11 



to their utmost capacity ; the spade will supersede the use 

 of the plough in their cultivation ; and instead of heing sowed 

 broadcast by the hand, the drill will be used to distribute 

 the grain evenly ovei the ground. Examples of this kind of 

 agriculture may be found in England, France and the Nether- 

 lands. But in sparsely inhabited countries of great territorial 

 extent, lands will usually be held in large tracts, and reliance will 

 be placed upon a crop produced upon a great breadth of super- 

 ficially cultivated country, rather than upon a thorough cultivation 

 of a limited quantity of land, while manual labor must be in a 

 great measure dispensed with for the plough and othej- agricultural 

 implements. The agriculture of Poland, Russia and some parts 

 of our own country partakes of this character ; for although in 

 the United States a great extent of country is not often found 

 under one owner, yet a great breadth of land is not unfrequently 

 found under one and the same crop ; the owners of contiguous 

 lands uniting in their cultivation, and the regular routine of 

 husbandry bringing such under the same crop. This state of 

 things more frequently occurs at the South and West. Between 

 Cincinnati and Law'renceburg I have myself rode for miles over 

 the Miami bottom, through one field of corn, and farther west, 

 in the Wabash Valley, I have seen on the Shawiiee Plains, 

 thousands of acres waving with the deep green foliage of this 

 plant. 



The geological formation of a country and its natural features 

 more or less influence the character of its agriculture ; because 

 to a particular formation particular plants are more or less 

 adapted ; and by its features whether mountainous or level, the 

 kind of husbandry to which it is best suited, be in a measure 

 determined. 



The nature of the soil too must influence the amount and degree 

 of cultivation necessary to produce the best results. In the 

 valley of the Mississippi, with its rich alluvial prairies, where for 

 miles on miles scarce a stone will impede the progress of the 

 ploughshare, or its fertile forest lands, where wlien the trees are 



