ty, with the blessing of Heaven, can, out of New England, nowhere find its parallel, much more occasion for pride would she have were all her farmers in the same degree guilty as was Cresicus the Roman; for of all the employments in which men engage, none is more profitable to the community, more dignified or honorable in itself, or so well calculated to insure health and happiness to the individual, as that primitive and divine occupation-the culture of the earth. "Replenish the earth and subdue it," was the first command of the Almighty to man, and doubly grateful is the cultivated earth for the labor which man bestows upon her. She repays him ten-fold for his toil, and at the same time rewards him with strength, health and vigor. It has been said that "few politicians are half so useful members of a Commonwealth as an honest farmer, who by skillfully draining, fencing, manuring and planting, has increased the intrinsic value of a piece of land, and thereby done a perpetual service to his country."

But the importance of Agriculture, sometimes over-rated by prejudiced minds, is a self-evident truth. I cannot, however, avoid allusion to an illustration which has been painfully forced upon the mind of every man during the past year.

A little more than two hundred years ago, a small bitter root was discovered on the coast of Chili. From this worthless root, cultivation produced the Potato. Improved as it may have been, as late as the eighteenth century—a hundred years after its first introduction-English writers speak of it as comparatively valueless. Yet the partial

failure of this crop in a small part of the world, has produced an amount of suffering, how uncertain in continuance--how incalculable in ex tent. While it has in some measure developed the vast agricultural resources of the United States, it shows better than any thing else, the importance of that branch of industry to the state, and may well cause reflecting men to consider whether this, of all the arts, does not the most deserve encouragement and support.

From the commencement of our Society, custom has made an address, in some way connected with the subject of Agriculture, a part of this day's exercises. Upon former occasions, we have had age to counsel, eloquence to persuade, learning to instruct, or the sound wisdom of practical experience to convince.

Qualified but poorly in any respect, the fact that the invitation to address you was given unanimously, was the strong reason which

made me presumptuous enough to accept it. It is gratifying to a man's pride, to suppose that his friends have a good opinion of him, whether he deserves it or not. Now to those who expect "to hear some new thing," I have only to say, save your ears for another occasion. If by a remark of mine, any man is induced to make two blades of grass grow where but one grew before, I shall have done some service and will be content.

On the annual return of this day here and elsewhere, the great Improvements in modern Agriculture have been frequently made an interesting topic of discourse. Thirty years have indeed wrought wonderful changes in farming as in everything else. It is also true, in nothing else has change been effected with so much difficulty. Ignorance and obstinacy have always sneered at improvement Nor have innovations in agriculture had these alone to contend with, but blind error, which "like the adder stoppeth her ears and will not listen to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely," has always stood in their way. It has been said that "error, when she retraces her footsteps, has farther to go before she can arrive at truth than ignorance;" but the way which she takes to get out of the heads of some farmers, is the crookedest road, that it ever entered into the imagination of man to conceive. Why, if the best iron plough of this day, had been presented to a farmer thirty years ago, he would as soon have told the assessors that he was not taxed high enough, as to have used it. But though old superstition is in its grave and many an ancient prejudice lies buried beside it, the race is not quite extinct.

**

Should the genius of America, in time to come, beget a second Walter Scott-although we may not introduce the mother of Cuddie Hardrigg, as a representative of the character of New England yeomanry in this nineteenth century, still he will find many like a servant of the late Duke of Bedford, of whom it is said, that when ploughing with his four horses yoked at full length, the Duke left his carriage and zealous to do him a service, yoked the horses two abreast, held the plough himself, and explained to him the advantage of this new method. The answer of the man was characteristic of the profes

*Your leddy-ship and the steward hae been pleased to propose, that my son Cuddie suld work in the barn wi a new fangled machine for dighting the corn frae the chaff, thus impiously thwarting the will of Divine Providence, by raising the wind for your leddy-ship's ain particular use by human airt, instead of soliciting it by prayer, or waiting patiently for whatever dispensation of wind Providence is pleased to send upon the sheeling hill." Old Mortality.

sion-the ready answer which prejudice suggests to ignorance,—that such a plan might answer with his Grace, but was too expensive for him.

But the fact that great improvement has been made and is ma king, is of more importance to our present purpose. Men have found out, that, if he who plants an oak, looks forward to future ages and plants for posterity; that he who plants a fruit-tree does it for himself as well as for those who come after him; to graft an apple tree is better than to suffer it to grow wild; that manures are quite as efficacious when properly composted as when used fresh from the barn-yard; that sixty bushels of corn to the acre are more profitable than thirty; that to sow grass with grain in the spring and have fourfifths of it destroyed, is not so well as to sow it by itself in the autumn and get two or three tons of hay to the acre the next season; that repeated, shallow skimmings of the surface soil is not good ploughing; and that to pass a roller over fields sown with grain or grass is better than to leave them in Indian hills. Some of them have learned that gravelly knolls and sandy highlands are not the only soils which pay for cultivation; but that our rich peat bottoms, covered with underbrush, weeds and water-grass, which have been abandoned to the caprices of nature ever since the ark rested on Mount Ararat, do in reality possess intrinsic value.

These deep meadows, which send forth from their dark bosoms the chilling dampness of disease and death, adding to the coldness and poverty of the adjoining highlands, by their unhealthy evaporations, seem to be so placed by him who made the world to say to man in stronger language than words, that labor properly applied shall prove a blessing rather than a curse. There they lie, side by side, scattered all over the County, the bog exuberant with unwholesome vegetation, the highland with its stinted growth of scanty herbage, both soils worthless and unprofitable, but each of them rich in all the elements of fertility which the other requires. Let the farmer do what a benignant nature encourages him to do, and these poor soils of New England which under bleak influences are fostered into a sickly fertility, will be quickened into almost spontaneous luxuriance.

But to enumerate all the improvements which have been made in agriculture for the last half century would take too much time. One, not only an improvement in itself, but the basis of all other improvements must not be omitted, and that is the diffusion of agricultural

knowledge by the Newspaper Press. Slowly, silently, almost by stealth, without the knowledge of the man himself, this mighty engine undermines old prejudices, and has taught the farmer that however independent he may be, he is not so much so, as that the experience of others will not profit him. Most of us have become willing to seek directions, even if they are contained in a book. We are becoming more like liberal, free-born and aspiring men.

Yet after all, agricultural improvement is in its infancy, and to nurture its youth and rear it to manhood, has been left to us, and to those who are to come after us. To direct how this shall be done is a difficult task. I shall however, upon two or three of the most important questions connected with the subject, venture to give an opinion, always premising that if I am wrong, I will, when convinced of my error, despite the shame of acknowleging it, and with all my heart most readily embrace a different opinion.

All will agree, that the basis of improvement lies in a more thorough tillage. Now one great hindrance to this, is the strong and universal tendency among farmers to own and cultivate too much land. I am well aware that I tread on disputed ground, and that there are those among us whose opinions, we are ready, and with good reason, to esteem almost as oracles, who "have no sympathy with this small farm theory." But with due deference to their opinions may I not start with this fact, that the case so commonly occurs as to make it a general rule, that our very large farms are very poorly cultivated? To the point which I have in view, we mean the apologue of the vine-dresser, who had two daughters and a vineyard. When his oldest daughter married, he gave her a third part of his vineyard for a marriage portion, notwithstanding which, he had the same quantity of fruit as before. When his youngest daughter was married, he gave her half of what remained, still the produce of his vineyard was undiminished. The secret was simply this, that the more thorough tillage which he was enabled to give to the remaining third part, trippled his produce, while at the same time it reduced the cost of cultivation. Now he that cultivates the most land, or produces the greatest crop, is not the best farmer, but he that can do it with the least expense. In Massachusetts the high price of labor is an insuperable objection to large farms. As it is, men must not only not be idle, but must at all times, and under all circumstances work to the best advantange, or the proceeds of their labor will not pay

their wages. Upon large farms, numerous and long lines of fence are to be kept in repair, taxes are to be looked after, work cannot be so economically done, because much of it is at a distance, and a large number of laborers must of necessity be employed, who to use an old adage, if they are not very carefully looked after, will be likely to drink out of the broad end of the tunnel, and hold the little one to their employer. I must not be understood to say that no man can profitably manage a large farm here. All rules have their exceptions. But I do say, that there are very few Bonapartes in agriculture, and that the great body of us are fit only to serve in the ranks.

It is doubtful indeed, if these large farms are the most profitable anywhere; for in countries where the cost of labor is almost nominal, small farms are said to produce the largest income. Stretching along at the foot of the Alps, those ever memorable mountains, whose lofty summits, white with eternal snows, reach far above the clouds-the birth-place of the glacier and the avalanche-is that province of Italy, which has been often called the garden of Europe. Its inhabitants are farmers, and very few farms contain more than seventy-five acres, yet the best authority asserts that these small farms bring more to market than the large ones, and that there is no country in the world which can dispose of so large a portion of its productions as Piedmont. True the soil is rich, deep, if you please, alluvial. The climate is moist, and the situation of the land makes it susceptible of being easily submitted to irrigation. After all, the main-spring of this abundant fertility is thorough tillage, which consists only on small farms.

We have not the same natural advantages, but the deficiency can be partially supplied by liberal manuring. Without this, you may plough the soil and subsoil, eradicate every noxious weed, studiously watch the progress of infant vegetation, and not get half a crop. And not only must we manure liberally, but our manures must be adapted to the different soils and different crops.

Here, most certainly, there is a wide field for improvement. The Chinese are said to be familiar not only with the relative value and efficacy of manures, but to understand and apply without loss, that which is best fitted to stimulate and support each kind of plant. With us, agricultural chemistry has made rapid advances within a few years. Yet in practice, I question very much, whether the ancients were not better cultivators of the soil than we are. "What