edge which belongs to vegetable physiology. Many of the errors, which are committed in agriculture, would be avoided, if the farmer would consent to unite a larger portion of scientific information with his practical skill. In such case, he would not apply the same manures indiscriminately to all soils. He would not suffer land to lie waste, which might easily be rendered productive. Nor would he be content with a meager crop, from soils, which, with very moderate expense and labor, might be increased in their fertility fourfold.

We are far from supposing that any knowledge of science can supersede a practical acquaintance with the operations of a farm. We would merely contend, that, while the cultivator gathers knowledge from personal experience, he ought not to disregard the light which may be afforded by the experience of others, and by the researches of science. It is sufficient proof of the value of these researches, that their authors have been the men who have suggested the most important improvements in modern agriculture. If British agriculture is now the admiration of the world, it is because such men as Davy and Sinclair, Anderson and Kaimes, Young and Coke,-men who have united philosophical sagacity with patient experiment,-have devoted their high powers to its improvement.

It is stated, that the celebrated Lavoisier, memorable, alike, for his scientific genius and his political misfortunes,* cultivated two hundred and forty acres of land, in La Vendee, on chemical principles, in order to set a good example to the farmers; and his mode of culture. was attended with so much success, that he obtained a

* During the terrors of Robespierre's reign in the French Revolution, Lavoisier remarked, that he foresaw he should be stripped of all his property, and accordingly would prepare to enter the profession of an apothecary. But his fate was already sealed; and he was executed, in May, 1794, for the pretended crime of having adulterated snuff with ingredients injurious to the health of the citizens! On being arrested, he besought that at least time should be allowed him for completing some experiments in which he was engaged; but the reply was, "the Republic does not want savans or chemists, and the course of justice cannot be suspended.'

د,

third more of crop than was produced by the usual method; and in nine years, his annual produce was doubled. It is not to be questioned, that, were this course to become general, similar effects would every where ensue. It is not easy to set limits to the productiveness of the earth. Chinese culture shows that it may be carried far beyond any point which we are accustomed to fix, and it is probable that every farmer, if he would make the experiment, might realize the apologue of the Roman vine-dresser.

Having two daughters, we are told, that when the oldest was married, he gave her a third of his vineyard, for a 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; and still, because he bestowed on the portion reserved as much labor as he had formerly bestowed on the whole, the produce of his vineyard was undiminished. If this result was attained, when cultivators were ignorant of many of the important principles now acted upon, what might we not expect from farmers, who, uniting science with experience, should confine their labors to small parcels of land? We are aware, that the cheapness of land in this country, and the high price of labor, may render it expedient for the American cultivator to deviate, in this respect, somewhat from the practice of older countries. But we may still inquire, whether the practice of cultivating large farms imperfectly is not carried too far for the interest of the farmer; and whether, if he must own much land, he would not derive more benefit from it, by confining his operations to such portions as he can afford to till more thoroughly and manure more abundantly.

II. Mechanical Agriculture.-In performing the operations of husbandry, we employ implements, or machines; and it is interesting to remark the assistance which they have rendered, both in saving labor and improving the culture. The recent and material improvements, which have been made in these machines, both

as it respects variety and construction, ought to be an object of especial interest to the American farmer, since the high price which labor bears in this country tends very much to diminish his profits. It is not without some surprise, therefore, that we have learned, that such improvements are sometimes viewed by him with distrust, and that machines are often known and extensively used in England, before they can secure an introduction into this country.

Among the ancient Greeks, as we learn from Hesiod and Theophrastus, the ground was broken by a rude plough; seed was sown by hand, and covered with a rake; the grain was reaped with a sickle, threshed with a flail, then winnowed by wind; and, when wanted by the family, pounded in mortars or quern-mills, into meal. Now, we have ploughs, moved with less power, and yet serving to turn up the earth much more effectually the clods are broken, and the surface smoothed, by a harrow, which has been recently much improved in structure and efficiency. The seed is frequently planted and covered, by the use of machines, called drills, with more accuracy and economy than it could be done with the human hand: the grain is reaped, by an instrument called a cradle, much more rapidly than it could be with the sickle; and the reaping machine, which has been used for several years, by the Scottish farmers, seems to promise, that the labor can be entirely performed by machinery. Having been reaped, the grain is threshed out by a machine, instead of the flails or the tread of cattle; winnowed by fanning mills, which create artificial wind for the purpose: and ground up by water or wind mills, at an expense thirty times less than would be incurred by the use of the ancient handmills.

Our limits do not permit us to trace the progress of improvement, in this branch of machinery, nor to describe the construction of the implements now in gener

* Steam-ploughs, of various forms, have been invented. In some cases, the moving power is stationary; in others, locomotive.

al use. But we may remark, that these inventions have generally been made by men, who, to a knowledge of practical agriculture, joined some acquaintance with scientific mechanics. Their influence upon the amount of grain produced by cultivation is obvious. If one man can now produce, by the aid of machinery, five times as much as was raised in ancient Greece, it follows, that the quantity of food, yielded by a given amount of labor in a country, and consequently the quantity of artificial comforts, of every description, which are enjoyed, will be increased in the same proportion. In assuming the increased production, occasioned by machines, to be fivefold, we believe that we have not exaggerated. We have been informed, by very intelligent cultivators, that the improvements made within the last twenty years, in the implements of husbandry, have effected a saving of more than half the labor necessary on a farm; or, which is nearly the same thing, have enabled the farmer, with the same manual labor, to double the productions of his estate.

We are not to wonder, therefore, at the striking improvement which has taken place, within a few centuries, in the condition of the cultivators of the soil; and not in their condition only, but in that of all classes of society. Two or three hundred years ago, the husbandmen of Europe were not only slaves, bound to labor, for life, on the soil where they first saw the light, and to devote much of the proceeds of their labor to a master; but these proceeds, owing to ignorance of the proper principles of husbandry, to the want of machines, and to the consequent imperfection in culture, were wholly inadequate to supply the necessities of the people. Hence the fearful famines, which often visited those countries; famines, in which men, women, and children, perished, by thousands, and the survivors were compelled to subsist for months, on the bark of trees, acorns, and pignuts. Hence the miserable condition, at this moment, of the peasantry in Spain and Portugal, who have very poor implements, and hardly any

knowledge of agriculture. If, instead of being subjected to such visitations, England is now able to subsist all her population, a population tenfold greater than she had at that period, and if this subsistence is in every respect more abundant and refined than was then thought necessary, it is to be attributed, almost entirely, to the introduction of better machines and improved systems of culture. The number of cultivators has not increased, in a proportion by any means as rapid as the population; and yet that country presents, at this moment, the unexampled spectacle, of a land, in which less than one third of the whole population is employed in agriculture, and still the soil is producing stores of vegetable and animal food, which, if properly preserved and distributed, would afford an ample and even luxurious subsistence for every family.

CHAPTER III.

ARCHITECTURE.

NEXT to Agriculture, one of the earliest and most important employments of mankind was the building of edifices, for habitation, worship, and defence. In no art do we see more striking evidence of the various and ever-progressive powers of the human mind. The insect and the quadruped erect their habitations under the guidance of a blind but unerring instinct, and hence they are at all periods alike, and receive no improve

* See Appendix V., on Progress of Agriculture in England and in the United States.

† An immense amount of grain is wasted annually, in England, as in the United States, in distilleries and breweries, in subsisting superfluous dogs, horses, &c. The quantity of malt, made into beer in the United Kingdom, in the year ending October, 1833, was 40,164,792 bushels. In the year 1838, it was 40,505,566 bushels. In England alone, 55,045 acres of land are under cultivation for hops to be used in making beer.

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