ville, and others. The valuable system of drainage laid down by Smith of 

 Deanston, found its earliest and most enthusiastic advocates in the Duke 

 of Portland and the Marquis of Twecddale. And the work performed by 

 these men has not been easy. The agricultural community has, in the end, 

 followed their lead ; but they have been obliged to overcome all those 

 prejudices which always prevail where a portion of the people are deprived 

 of the benefits of education. "In the dark ages of superstition, a man who 

 by any improved method contrived to grow larger crops than his fellow, 

 was supposed to use supernatural means ; and if he escaped persecution as 

 a wizard, was at least shrewdly suspected of dealings with a power whom 

 his more pious neighbors carefully avoided. On the introduction of hops 

 into England, the city of London petitioned against their use, lest they 

 should injure the beer ; and with equal wisdom the Kentish farmers, whose 

 lauds are overrun with coppice, and who are now so largely benefitted by 

 their cultivation, objected to their growth because it would occasion a spoil 

 of wood for poles." Xew implements have been opposed there upon much 

 the same principle as the objection made a century ago in Scotland, and 

 so humorously described by Walter Scott, to the use of the winnowing 

 machine, which was considered an implement for thwarting the will of Di- 

 vine Providence, by raising wind on its own account, and which was pub- 

 licly denounced in the pulpit as impious ; and at this hour in one county 

 in England, the farmers assign as a reason for making the hinder wheels of 

 their wagons preposterously larger than the fore-wheels, that it places the 

 body on a level in going up hill. While therefore large intelligence and 

 capital are employed in improving the agriculture of England, the great 

 mass of the agricultural population, owing to the ignorance which attends 

 their social position, are slow to accept the advantages which intelligence 

 siezes with avidity. 



To a certain degree the same is true on the Continent of Europe. Ag- 

 riculture improves there very slowly. The ploughs of Lombardy do not 

 differ much from the ploughs used there in the days of Virgil. The land 

 is managed, the seed placed in the earth, and the crops arc gathered now 

 much as they were centuries ago in France. Where intelligence is low, 

 and labor cheap, and the husbandman expects but a small reward, and in- 

 dividual ambition is chilled by the surrounding indifference, the importance 

 of improvements of any kind is scarcely felt. And the real ingenuity rf 

 agriculture is but little exercised. 



Now over this condition of labor and society, we as fanners enjoy an 

 immense advantage. Whatever improvements are made, redound to the 



