560 [AssEMBLr 



we have hundreds of thousands of acres of unbroken land which 

 may be purchased for the price of a day's work per acre, which 

 may now be used for the production of wheat, beef, and pork, 

 and to which, in ten years, steam will have opened a free com- 

 munication. 



To us in these circumstances, what solemn mockery is there in 

 the doctrine of dibbling and spade culture ! There was a Yankee, 

 once, who assumed a public professorship of whittlinaj, and for 

 the consideration of a shilling, gave advice in the premises. All 

 who had consulted him, said his advice was good and sound, and 

 well worth heeding, and advised their neighbors to do as they 

 had done, go and obtain it. It was this, " Whittle from you and 

 you won't cut you ;" true enough in itself, based, indeed, on first 

 principles ; yet it must be confessed, of not much practical utility 

 to a shingle weaver. So it is with trans- Atlantic teachings, when 

 we have sifted out the principles on which they are based, we 

 shall find the rest chaff. 



Our fathers, on coming to the country, had well nigh famished 

 ere they could shake off these cere cloths of European precedent, 

 ere they could fully comprehend the new order of things. There 

 the circumstances into which they came, and under which we 

 practice, have stimulated invention until such perfection has been 

 attained in our implements as the world has never seen. Axes 

 superior in temper to Damascus steel, and perfect in shape. Hay 

 forks whose tines are subtile as pipe stems, yet stronger than 

 British bayonets. Scythes that hold an edge better than did the 

 fabulous sword of Sigismund, and harvesters that sweep like tor- 

 nadoes. Who ever saw a European ax, or fork, or scythe, or hoe, 

 or rake? Who does not recognize, instantly, the clumsy figure 

 of these in their cuts? How stupid to lepresent Time with 

 wings and yet with an English scythe ! or to call Death a reaper! — 

 as incongruous in essence, as to arm them with scissors and pen 

 knife. Time should drive a western mowing machine, and Death 

 carry a grain cradle on his hip. 



If this then is our true relation to the root crop, it should be 

 raised in the eastern portions of the Union and in the dairying 



