O MR. SALTONSTALL S ADDRESS. 



economy, and the condition and resources of nations, 

 that no well informed man can be wholly ignorant of the 

 astonishing progress of agriculture in England, as seen 

 in the improvement of stock, in the variety and rotation 

 of crops, in the introduction of new grains and vegeta- 

 bles, in the knowledge and composition of manures and 

 their more judicious application, and in their gath- 

 ering up the fragments, so that nothing shall be lost of 

 every animal and vegetable substance, which can give 

 additional fertility to the soil, and increase its pro- 

 duction. 



The improvement in agricultural implements too, has 

 probably been greater within thirty years, than for cen- 

 turies before. Within a comparatively recent period, 

 the husbandman held the plough made by his own hand. 

 Indeed it was expected of the ploughman to be able to 

 make his own plough. And now — what a change — 

 nearly fifty varieties of ploughs have been exhibited at a 

 fair of the Royal Agricultural Society — And this is not 

 so wonderful as the fact just announced to this meeting, 

 that twenty-five ploughs have been offered this dav, for 

 premiums, at a trial of ploughs to be had. Our dis- 

 tinguished minister to England, Mr. Everett, at the late 

 great festival of that Society, remarked, that " ' Till 

 lately, all the great improvements in agi'iculture seem 

 to have been the product of the infancy of mankind. " 

 " The very plough described by Virgil, is to be found in 

 the south of Europe. " But he adds — "In going the 

 round of your implement and stock yard, I could not 

 fail to be struck with the fact, that how much cause so- 

 ever might have existed in former times, for complaining 

 of the deficiency and want of improvement in the con- 

 struction of agricultural implements, or in any other 

 part of agriculture, there was no room now for making 

 a similar complaint." 



The result of the spii'it of improvement in live stock, 

 is wonderful. What would an English farmer ( or an 

 American one ) now think of the ox, the sheep, the 

 swine or the horse of the time of Queen Elizabeth ! He 

 would scarcely know the animals ; he certainly would 



