Ai<i^iii-S5. 35 



any agricultural parish, in the commonwealth. Towns in other parts 

 of the state, relying more exclusively upon agriculture, and having 

 poorer soil to till, would show a greater decrease of population. 

 There are many parishes, that have not the wealth, or population, 

 they had fifty years ago. While the churches, in your manufacturing 

 villages, have grown stronger, in most instances, the churches in the 

 rural parishes, those landmarks of the olden time, have wasted. 



To every good man, these examples of unthrift and decline are sad 

 spectacles. They are contrary to the genius of Christianity, which 

 not only makes the wilderness bud and blossom as the rose, but keeps 

 the wilderness it has reclaimed, in perpetual luxuriance. The de- 

 cline of our agricultural parishes is too often regarded as hopeless. 

 Go into any of them, and converse with that class of farmers, who 

 take no agricultural paper, and while they concede the fact, that 

 their lands are less productive than formerly, they propose no rem- 

 edy. Is there no help r 



Certainly, it ought not to be so. For the right use of every thing, 

 God has made, improves it ; while man's Avorks, only, wear out in 

 the using. Mind improves by use, and is broken down, only by 

 neglect or abuse. The soil is as much God's workmanship, as mind. 

 Use it rightly, and it will not onlj^ never wear out, but always im- 

 prove. There is no good reason why the soil should not every year 

 increase in riches and in its capacity to produce aliment for man and 

 beast. 



The natural working of the soil, under the influence of light, heat, 

 and moisture, secures this result. The decay of vegetation, on wild 

 lands, every year, increases the mold and all those elements of fertil- 

 ity, which future generations of plants will require. It should be the 

 office of human tillage, to increase the action of these natural agen- 

 cies, and to hasten the process of amelioration. We should come to 

 this conclusion, upon general principles, were there no science to de- 

 monstrate its truth. The soil would be an exception, among all the 

 works of God, were it run down, by legitimate use. But agricul- 

 tural science shows us, beyond all cavil, that good tillage, while it 

 gives the amplest rewards, improves, most rapidly, the capacity of 

 the soil for future usefulness. 



If these principles are correct, it is quite manifest, that far the 

 greater part of our husbandry is a flagrant abuse of one of God's 

 gifts. It is wearing out the soil, and dissipating the inheritance of 

 future generations, with reckless prodigality ; and it is not merely a 



