, but never dreamed that lac!. 

 periment, demonstration were the sole basis of rational general* 

 ization. Hacon struck out this fundamental truth: and hence- 

 forward the researches of philosophy were guided in a new 

 path, and science awoke to renovated life. 



This may lie called the transition period, at which evi 

 ect of human inquiry assumed a fresh character and aspect. 

 And Agriculture, pursuing slowly but steadily the upward path, 

 now stands proudly with Chemistry on her right hand and 

 Mathematics on her left, sending Commerce to the Pacific in 

 qn '-t of manures, employ ing Hydrostatics to drain ami irrigate, 

 and Mechanism to contrive implements of incredible potency. 



