222 Donaldson's Treatise on Manures. 



obtained without a corresponding degree of coarseness ; and it requires an 

 almost impossible or unattainable degree of quality in a smaller quantity of 

 produce to equal in value a greater bulk, when the latter is attended with a 

 fair portion of the nutritious property, and when the difference in quantity is 

 very considerable." 



The two chapters on farming are, perhaps, the most valuable part of the 

 work. In the first chapter a general history of British agriculture is given 

 from the peace of 1815 to the present time, in which every point connected 

 with the subject appears to be touched on. We must find room for the last 

 paragraph. 



" Much of the prosperity of any country depends on the distribution of 

 wealth, and the state of easy competence in which the different classes of the 

 population are placed : the unequal distribution and misapplication of capital 

 has constituted a great evil in all ages and countries in the world, and nations 

 progress in civilisation and improvements in proportion as these barriers are 

 broken down and removed. The upright character and correct moral conduct 

 cannot exist in a state of abject poverty; the evil parts of human nature are 

 called into action in the struggle to obtain, by any methods, that which should 

 be got by industry and application. The moral strength of an united or an 

 individual state of existence bears a high ratio to the physical, and the value 

 of integrity and upright feeling in every class of society is inestimable. Edu- 

 cation and early impressions exert a powerful influence ; but it happens that 

 writers on such subjects wholly neglect to lay the foundation, from too great 

 anxiety and haste to rear the superstructure. The means of procuring and 

 receiving education must first be afforded ; the physical wants must be 

 supplied before the moral ; the cravings of nature admit no excuse. The 

 beautiful principles of demonstration, and the abstract truths of morality and 

 social wisdom, cannot be taught to a starved being ; he will not listen to us ; 

 he must be clothed and fed, and then taught; and hence the necessity of pro- 

 viding the means and of putting them in the power of all classes, and by 

 affording employment and remuneration, finally produce that elevation of 

 character which constitutes the true strength of society. It is natural to 

 suppose that the power or means which has raised one or more classes above 

 crime and immorality will raise others. A highly improved physical condition 

 may be attained without a corresponding moral developement ; but no great 

 mental excellence ever will be produced without a generally improved physical 

 state arising from an abundance of the comforts and necessaries of life. But 

 the moral world and the relations of society have hitherto presented only a 

 painful spectacle of the perpetual warfare of jarring elements contending for 

 the mastery, arising from a resistance and an opposition to the laws of nature 

 and of reason, which have marred the face of the fair creation, and have 

 spread misery and desolation over the globe. When we contrast that de- 

 plorable view of human iniquity, plunder, fraud, and violence with the simple, 

 uniform and harmonious plan on which the natural world is conducted — with 

 the beautiful order which is unfolded in the unceasing operations of pro- 

 duction and reproduction, and with the amazing grandeur of the stupendous 

 works which are produced in the profound tranquillity and undisturbed re- 

 gularity of nature's workshop, so gradual in operation as almost to elude the 

 perception of our senses, there naturally arises in our minds the simple, the 

 pleasing, and at the same time the very sublime idea, that the great Cause, 

 and ultimate end of all things, will conduct the moral world through a number 

 and variety of different states of existence to a similar termination of beauty 

 and of order, the full completion of which may be reserved for ages that are 

 removed beyond the reach of our limited comprehensions, and verging into or 

 forming a part of an inscrutable eternity." 



To give an idea of the important matters treated of in the second chapter 

 on farming, we shall quote its contents. 



" Cultivation of soils. Northern system oppressive. Capital, stock, and 

 implements required on an improving farm of 300 acres. Description and 



