15 



pfjce on the Continent tlian in England, and the prohibition ia 

 import many commodities from abroad, in order to give their 

 own manufacturers a monopoly of the market. 



The activity, enterprize and skill of the English farmers 

 have triumphed over all these dilhculties, and carried the art 

 to a higher degree of perfection than any other nation : They 

 have been much aided by a liberal expenditure of capital, and 

 by the discoveries and improvements in science and the useful 

 arts. 



On a fair comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of 

 the English and American Farmer, I do not think the result 

 will be found against us. We have as great encouragement to 

 improve our lands, and render them more productive as the 

 farmer in England, or any part of Europe. We have many of 

 the same facilities for the cultivation of the seil, and some that 

 are peculiar to ourselves. We are free from some very heavy 

 burdens to which the English farmer is subject, and if agricul- 

 ture is not improved in a high degree, the cause is not in our 

 soil, climate, or political institutions ; it must be sought else- 

 where. 



In some parts of the United States, the climate m«y be mil- 

 der, the soil more fertile, and cultivated with less labour, more 

 favourable to the production of grain, or have the advantage 

 of some great staple, as cotton, rice, or tobacco. But if we 

 consider the general salubrity of our climate, the numberless' 

 springs and streams which afford such an abundance of water 

 to every partj£»f New-England, the goodness of our roads, the 

 advantages of our markets, the fertility of a considerable 

 portion of our soil, the facilities for enriching it, we shall have 

 no reason to covet the more fertile plains of the south. 



If we reflect on our institutions of every kind, especially our 

 parishes and public schools, which have existed from the first 

 settlement of our country, and have diffused the benefits of in- 

 tellectual, moral, and religious instruction through every town 

 and village of New-England, and have contributed so essen- 

 tially to form that character of industry, activit}^, enterprize, 

 intelligence, and those correct moral habits, for which her in- 



