8 MR. moseley's address. 



mind, who would exchange situations with such a voluptuary. 

 Would he not instinctively say, with the wise man, go to the 

 ant thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. 



The improvement which has been made within a few years 

 in the art of agriculture and in agricultural implements, must be 

 highly gratifying to every farmer. Who, forty years ago, would 

 have thought it possible to raise one hundred bushels of corn on 

 one acre of ground ? Yet now, it is no uncommon case for a 

 farmer to raise a much greater crop. This improvement must 

 be attributed in a great measure to the influence of the press. 

 If we go back but half a century, I believe we shall find no pe- 

 riodical pubhcation either in Europe or America which treated 

 exclusively on the subject of agriculture. The consequence 

 was, that in those districts, where particular branches of hus- 

 bandry were the most successfully and judiciously treated, the 

 knowledge remained with them, unless, perhaps, slowly commu- 

 nicated from one to another, as accident or opportunity should 

 offer. But when journals, devoted to this art, began to be put 

 in circulation, containing the experience of intelligent, learn- 

 ed and practical men, the improvement in particular districts 

 became very generally disseminated. It is true indeed, that in 

 many cases these pubhcations were coldly and reluctantly re- 

 ceived, from a false notion, that book learning, especially when 

 it contradicted the opinion they had derived from tradition, must 

 be very visionary. The light of truth has in a great measure 

 removed these errors, and a new era has commenced upon the 

 subject. The knowledge which has been derived from science 

 and experience in one quarter of the world is communicated by 

 the press to all others, and that which was claimed as private 

 property is now communicated for the benefit of all. One fact 

 will strikingly illustrate this subject. When Mr. Knight, presi- 

 dent of the London Horticultural Society, sent his first present 

 of new pears in 1823 to Mr. Lowell, his letter and the list which 

 accompanied it, were published in the Massachusetts Agricultu- 

 ral Repository. Within twelve months, application was made 

 for these fruits, and scions were actually distributed from the 

 lower part of Maine to Cincinnati in Ohio. 



