ADDRESS. 19 



sustaining you in your passage to the tomb, as you have 

 sustained your parents, assuming your responsibihties, 

 tilhng the same soil on which you have spent the vigor 

 and manhood of life. This subject will then be to 

 them one of vital importance. The green forests are 

 gone, the soil has become exhausted, and something 

 must be done to bring it back to its ancient fertility. 

 They must compete with the western farmer by the su- 

 periority of their knowledge^ by the skill which they can 

 bring to their aid, or in a few years they must either 

 become miserably poor, or leave the home of their child- 

 hood to settle on more fertile lands in the far west. 



Hence, the introduction of agriculture into our semi- 

 naries of learning, will render the business more profitable. 

 it is not expected that sudden affluence can be obtained 

 by cultivating the soil, whatever improvements, or system 

 of culture may be introduced ; but the history of agricul- 

 ture in England, Scotland, and on the continent of Eu- 

 rope, conclusively proves, that the productions of the 

 soil may be doubled, trebled and quadrupled by the ap- 

 plication of scientific principles and the adoption of cor- 

 rect modes of culture. Its iiistory in our own country 

 shows, that the resources already developed are but just 

 beginning to be understood and applied. The produc- 

 tions of our soil have been doubled within the last twenty 

 years, and yet, when we compare our own fields with 

 those of older countries,* we need not hesitate to believe 

 ihat by the application of science and proper skill the 

 productions of our rocky soil may be easily doubled, with 

 no greater amount of labor and capital than are now em- 

 ployed. From what little examination I have been 

 able to make, we have lands in this county and through- 

 out other parts of the state, which are now entirely un- 

 reclaimed, in the form of peat swamps and meadows, 

 capable, I verily believe, of yielding a greater amount of 

 productions than are now obtained from that which is 



* The average quantity of wheat per acre in England, is twenty-six bushels ; 

 that of the United States not over twenty bushels per acre ; of Massachusetts, 

 only fifteen bushels per acre. In Flanders, the difference is still greater, v/ith 

 re<i'ard to all kinds of crops. 



