8 



existing condition of agriculture on this side of the Atlantic. 

 I have selected, therefore, as the subject of my present 

 address, the existing condition of agriculture in Europe. 



Tliere are two very different ways in which I might 

 bring this subject before you. I might illustrate in the 

 abstract, the amount of practical and scientific knowledge 

 which Europe possesses in regard to each of the depart- 

 ments of rural economy, which its climate enables it to 

 prosecute. Taking the methods of the best practical men, 

 and adding to these the knowledge of those most skilful 

 in theory, I might present to you a picture every detail of 

 which was true, but the eifect of which as a whole, would 

 be to convey to you a most exaggerated idea of the actual 

 condition of the art — even in Great Britain, where both 

 in theory and practice it is supposed to be best understood, 

 and most skilfully carried into operation. Or I might take 

 you from country to country, and show you as we passed 

 hastily along, the character of its rural population, the 

 excellences or defects of its cultural practices, the condition 

 of its arable soils, the qualities and treatment of its cattle, 

 and generally what is doing by governments and people 

 in each country for the improvement of the rural arts. I 

 should thus set before you a series of pictures, true, not 

 only in detail, but in their general efiects upon your minds, 

 though not partaking of those broad and comprehensive 

 views, which a sketch of European Agriculture, as one 

 whole, would be expected to present. 



I propose, to some extent, to follow both methods. After 

 a brief outline of the state of practical agriculture in the 

 leading countries of Europe, derived chiefly from my own 

 observations, I shall endeavour to give you an idea of the 

 position in which agriculture as an art now stands — of 

 what is doing to advance it — and especially of the aids 

 which science is now lending to the practical economics of 

 rural life. 



