London to John O 1 Groat's. 107 



just like the fields to which they are applied. Nothing 

 here is under lock and key. Nothing bears the grim 

 warning over the bolted door, " No admittance here 

 except on business!" meaning by business, exclusively 

 and sharply, the buying of certain wares of the establish- 

 ment at a good round profit to the manufacturer, without 

 carrying away a single scintillation or suggestion of 

 his skill. If he has invented or adopted machinery or 

 a process of labor which enables him to turn out cheap 

 muslin at three farthing's less cost per yard than his 

 neighbors can make it, seal up the secret from them 

 with the keenest vigilance. Not so in the great 

 and heaven-honored industry of agriculture. Its 

 experiments and improvements upon the earth's face 

 are all put into the common stock of human knowledge 

 and happiness. They can no more be placed under lock 

 and key as selfish secrets, than the stars themselves that 

 look down upon them with all their golden eyes. No 

 new implement of husbandry, no new mechanical force 

 or chemical principle, no new process of labor or line 

 of economy is withheld from the great commonwealth 

 of mankind. As the broad skies above, as the sun and 

 moon, and stars, as the winds, the rains, the dews, the 

 birds and bees of heaven over-ride and ignore, in their 

 missions, the boundaries of jealous nations, so all the 

 great activities of agriculture prove their lineage by 



