100 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
geven quarters of oats on one acre." Improvements in drainage 
and tillage followed quickly upon eacli otlier, altliougli tlie culti- 
vators of the soil were frequently exposed to tlie dislieartening 
and destructive effects of partial inundations, and at times to an 
extent, productive of ruinous consequences ; for man, not natu- 
rally a passive spectator during the most trying circumstances, 
his energies roused by the exigencies, renews his toils ; again 
the waters flow in and are confined to their natural channels, and 
a highly fertile soil is liberated, and in perpetuity protected from 
the dominion of the elements, rivalling in the production of the 
cerealea, the richest clay soils of the uplands. Thompson, in his 
History of Boston, speaking of the fertility of the soil, writes, 
as arable, these meadows are of the very best quality, pro- 
ducing wheat, oats, and beans, in great abundance ; and if vre 
except thistles, are not much infested vrith weeds. No land in 
the kingdom produces greater crops of wheat or beans ; and the 
crops of oats are nearly in proportion. A practice not unfrequent 
in these marshes, is, to take crops of corn year after year, to a 
degree which would seem incredible to the occupiers of poorer 
soils. Some idea of the strength of the land may be formed by 
the fact, that ten crops of corn have been taken in succession 
from it, without any intervening fallow or crop of green winter 
food." We may judge of the luxuriance of the crops, from the 
statement of the same author, that In the years 1811 and 
1812, one third of the whole quantity of oats which arrived in 
the Port of London were shipped from Boston." 
To give the proceedings in agriculture on the Level seriatim, 
would be to write an essay on that science ; I shall therefore in 
illustration of the progress of improvement nearly up to the pre- 
sent time, merely bring before you an extract from an Eulogy 
on the late Duke of Bedford, F.G.S. and pronounced by Dr. 
Buckland, in his Anniversary Address to the Geological Society, 
delivered in 1841. " i\Iany and honourable are the wreaths 
that intertwine to form the civic crown of John late Duke of Bed- 
