28 INTRODUCTION. 



ten dollars per ton for corn fodder, would be upwards of 

 28,000 dollars. Suppose it may conduce to the production 

 of an average of one hundred tons of compost manure 

 in each town in the Commonwealth, which must be valued 

 at one dollar per load ; this would exceed a yearly income of 

 60,000 dollars, to say nothing of the permanent improvement 

 it would effect in the soil. Suppose that it may conduce to 

 the redemption of 1000 acres of peat bog, which is now worth- 

 less, converting it into productive meadows yielding two 

 tons of hay to the acre, and keeping up its condition ; this 

 would be little more than three acres to a town ; and rating 

 its value by its income (it cannot be estimated at less than 

 150 dollars per acre) this would be an increase of the pro- 

 perty of the State, which may be safely called an actual crea- 

 tion of land, to the value of 150,000 dollars, and a permanent 

 income of more than 20,000 dollars per year. Here is no 

 extravagant calculation, to say nothing of many other forms 

 in which the influence of the survey may be felt." 



Finally, in order to obtain just views of this subject, it must 

 be remembered, that the above improvements imply a very 

 great intellectual and moral advancement in the agricultural 

 community ; an elevation of the popular mind, the value of 

 which cannot be estimated by bushels of grain, by silver and 

 gold coin, but by the purity, stability and extension of our 

 social, civil and religious institutions ; and by the increased 

 facilities for cultivating the higher powers of man. The in- 

 crease of national wealth is a desirable and laudable object 

 of pursuit, but it is mainly from the intellectual and moral 

 influence which an improved agriculture will exert upon so- 

 ciety, that we can derive an adequate idea of its magnitude 

 and importance. Imperfect as the science of agriculture now 

 is, and imperfectly as it is represented in the following pages, 

 the interest is so vast, that if any slight improvement is secu- 

 red, I shall not deem my labor wholly lost. 



