MR. COLMAN S ADDRESS. i 



managed in this way with great advantage. A mistake is fre- 

 quently made in the too copious appUcation of sand or gravel to 

 meadows. So much has been put on as to pi-event in a great 

 measure the benefits expected from it. Such applications do 

 nothing towards enricliing the soil ; but are required only to aid 

 in dividing, drying, and giving it firmness. Beyond what is re- 

 quired for these purposes, the application would be hurtful. 

 The first object must be to lay these lands as dry as possible ; 

 and it suggests itself as an important improvement, where it is 

 practicable, to erect a small embankment at the outlet of such 

 meadow, with a sluice-way and gate, so that the meadow may 

 be flooded at pleasure. Thousands of acres in this county ad- 

 mit of these improvements. They may be effected at an ex- 

 pense which, by their increased products, would be soon remu- 

 nerated. 



2. The next means of improving land is ploughing. We do 

 not cultivate land enough ; not nearly enough. Several farms 

 in the county contain hundreds of acres, with not more than six 

 or ten under the plough. This is not farming — this is only 

 seeing how we can get along without farming ; it is in fact going 

 to sleep in the cart and leaving the cattle to find their own way. 

 But the land, says the famier, will not pay for cultivation ; — 

 there is some such ; in general however most land will much 

 more than pay for cultivation. But it costs labor ; so does 

 every thing else in life that is worth having. It requires ma- 

 nure ; true ! but cultivation is the great means of obtaining 

 manure. Cultivation increases the products of the land. The 

 more products, the more stock ; the more stock, the more ma- 

 nure ; and land in general, under generous cultivation and a 

 frugal management of its products and manure, is capable not 

 only of maintaining but increasing its own fertility. The great 

 law of divine providence holds in this as in other cases, the more 

 you do, the more you can do ; to him that hath shall more be 

 given. The late Col. Taylor of Virginia, one of the most dis- 

 tinguished farmers in the country, could at one time scarcely 

 manure five acres of his land ; but in eighteen years he so in- 

 creased the products of his farm as to be able to manure one 



