No. 199.] 315 



riety of seed and plant — sought out in every climate, hot or cold, 

 moist or dry, on island or continent, as they rest upon primitive rock 

 or alluvial deposits, or volcanic lava, or the labors and tombs of the 

 coral insect, like some of the fertile isles of the Pacific — long ere this 

 v^e might, at the first blush, suppose that every improvement had 

 been exhausted. But it is to be remembered, that the whole life of 

 all nations has not been devoted to agriculture. In some, the hunter 

 state appears to have preceded that of the shepherd, and the shepherd 

 that of the husbandman, with as much regularity as the oak, on some 

 soils, precedes the birch or the pine. While in others, if placed like 

 our first parents in Paradise, "to dress and to keep it," and, when 

 driven forth, ordered to " till the ground " from whence man was 

 taken, was the great employment designed by Providence for the human 

 race, they have still been interrupted in its pursuit, as a continued avoca- 

 tion, by superior attractions in manufactures or commerce, by war or 

 pestilence — by inmidations, or hurricanes or earthquakes, or the still 

 greater curse of despotism or anarchy, till every useful instrument has 

 been pillaged,' and prolific fields converted into sand-heaps or morasses, 

 or, as now in Saint Domingo, where whole plantations of sugar and 

 coffee are overgrown with forests. The mind of the tiller of the soil, 

 in many regions and ages, has also been allowed to remain as bairen 

 as his rocks, and like his neglected fields, to run waste, with thorns 

 Mid thistles. 



Amidst the fluctuation incident to such circumstances, it is there- 

 fore not surprising to find, that the culture of the earth has been in 

 some countries stationary, or even retrograde, while there has been 

 in others a striking change for the better, and especially within the 

 last two centuries. In illustration of some of its improvements, with- 

 out going behind that period, the plough may well be particularized. 

 From something little better than a stake, it has in some regions 

 become a machine, possessed of iron strength to contend with roots, 

 rocks and a stubborn soil, and which abridges greatly the labors of 

 man, and, by a union of science with skill, is made the most success- 

 ful pioneer of fertility and wealth. The stone axe and liide chain of 

 the Indian and semi-barbarian, have likewise changed into iron or 

 steel, possessing so much superior durability as well as efficiency. 

 The threshing machine has generally, with tenfold power, superseded 



