18 TRANSACIIOXS. 



times refused to give them bread, leaving thousands to die in 

 misery and starvation. 



In modern times, England first claims our attention. She 

 began the career of improvement and has continued it with a 

 spirit and intelligence, which have made her fields the great 

 model farm of the world. France, Belgium, Holland and 

 Flanders followed, forced on by the necessity of sustaining a 

 crowded and fast increasing population. 



The first treatise on farming published in England was by 

 Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, in 1534 ; followed by another, by 

 the same author, in 1539. With these early attempts, began 

 the first germs of improvement in the community. About the 

 year 1652 appeared the Improver Improved, a work full of 

 judicious maxims and sensible advice. Soon after this, clover 

 and turnips were introduced, and made a complete revolution 

 in the agricultural system of England. 



After the efforts of Jethro Tull with his drill husbandry, 

 and his thorough tillage as a substitute for manures, at the 

 beginning of the last century, there was little advance in ag- 

 ricultural science, with the exception of great attention paid 

 to live stock by Bakewell and others, till the Board of Agri- 

 culture was established in the year 1793, under the charge of 

 Sir John Sinclair. A general interest in agriculture was then 

 awakened and a systematic eff'ort made to gain and diff'use 

 useful knowledge of farming. Men interested in agriculture, 

 in the different parts of the kingdom, became acquainted with 

 each other, and the benefits of associated eff'ort were soon 

 most sensibly felt. Science was brought in to secure the 

 judicious investment of capital, and these efforts have been so 

 steadily continued that the Englishman now follows farming 

 because he loves it and understands it, and because his 

 thoughts and feelings are centred in it. 



The first settlement of New England was under circum- 

 stances of peculiar difficulty. Leaving a country, at that time, 

 the best cultivated on the globe, for a region wild and for the 

 most part uncultivated, wholly unacquainted with the climate 

 and the soil, it was not to be expected that the early settlers 



