144 Th-AysA(Tioys of tui: Amkricaa Lxstjtcte. 



enabled liiin to cMrry liis ]ioint. Jt Avas the Duke of Bedford who 

 first introduced plowing with two horses abreast into the region 

 about Woburn. The introduction of tlie fine breeds of cattle and 

 sheep, wliich J>akewell and Culley and Charles Colling brought to 

 perfection, has been encouraged and fostered most carefully by those 

 who hold in their hands the wealtli and the titles of England, the 

 Duke of Bedtbrd, Lord Sonierville 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 Tweeddale. 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 M'ill always prevail where a large portion of the people are 

 deprived of the benefits of education. " In the dark ages of super- 

 stition, a man, who by any improved method contriv-ed to grow larger 

 crops than his fellows, was supposed to use supernatural means ; and 

 if he escaped prosecution as a wizard, was at least shrewdly suspected 

 of dealing 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 lands where over- 

 run with co[)pice, and who are now so largely benefited by the culti- 

 vation of hops, objected to their groMth, because they occasioned "a 

 spoil of wood for i)oles." Xew implements of huajbandry have been 

 opposed there much upon 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 wmII of the Divine Providence, by raising 

 the wind on its own account, and which was publicly denounced in 

 the pulpit as impious. And almost to tlie present time in one county 

 in England the farmers assigned as the reason for making the hinder 

 wheels of their wagons preposterously larger than the fore-wlieels, 

 tiiat it places the body on a level going uj) hill. While, therefore, 

 large intelligence and capital are employed in improving the agri- 

 culture of Engbnid, the great mass of the ])()pulati()n are slow to 

 a(-cej)t the advantages wdiich intelligence seizes upon with avidity. 

 This same condition of things exists on the continent of Euroi>e. The 

 ♦great mass of the cattle of the various European countries, Hungary, 

 Switzerland, Italy, Holland, Spain, retain the characteristics whicli 

 were to l)e f«,)ur.d there long ago. Ihit little ha.- been done to remove 



