14 



ago, are now run wild. A handsome principality has been 

 laid waste, during the life-time of our society in this Common- 

 wealth, and it was well and wisely done. If another like it 

 could be turned out of cultivation, and the labor wasted upon 

 its slovenly neglect applied to an increased care and culture of 

 more fertile or more favored sites, I believe it would be whole- 

 some for our wallets and strengthening to our agriculture. 



And now let me crave your pardon for dwelling so tediously 

 upon matters so trite and so dry. It would seem as if the 

 dry " spell " which has just been broken by the storm still 

 stretched its drowsy influence over me. However, I think it 

 is only fair to say that I feel so much pleased with my model 

 farm of the future, that I am pondering the possibility of 

 building a milk factory and going into the scientific manufac- 

 ture of milk on purely business principles, when I have noth- 

 ing else on my hands. Meantime I shall doubtless continue 

 to exemplify the old discordance between precept and prac- 

 tice, by pasturing my cows and mowing my hay, and raising 

 my potatoes and cabbages, as my great-grandfather did before 

 me. But, gentlemen, mark well the sequel ; mark, and in- 

 wardly digest the fate of men who have not the courage of 

 their opinions, as the French say, — ponder, in short, I pray 

 you, the moral of my discourse. 



/ net a dead loss every year. 



