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 OELIVEUED BEFOUE THE 
 
 yt 
 
 PSiJateljjjim ^otietp for promotins ^fincuKture, 
 
 AT ITS ANNUAL MEETING, 
 
 FIFTEENTH OF JANUARY, 1822. 
 
 mBsmi^ nm^. 
 
 PKTNTED BY ORDER OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 Clark & Raser, Printers, No. 33, Carter's Alley^ 
 1829. 
 

At a meeting of the " Philadelphia Society for 
 promoting Agriculture," held 1st mo. I5th, 1822: 
 
 The annual address was deUvered by Nicholas 
 Biddle, Esquire: 
 
 Whereupon, Resolved unanimously, That the 
 thanks of the Society be presented to Nicholas 
 Biddle, Esquire, for his eloquent oration this day 
 pronounced, and that he be requested to furnish 
 a copy for pubUcation. 
 
 From the Minutes. 
 
 ROBERTS VAUX, Secretarif. 
 
Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Agi-icultural Society: 
 
 I congratulate you on the return of this anniversary of our 
 Society. I rejoice with you that another year has been added 
 to its long career of usefulness — and that, as the occupations 
 of this day prove, we are prepared to resume our labours 
 with undiminished zeal and increased resources. It is now 
 nearly forty years, since a few sagacious and distinguished 
 gentlemen, who had honourably served their country during 
 the war, wisely judging that its prosperity in peace eminently 
 depended on its agriculture, laid the foundation of this insti- 
 tution, the first, and for a long time, the only Agricultural So- 
 ciety in America. From that period to the present day, its 
 members have been unwearied in cherisliing the best interests 
 of the nation. An extensive correspondence with the enlight- 
 ened farmers of Europe — the introduction of the latest writ- 
 ings — of the most improved implements — of new varieties of 
 plants — and the best breeds of animals, gave them advantages 
 which they have impai'ted to their countrymen with a libe- 
 rality worthy of all praise. 
 
 From these efforts they have reaped an abundant harvest. 
 They may find it in the distinction which their labours have 
 acquired among the agriculturists of Europe — they may find 
 it in the homage whicli every section of the union is offering 
 to the Society, by following its example — they may find it 
 
6 
 
 uiidor a Ikr mure delightt'iil form, in llic satisfaction of having 
 contributt'd to the advancement of their country, wliich has pre- 
 sented a scene of at^ricultiiral prosperity, such as was never 
 before given to tlie hopes of men. These ai-e natural and 
 gratifying reflections. It will, however, better accord with 
 the uiiJissiiming and practical character of the Society, if in- 
 stead of indulging in [jcrsonal feelings, we endeavour to make 
 even this meeting not wholly unprofitable, by an attempt, ne- 
 cessarily hastj' and imperfect, to compare the situation of the 
 best cultivated parts of Europe with our own — to observe the 
 means of improvement which the examination presents? — and 
 to suggest such topics as may recommend the pursuit of agri- 
 culture in IVnnsylvania. 
 
 In this in(piiry our curiosity is naturally fii*st attracted to- 
 wards those distinguished nations in the south of Europe, 
 who after filling the world with their fame, have passed 
 away, bequeathing to posterity some of the noblest works of 
 genius, and the purest examples of human character. Un- 
 doubtedly in all that remains of them, wo may trace the evi- 
 dences of strong attachment to rural life, and an exquisite 
 j)erception of ils enjoyments. Undoubtedly the cultivators of 
 the soil were among the most distinguished citizens ; and the 
 pui-suits of agriculture have rarely been embellished by so 
 much elmpience, or sung with so much enthusiasm, as by the 
 great writers of antitjuity. IJut this intellectual enjoyment of 
 the country may well consist with au imperfect condition ol 
 husbandry. The natural feelings belong to all times, but 
 science is nccessai'ily jji-ogressive ; nor does it detract in any 
 degree fii>m the merits of the farmere of ancient days, that 
 in an era of conq)arativ<' infancy, in the physical sciences, 
 liny were not a(lvan( ed bevoiMl the kiu)wledge of their age. 
 I incline t« think then that oui- natural reverence for ancient 
 
7 
 
 nations, has exaggerated the value of their agriculture, and 
 that a deliberate examination of their history and their writ- 
 ings, is calculated to lower the general estimate of the scien- 
 tific management of their lands. 
 
 Thus the most distinguished people of antiquity, the Athe- 
 nians, were extremely attached to the country life; yet their 
 agriculture must have been imperfect. Attica is a small, 
 ridgy, poor district of land, about one-third as large as the 
 neighbouring county of Bucks, with a very light calcareous 
 soil, so dry, that it would not yield pasture to support the 
 cavalry employed in its defence, and so unproductive, that it 
 did not afford grain enough for the subsistence of the farmers 
 themselves. Its supplies of grain were annually imported, 
 and its chief produce then was, as it is now, the honey from 
 its hills, and the olive which delights in its thin dry soil. 
 
 Their great rivals occupied a larger, and rather a better 
 country, but their habits and their institutions estranged 
 them totally from the cultivation of it. The territory of 
 Sparta was divided into small lots, each yielding about 70 
 bushels of grain, with a proportion of wine and oil ; and these 
 were cultivated, not by the owners themselves, who disdained 
 the pacific labours of husbandry, but by a class of people, 
 half slaves and half tenants, who gave a fixed proportion of 
 the produce to the landlords. Such a state of things must be 
 inauspicious to agriculture; the frugality of the owner being 
 satisfied by a very moderate production, and the depressed 
 condition of the tenant, rarely giving him the means or the 
 wish of improving his farm. The rest of the Greek states 
 seem to have supplied their own consumption : but the obser- 
 vation of one of their best farmers, Xenophon, that agriculture 
 is the easiest of all the arts, and readily acquired by a little 
 attention to the execution, reveals better than any collection 
 
8 
 
 of facts, the true state of Gi'eek husbandly; pui'ticularl^- as 
 it is confirmed by the remains of all the georgical writei-s of 
 Greece, wliich have readied us. 
 
 We have ain[)Ier information with rc.t^rd to tlie ancient state 
 of Italy. The institutions and the manners of the early Ro- 
 mans must have been sins^ulai-ly favourable to aj^riculture. 
 The extreme subiUvision of tlic soiJ, cultivated by the pro- 
 prietor himself, seems to present the strongest incentive of 
 necessity and interest to good husbandry. Thus the first al- 
 lotment to each individual was two acres."^ How long this 
 limitation continued, is unknoNvn ; but, on the establishment of 
 the republic, 245 years afterwards, the limit was fixed at seven 
 acrcs.f This, like all unnatural arrangements which restrict 
 human industry, gave way before the progress of wealth and 
 inequality; for, in about a century and a half, a law prohibited 
 the possession by any individual of more than five hundred. 
 But the change of manners, the infatuation of power, above 
 all the introduction of slavery, rendered it diilicult to enforce 
 these restraints, and the career of this inequality did not stop 
 till, as is confessed by Pliny, the extensive estates had destroy- 
 ed Rome and the provinces, and one half of Africa w as owned 
 by six Roman families whom Nero destroyed. In the pro- 
 gress of these changes, the best remembrances of the Roman 
 power, as well as the highest advancement of its agricul- 
 ture, are connected with the period immediately succeeding 
 the forination of the republic, N\hen the allotment of seven 
 acres continued to be generally maintained, and it was deemed 
 wrong ill a senator to jiossess more than fifty. It was during 
 this {leriod that the farm of Cincinnatus consisted of four 
 
 • About one acre ami a cuiaitor American measure. 
 I Four uiid unc-Uiinl acres American measure. 
 
9 
 
 acres, the other three having been lost by his becoming secu- 
 rity for a friend. It was then that Ciirius, on his return from 
 a successful campaign, refused from the people a grant of fifty 
 acres, declaring, that he was a bad citizen who could not be 
 contented with the old allowance of seven. We cannot doubt 
 that this subdivision of the soil required good cultivation to 
 satisfy the wants even of the most frugal. But in the days 
 .which are cited as the most distinguished in her history, when 
 Rome spread over Italy and almost all the ancient world — 
 the substitution of slaves for free labourers had given a new 
 character to agriculture. In that period almost all Italy was 
 cultivated by slaves — not like that unhappy class of persons 
 in our time, whose misfortunes are alleviated by tenderness, 
 and whose increasing numbera ai"e at once the evidence and 
 the reward of humanity — but by male slaves brought from 
 the provinces, whose waste, as they possessed no families, 
 was constantly recruited from the remote parts of the em- 
 pire. Their numbers must have rendered them formidable, 
 for they seem to have worked, like modern galley slaves, in 
 chains ; — they must have been treated with great harshness, 
 since, among other proofs of it, Cato recommends, as a mat- 
 ter of course, to every good economist to sell off his old 
 waggons, and tools, and cattle, and his old and sickly slaves — 
 and their labour could not have been very efficient, as the al- 
 lowance for a grain farm of 125 American acres, a great part 
 of which was of course in fallow, was eight men. 
 
 Accordingly, there are two facts decisive as to the general 
 productiveness of land. The first is, that as the almost uni- 
 versal system of farming was by alternate crops and fallows, 
 nearly one half the soil must have been always unemployed. 
 The second is, that the average produce of Italy, in the time 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 (if Columella, was only lour limes tlic seed — two cii-cumstance* 
 \\ lii( li do not now concur in any well cultivated country. 
 
 Nor do the agricultural wiitcrs iMspiiv more favourable opi- 
 nions. Tlic \\ orks of CatO) of Varro, of Columella, of Virgil, 
 of Palladius, and (»f llic writers whose fragments are contained 
 in the collection ascrihed to Constaiitiiie, present, it is true, 
 the njost curious details of ancient iiusbandry. There is much 
 excellent sense, much admirable practice, many proccssea 
 which might furnish suggestions for modeiii improvement; 
 but farmei-s who i-esort to tliem for instruction, will rise I 
 think from the study, with an impression, that their agriculture 
 wasgo\erMed by pi-attices rather than principles; and that 
 there is wanting tliat knowledge of the processes of vegeta- 
 tion, the composition of soils, and the rotation of ci*ops, w hich 
 have given to modern farming its dignity and value. Even 
 these useful practices too, are often disfigured by a fantastical 
 mixture of suj)erstition and empiricism. >Vhen, for instance, 
 Nvc read in Cato a minute description of an incantation, by 
 which the dislocated bones of a farmer may be charmed 
 back into their places — when Columella directs us to save 
 our vines from mice, by trimming them at night during 
 a full moon — when Sotion declai-es that an eftectual mode 
 of extirpating broom-rape from the fields, is to draw on 
 five shells the |)icture of Hercules strangling a lion, and 
 bury one in the middle and one in each corner of the field 
 — when Democritus will ensure us a thriving garden, if 
 we bury an ass's head in the niidtlie of it — and when no 
 less than five of the most sober writei-s gi-avely describe 
 the remedy by which the hi*oom-rape may be driven frt>m 
 all fields, and caterpillars banished instantly from ganlens, 
 which was to make a bareiooted, haH'-clad w«mian, with her 
 hair dishevelletl, walk three limes round it — when the,se, and 
 
n 
 
 many similar directions arc given by the great masters ot 
 the science, they must be received as evidences of its extreme 
 imperfection. Indeed, no one who will compare the rude plough 
 of the Romans with the admirable insti'inncnts of France and 
 England, or w ill contrast the writings of Columella and Sir 
 John Sinclair, can fail to acknowledge how much science and 
 the mechanic arts have contributed to agriculture. 
 
 We may derive more instruction from their descendants. 
 So naturally do our recollections dwell rather on the past 
 than the pi*escnt Italy — so much more arc we attracted 
 by its ruins than by its prosperity, that we have not suffi- 
 ciently admired its agriculture. Yet Italy is probably at this 
 day the best cultivated country in Europe. It supports from 
 its soil a population greater in proportion to its extent than 
 any other; and such is its admirable system of culture, so 
 triumphant its industry, that, though suffering from the 
 worst of all evils, oppressive and profligate governments — al- 
 though a great extent of country, not less than 200 miles long, 
 and from 25 to 60 miles wide, is in a considerable degree 
 lost to cultivation, by the malaria, which has depopulated the 
 fairest part of the old Roman empire; still the absolute amount 
 of its produce was never pei'haps greater than at present. 
 They have accomplished this, by substituting for the long fal 
 lows of antiquity a judicious rotation of crops, and by ter- 
 racing the feet and sides of the mountains, so as to render 
 them eminently productive. The minute division of the soil 
 forms the peculiar feature of its agriculture. When the in- 
 fluence of Christianity had abolished slavery, the manumitted 
 slaves, who were then the only labourers, became tenants, and 
 have so continued to the present day. Five-sixths of its po- 
 pulation are small ftirmers, working the land on shares of 
 one-half or one-third. These cultivators of a few acres have 
 
18 
 
 rendered tlieir country so fertile, tliat from one end of Italy 
 to the other — from the irrigated meadows of Lorn hardy to 
 the volcanic regions of Naples, if we except some parts of 
 the Point's dominions — there is scarcely a single spot which 
 does not pi*oduce the utmost which its situation and natural 
 fertility admits. The eye rests with delight iipim the magni- 
 ficent prospects of Piedmont and the Milanese; on that busy 
 scene of industry, which sustains a population of one |)ei'son 
 to every two acres — where three-fourths of its gross produce 
 is disposable, and where the fields are constantly covered 
 with a succession of varied and abundant harvests. The dis- 
 trict near Vesuvius has a p«»pulation of 5000 souls to the 
 sqiuirc league, a proportion unknown to any other part of 
 Europe: while still further south, in Sorrento, their rotation 
 of eight crops in five years, and one of them a cotton crop, is 
 pronounced by a competent judge to be " the best managed 
 and the most productive of any in the world." 
 
 It is however rivalled, if it be not equalled, by many parts 
 of Flanders; where from a soil more fertile than Italy, though 
 in a climate less genial, they extract from their land by in- 
 dustry and the application of manures, a rapid succession of 
 crops, probably not inferior to those of any other country. 
 The details of Italian and Flemish husbandry — the Italian 
 rotation of crops, and the Flemish management of cattle and 
 manures — are worthy of attentive study by all in this country, 
 who woidd improve in scientific faiining. They would often 
 suggest modes of culture, better adapted to our climate than 
 the practices of England, which we are too prone to fiillow 
 without making allowance for the essential (liflerence between 
 the seasons of the two countries. 
 
 The general cultivation of Girat Britain is calculated to 
 inspire a mingled feeling of admiration and surprise: of ad- 
 
13 
 
 miration at what she has accomplished, and surprise at what 
 she has neglected. She has many advantages: her exube- 
 rant capital, her commerce, her manufactures, furnishing to 
 agriculture so large a body of domestic consumers, have ena- 
 bled her to cover a large portion of her soil with a picturesque 
 and beautiful cultivation, which no stranger can contemplate 
 without satisfaction. Yet a nearer inquiry excites astonish- 
 ment, that this very success has not induced a more enlarged 
 and better cultivation. 
 
 There is an extraordinary difference in the calculations of 
 British economical and statistical writers on that subject: 
 but the safest estimates show, that a proportion of from 
 one-third to nearly one-half of the surface of Great Britain 
 is waste and almost unproductive. Of these waste lands, 
 it is again estimated, that one-fourtli or one-fifth might 
 be enclosed and cultivated, and the rest employed for 
 sheep or for planting timber. The consequence is, that 
 she does not raise grain enough for her own consump- 
 tion; the average importations of wheat and wheat flour, 
 during the last twenty years, having been about four mil- 
 lions of bushels a year, amounting to nearly thirteen or 
 fourteen days consumption. Whether it be desirable to re- 
 sort to the waste lands to supply this deficiency, is a ques- 
 tion of their domestic policy which it is for her alone to 
 decide. But even a stranger may be allowed to perceive, 
 that, without abstracting capital from other pursuits to re- 
 claim waste lands, the deficiency of England might be rea- 
 dily supplied by the simpler process of a better husbandry 
 on lands now under cultivation. " A very small portion," 
 says one of her best authors, Dickson, writing in 1804, "a 
 very small portion of the cultivated parts of the island has, 
 even at this advanced period, been brought under a judicious 
 
14 
 
 Hiid well t oiiduitcd aystcin of liiisliandrv. Jniniensc tracts ol 
 land, of (lie move rich and fertile kinds, may be still met with 
 in dinVrent jKirLs of the kin,ii;d(Mn, that are mana,(^ed in very 
 imperfect and disadvantageous methods of farmin,!^ ;" and he 
 adopts (lie calculation of Sir John Sinclair, that 30 millions of 
 acres aif either in a state of \n aste. or cultivated under a very 
 defective system of husbandry. Even still later, in 1812 and 
 1816, we learn from the valuable writings of Dr. Rigby, that 
 some of the very counties which Dickson considei-s as the 
 most perfect, ai*e still very deficient: that in Essex the 
 wretched system of licet ploughing and whole year fallows is 
 still pertinaciously adhered to — that Sussex is behind almost 
 all othei-s, at least half a century — that in Chcsiiire the anti- 
 quated system of a century back still prevails — that Shrop- 
 shire is subject to a very ineflicient cultivation ; and that in 
 short " a great part of the kingdom is in a lamentable state 
 of agricidlural unproductiveness." Some of these defects arc 
 the result of ignorance and prejudice. With all the splendid 
 success of Mr. Coke, of >iorfolk, in rendering his land nearly 
 ten times as productive, he used the drill husbandry for six- 
 teen years before any individual followed his example ; and 
 even now his improvements are supposed by himself to ex- 
 tend about one mile in a year. Other causes, however, are 
 not wanting, and some that to us seem almost incredible. 
 For instance, nearly one-half the arable land of England is 
 held in common; its culture is therefore subject to irstridions 
 either of ( usloni or law, and the {mrticm of each conunoner is 
 often so arranged, that he cannot ci-oss-plough his land for 
 fear of titspassing on his neighbour. These, it may be easily 
 imagined, do not produce more than half the value which 
 might be diawn Irom them, by enclosure and exclusive 
 iwssession. Again, tbo fault which is constantly deploi-ed 
 
II 
 
 by her writers, and one tliat seems peculiarly strange 
 where the economy of human labour is so well understood, 
 is the superfluous expense of cultivation by the multitude 
 of horses. It is at this day common in England, to see 
 lour, five, and six horses, following each other in single file, 
 before a plough, in fields of a few acres, and in soils where 
 two horses might easily accomplish the w ork ; to see teams of 
 four horses employed, where two would be quite sufficient; 
 and this notwithstanding the successful introduction of the 
 Scotch mode of ploughing, as in this country. The conse- 
 quence is, that England and Scotland arc estimated to con- 
 tain 3,500,000 horses, consuming the value of fifty millions 
 of dollars, and the produce of sixteen millions of acres, 
 being nearly one-half the productive lands of the king- 
 dom. The condition of a large proportion of the tenants 
 too, is, in many respects, unfavourable. The soil of Eng- 
 land is owned by about 40,000 persons, and a greater part 
 of the leases are at will, or for a short term from five to 
 nine years, the better policy of long leases not having yet be- 
 came general. Lastly come the tithes and taxes ; the tithes, 
 which take from three-fourths of the occupiers of land iu 
 England one-tenth of the gross produce, exeu when the re- 
 mainder may afford no remuneration for their labours — and 
 the taxes, which, combined with the tithes, on an average 
 amount to more than one-half of the rent. 
 
 However consoling these views may be to our own faults, 
 it is more agreeable to dwell on the pleasing side of English 
 £a.rming, and to derive instruction rather from their success 
 than their misfortunes. And truly there is something admira- 
 ble in the generous and buoyant and elastic spirit w ith which the 
 genius and industry of that counti-y have upheld its agriculture, 
 under a complication of burdens, such as never before pressed 
 
16 
 
 on tlu' soil ot any country. By her peculiar condition — b) 
 tlie |M>()r laws — the tiflics — the taxes of every description, 
 Fin^^land was reduced to a condition which demanded every 
 eneri^y of the farmer, and tasked to the utmost every i*csource 
 of capital and inventi«»n. On a moderate computation, an 
 acre of the best farniini^ land, in order to iTpay Nsith profit 
 tlu* labours of culti\ ation, must yield about thii'ty or forty dol- 
 lars: and accordin,e;ly it was made to produce that sum. By 
 liberal investments of capital, by judicious and economical 
 husbandry, they have extorted from a soil not naturally dis- 
 tinguished for fertility, and a climate inconstant and treacher- 
 ous, an amount of produce w liich enabled the farmers of Eng- 
 land and Scotland to pay a higher rent than is yielded by 
 some of the finest soils of Italy. If indeed we were to select 
 any district whci-e skill and capital have been most successful 
 against natural obstacles, I incline to think we should name 
 the Lothians of Scotland. 
 
 That the examjdo of those countries may not be lost to us, 
 we should habitually coinjiare them with our own. It is now 
 about a century and a half, since the peojde of the United States 
 have been principally occupied in reducing to cultivation their 
 extensive forests. Their agriculture bears, of course, the im- 
 pression of their circumstances. AVhile land was cheap, and 
 capital small and labour dear, it was more natural to irclaim 
 new lioUis than to restore the old, and to dift'use over a wide 
 surface of cheap land the greatest power of dear labour. The 
 growth of cities — the ceeation of new classes of society — 
 the increase of manufactures, have now concentei*ed our popu- 
 l.'ition, and by the formation of a permanent home market, are 
 calculated to give a new <hai'a(ter to our fanning. In ven- 
 turing upon that subject, it is fit to speak with entire firedom. 
 The obji'ct of «Mir society is our iinpi'uveiuent. Instead, there- 
 
n 
 
 fore, of dwelling' upon the merits of our farming, which is in 
 many particulars deserving of great commendation, I shall 
 pi*efer the less agreeable office of indicating the means of its 
 advancement, believing that the humblest exercise of pa- 
 triotism is, to praise our country without striving to improve it. 
 
 The condition of tlie soil of Pennsylvania may be examined, 
 first, in relation to its uncultivated land, and secondly, with 
 i-egard to its husbandry. 
 
 According to the opinion of a very distinguished geologist, 
 Mr. Maclure, Pennsylvania contabis more good land than 
 any Atlantic state in the union; that is, she possesses a 
 greater extent of that formation — the secondary — which from 
 its position, the course of its rivers, and the mineral deposits 
 which belong to it, is best calculated to sustain a numerous 
 population. These advantages, it must not be dissembled, 
 have not attracted their due share of attention. I incline to 
 think tiiat the best portion of Pennsylvania, that which is des- 
 tined to act hereafter the most distinguished part in our agri- 
 culture, has never yet felt the plough. It is indeed lamentable 
 to see so much of this long-established state totally abandoned 
 — to look at extensive ti'acts of rich country without a road 
 or an inhabitant — to meet, almost in the heart of Pennsylvania, 
 the Seneca Indians from New York, hunting through a wilder- 
 ness of nearly a hundred miles in extent, with less interruption 
 perhaps than they would have found two centuries ago. Tlicrc 
 are seventeen adjoining counties, north and west of the Susque- 
 hanna, containing an extent of more than 18,000 square miles, 
 with a population of about six souls for every square mile. 
 There ai'e five adjoining counties, containing nearly 6,000 
 square miles, without one inliabitant to the square mile. There 
 are three adjoining counties, more than 3,500 squai-e miles in 
 
 extent, with only one human being for every two and a half 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 squure miles. I seem to be speaking of some desert on tlic 
 Yellow Stone, not of a fine region within four days ride of 
 riiihuUIpliia, wliich was possessed in full sovereignty by 
 rennsylvania more than sixty years ago— an anticiuity in 
 this country — a pci'iod when the great emjjires of the west^ 
 Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, who will outnumber Pennsyl- 
 vania in the next Congress, were not among the prophecies of 
 men. There is no example among the old states of a w ilder- 
 ne^s like this. It has lost to the state half a million of inhabi- 
 tants. It has condemned to barrenness a magnificent region, 
 that should have been filled with wealth, with intelligence, 
 and power. If we cast our eyes over the map of the union, 
 Ave may discern in Vii-ginia, a district of country to which 
 the nation has three times i*esorted for its chief magisti*ate. 
 A lai'ge jiroportion of the corresponding part of Pennsylvania 
 is one unbroken wilderness, the habitual hunting ground of 
 savages. In the cause of this calamity we may learn a great 
 lesson, not merely of agricultural, but political wisdom. 
 Something certainly must be ascribed to the unhappy contro- 
 versy with Connecticut, which, nearly half a century of con- 
 fusion, of concession, and of compromise, has but recently 
 closed. But the greater part of the evil may be traced to 
 bad legislation. If, when the state sold its vacant lands, 
 they had been previously surveyed and marked, as those of 
 the United States were, they would have been clieerfuUy 
 bought and easily settled; but the unfortunate policy of sell- 
 ing the right to land, leaving the purchaser to find it, and the 
 mistaken hope of peopling a country, by re(|uiring pajwr con- 
 ditions of settlement, instead of leaving it to grow with the 
 natural course of enttrpiise — these have introduced a fatal 
 spirit of spe( ulation and ol fraud, which thirty years have not 
 yet completely repaired. Entire families were ruined by the 
 
n 
 
 madness of these delusions. In the inextricable confusion of 
 interfering claims, the same lands were again and again sold 
 by fraud or ignorance, till the maps of some of our counties 
 exhibit a mosaic of conflicting surveys, which no science ex- 
 cept law can ever bring into harmony. Then came the re- 
 action of disappointment. Men turned with disgust from a 
 scene of so much suffering, and dreading a lawsuit on the 
 threshold of every man's property, abandoned in despair the 
 attempt to settle lands so surrounded with uncertainty and 
 trouble. There are now in Philadelphia — there are perhaps 
 now listening to me, many owners of thousands, of 10, 20, 
 and 50 thousands of acres of land, which they have never 
 seen, and of which they would scarcely know the existence, 
 but from the periodical visit of the tax gatherer^ lands which 
 might be rendered magnificent possessions, surpassing now 
 in extent, and hereafter in value, the most splendid estates in 
 Europe. There are others who, deceived by exaggerated es- 
 timates — seduced by well painted drawings of streams that 
 have never flowed, except in the eloquence of the deputy sur- 
 veyor; of groves of white oaks, and beeches and maples luxu- 
 riating only upon the parchments of the land office, go on 
 year after year, paying taxes for lands, undiscovered and un- 
 discoverable, or which, if they really exist, may be again 
 paid for by one, by two, by three, I have known as much as 
 four other claimants, residing perhaps in an adjoining street. 
 In the midst of these conflicts, there grows up on the soil, 
 either an honest settler always willing to purchase, or else 
 some intruder, originally perhaps not ill disposed, till the 
 absence of all control, and a gradual attachment to his new 
 residence, begin to inspire hopes of wresting it from the 
 owner. He then insinuates doubts of the title, defaces the 
 marks of surveys, and shimning the proprietor, till 31 years 
 
20 
 
 may ripoii Iiis possession into a title, lives on in anxious ob- 
 3(iii-ity, festering, discontented and i-cstlcss, imagining in 
 evciy passing stranger, the approach of his most dreaded 
 enemy. Such was once the too ii-equent picture of the con- 
 dition of the interior of Pennsylvania ; and even now, although 
 it has nearly passed, its eftects are still visible in the anxietj 
 \\ith which emigrants go round our state, as if thei*e wei*e 
 some infection hei*e, and pass on to remoter and poorer fields, 
 where their industry will at least be safe. 
 
 There can be no hoyxi for the agriculture of Pennsylvania, 
 till this source of disquiet is completely removed; and fortu- 
 nately for us, time, in revealing all the eri-oi-s of that system, 
 has furnished the means of remedying them. Every owner 
 of land may now ascertain w liether there are other ( laimants 
 to his land, and readily adjust their mutual pretensions. 
 Every purchaser may now satisfy himself as to the title of the 
 seller; so that while suffering from our owti improvidence, 
 we may be allowed to console ourselves for it, by reflecting 
 that, while the states around us have been peopled to their 
 bordei*s, Pennsylvania possesses an extent of well watered, 
 healthy, rich, cheap land, convenient to both the atlantic 
 and western markets, which however hidden from the world 
 by her past mismanagement, now offei*s abundant tempta- 
 tions to industry, and will largely contribute to augment 
 the po])ulation and resouires of the state. To give to these ad- 
 vantages all their attraction, however, much more exertion is 
 necessary than we have hitherto witnessed. There are few 
 families in the city, who have not some connexion with the 
 lands of the interior ; there are many who have extensive es- 
 tates there. To these 1 would recommend most emphatically, 
 to visit and examine their possessions: to be seen, and felt, 
 and known as the owneis: to diseiuiiniher themselves at once 
 
of the burden of paying taxes for what does not exist, or 
 might be worthless if found; to encourage every beneficial im- 
 provement, and by all the means of conciliation and liberality, 
 which tlicy are, I know, equally able and w illing to extend, iden- 
 tify their own with the growing interests of the new settlements. 
 There is still another step. How many well educated young 
 men are there among us, languishing in the long noviciate of 
 some profession, or wasting in indolence the finest years of 
 their existence, who, in the new counties of the interior, might 
 lay broad and deep the foundations of a splendid prosperity 
 for themselves and their families. They will be received with 
 welcome by those whose fortunes they have come to share; and 
 their new interests and new connexions, will soon render their 
 situation as agreeable and distinguished as it will ultimately 
 be profitable. 
 
 There is more satisfaction in turning from the wild to the 
 settled parts of Pennsylvania. The old counties between the 
 Delaware and the mountains, with the exception of Pliiladel- 
 phia, contain a population of about fifty to the square mile. 
 Their mixed pursuits, their division into consumers and raisers 
 of produce, as well as their access to the markets of Philadel- 
 phia and Baltimore, afford advantages not enjoyed perhaps by 
 any section of the union. The soil, without being generally 
 distinguished for fertility, is fitted for all agricultural pur- 
 poses. The farms averaging probably from fifty to one hundred 
 acres of cleared land — the taxes light — the farming imple- 
 ments, in general, good — and the best breeds of cattle within 
 reach. Yet, notwithstanding all these elements of the most 
 enviable state of agriculture, we must acknowledge that our 
 farming is still very imperfect. If any evidence of this were 
 wanting, it might be afforded by the actual produce and the 
 rents of our lands. 
 
n 
 
 It was stated two years aiijo by one of the vice-presidents 
 of this society, that the average crop of wheat in Lancastei* 
 county, which is considered the i-ichcst in the state, did not 
 |Ht)l)aI)Iy exceed lifteen bushels per acre. Now the average 
 of all France is more than eighteen bushels — the average of 
 all England twenty-four — and in some counties, as in Middle- 
 sex and the Lothians, forty. With regard to rents, it is not 
 easy to speak with accui*acy. If we except the alluvial mea- 
 dows near this city, which rent for nine or ten dollars per 
 acre, I should not estinnite the average i*ent of cleared land 
 with improvements, within the district Just mentioned, at 
 more than two or three dollars. In Italy, in England, and 
 in Scotland, lands not particularly favourcd by vicinity to 
 markets, rent for from sixteen to twenty dollars, and in the 
 neighbourhood of large cities, from thirty to forty dollars. 
 
 The causes of this inferiority may be ascribed to two cha- 
 ractei'istics of our farming — a disproportionate capital and 
 an inefticient cultivation. The lirst is a striking deficiency. 
 Agriculture, though a very common, is not, I think, a favourite 
 pui'suit in Pennsylvania. It attracts few from the other classes, 
 and its ranks arc rather thinned by desertion than i-ecruited 
 by volunteers. The enterprising shun it for its inactivity; 
 the gay, from its loneliness; the prudent, I'rom its unproduc- 
 tiveness; so that although a great propoi'tion of the wealth of 
 the state is fixed in land, an exceedingly small capital is de- 
 voted to fai'ming. We too often exhaust our means in clear- 
 ing or purchasing a farm, leaving scareely any resources for 
 stocking and cultivatiiig it. Now an English farmer, w ith a 
 certain capital, rents a farm, as a manufacturer rents a house, 
 and devotes his ca|)ital to extract from it the greatest possible 
 produce. Accordingly his proci'fdings seem almost incredible 
 f the possessors of lai*gc American farms. It has become a 
 
settled maxim of English husbandry, that before occupying 
 good arable land, a capital of from thirty to forty dollars per 
 acre is necessary. On an estate of three hundred acres, there- 
 fore, a farmer begins by expending in preparations nine thou- 
 sand dollars; and his annual disbursements, in labour, ma- 
 nure, and other articles, are about five thousand dollars a year. 
 His operations are all on a proportionate scale. To contract 
 to pay a rent of twenty or thirty thousand dollars ; to expend 
 in a single year, on lime alone, eleven thousand dollars; to 
 pay two thousand dollars a year for rape-cake to manure tur- 
 nips; to make a compost heap, costing four thousand dollars — 
 such are the combinations of wealth and skill which produce 
 good husbandry. These we cannot, and we need not, imitate. 
 But they may teach us that we should measure our enterprises 
 by our means; and that an ill stocked farm can no more be 
 profitable than an empty factory. Men praise the bounty of 
 nature. It is much safer to rely on her justice, which as rarely 
 fails to reward our care as to avenge our neglect. Our farms 
 then, though small, are generally too large for our capitals; 
 that is, we work badly too much ground, instead of cultivating 
 well a little. In the estimates of finance, two and two 
 do not always make four — in the arithmetic of agriculture, 
 two are generally more than four. It is wondeiful, indeed, 
 how profusely a small spot of ground will reward good hus- 
 bandry. There are in Italy hundreds and thousands of peo- 
 ple, living on farms of from four to ten acres, and paying to 
 the owner one-third, or one-half, of the produce. The whole 
 straw for the Leghorn bonnets, by the exportation of which 
 in a single year five hundred thousand dollai*s were gained, 
 would grow on two acres. There are in Switzerland some 
 hill sides, formed into terraces, which have sold for two thou- 
 sand dollars an acre; and in fortunate spots for gardening, as 
 
2« 
 
 near London, a single acre will yield a clear pi-olit of iioni 
 eight to nine hundred (loilai*s a year. Tiiose examples nia> 
 perhaps explain, how without the great capitals of England, 
 and w ithoiit diminishing our farms, we may gradually render 
 them richer and more j)roductive by judicious culture. 
 
 The characteristic merit of modern farming seems to be 
 this: The old practice was to draw from land successive grain 
 crops, and then leave it to recruit strength enough for a repe- 
 tition of them. The modern system seeks to restore the soil, 
 not by rest, but by variety — to make one crop be followed by 
 another, feeding on different parts or at different deptiis of the 
 soil from the preceding. It lias, therefore, for fallows, sub- 
 stituted root crops. These support large quantities of cattle, 
 which, besides the direct profit from them, affoi*d the means 
 of returning sooner and more successfully to the grain ci-ops. 
 
 Now, the defects of our husbandry have relation to this 
 system, 
 
 1st. We have not studied sufficiently our sod, with a view 
 to establish a judicious rotation of crops, nor adapted our cul- 
 tivation to our climate. As an example, I doubt whether we 
 appreciate our long autumn, the finest of all our seasons, t<i 
 w hich husbandry as yet trusts so little, but which would often 
 enable us todraw a second and valuable crop of roots after grain. 
 From the result of personal experiments made with that view, 
 w hich better farmei-s would, of coui*se, practise more success- 
 fully, 1 incline to think, that there are few of our good fields 
 fronj which we could not obtain < onsiderable creps of roots, 
 planted and gathered after luirvest. Why indeed should we 
 noU when they are constantly obtained in Spain, in ItiUy, in 
 Flanders, and even in Ihr climate of England and Scotland? 
 
 2d. >> e iiave not yet succeeded in diffusing widely the best 
 breeds of cattle, from the excellent stock now easy of access 
 
to us all. There is no subject on which it is more true, that 
 a liberal expense is the strictest economy. Natural peculiari- 
 ties of form in animals, are either the cause or the indication 
 of certain qualities. Judicious observers, by the union of 
 similar animals, have given greater development to these qua- 
 lities, and established at length distinct breeds with very de- 
 cisive superiorities over our ordinary cattle. These should 
 be sought by good farmers, as their superior profits far exceed 
 the additional price of them. But we are too often tempted 
 by the false economy of buying cheap animals, and we are 
 frequently misled into the practice of pampering into a sickly 
 magnitude, cattle which have no natural facility to fatten. 
 This is a mistaken pride, productive of no immediate good, 
 and the more to be regretted, since the capital actually lost 
 in feeding bad animals might have imported good ones. 
 
 Sd. We are deficient in the cultivation of roots. The cattle 
 are left to feed almost exclusively on hay in winter, instead 
 of being nourished on roots, more nutritious and cheap in 
 themselves, and the culture of which is among the very best 
 preparations for the succeeding grain. The extension, on a 
 large scale, of the root culture, would alone, I am satisfied, 
 give a new face to the agriculture of the state. In the use of 
 these, as well as the general feeding of cattle, we should en- 
 deavour to adopt what is justly deemed one of the greatest 
 discoveries in agriculture — I mean the old Flemish practice, 
 now known in England by the name of 
 
 4th. Soiling. In administering food to thoughtless persons, 
 it would be deemed strangely improvident to let them eat and 
 waste at pleasure. We are more respectful or less judicious 
 towards cattle. They are allowed to enter, without restraint, 
 fields of luxuriant vegetation; they lie down upon itj they 
 trample it under foot; in wet weather their foot-prints com- 
 
 D 
 
2Q 
 
 init injuries to the ground, which years cannot repair, and 
 what is worse than all, the benefit wliich they might confer 
 on the land is almost totally lost. Instead of this wasteful 
 system, the cattle ai-e kept under comfortable shelter, and 
 their food is brouglit to them. An acre of ground thus fur- 
 nishes three times as much subsistence as when pastured, and 
 the additional expense of cutting is abundantly i-epaid by the 
 rich manures which are thus saved. 
 
 There is one other branch of farming, wliich has scarcely 
 made its appearance in this country — It is 
 
 5tli. Irrigation. This is, probably, tlie most profitable of 
 all modes of culture. Whenever the situation of land will 
 permit of its being covered w ith a stream of water, the direct 
 nourishment to the plant, the minute subdivision of the soil, 
 and the deposit left by the water, these combine to produce 
 an amazing fertility. In Lombardy, for instance, the irri- 
 gated meadows afford four abundant crops of grass. In the 
 dry climate of Spain, they are still more productive. It could 
 scarcely be believed, were it not vouched by the personal ob- 
 servation of Arthur Young himself, that in the watei-ed fields 
 of Valencia, there are actually cut, four, five, six, and seven 
 crops of lucei'ne, from two and a half to three feet in height, and 
 yielding ten tons of gi'iiss on an acre at each cutting: so that 
 on a moderate average an acre yields no less than fifty tons 
 of grass, and when broken up, gives three crops in the course 
 of a year. It is not wonderful, tlien, that in that country the 
 greatest efforts have been made to water their fields ; that i*eser- 
 voirs have been constructed, canals cut, wells dug, and ma- 
 chines erected for raising water from the rivers, and that 
 whole rivers themselves, instead of hastening to the ocean, 
 have been made to pause and deposit their extraordinary fer- 
 tility. To us the example is peculiarly interesting, since our 
 
27 
 
 climate resembles that of Spain in its dryness — the defect 
 which irrigation is most calculated to repair. It is now al- 
 most an established law of this climate, that in midsummer 
 there shall arrive a critical season, during which the intense 
 heat of our long days is not relieved by rains, and our crops, 
 just as they are verging to maturity, are suddenly checked 
 and injured, and sometimes destroyed, by the burning in- 
 fluence of the sun. But instead of struggling to overcome 
 this danger, our farmers, with a want of the characteristic 
 spirit of the country, sit down by the side of the most magni- 
 ilcent rivers and unfailing streams, and lament the decay of 
 their harvests, touching the river banks, without one effort to 
 convey to these fields the water which is passing at their feet. 
 In this finely watered country, we should surely be able to 
 equal the improvements of Spain and Italy ; and he will be a 
 great benefactor, who shall exhibit a cheap and efficient mode 
 of irrigation. If the first expense be beyond the means of an 
 individual, it may be accomplished by the union of interested 
 neighbours, and almost any expenditure would be justified by 
 the success of a plan, which would at once render our fields 
 twice, or five, or ten times more productive. 
 
 The prevailing opinion however is, that even with an im- 
 proved culture, the high price of labour in this country ren- 
 ders farming an unproductive and hazardous investment of 
 capital. This belief has contributed much to retard our hus- 
 bandry. I myself think it entirely erroneous. My impres- 
 sion is, that a capital employed in judicious agriculture, would 
 yield quite as safe and abundant a return, as in most of the 
 other pursuits of life among us, and probably superior to th« 
 profits of farming in other countries. For instance, the ave- 
 rage profit on farming in England, with which we are most 
 habituated to compai'e ourselves, is from ten to fifteen per cent. 
 
2S 
 
 Now, ill this country, tlie pi-ofits ought to be greater. The 
 fjuestioii might pcrhaiw be derided by the single fact, that 
 while the gi*eater part of our farmers live well and educate 
 large families from small farms, the same class of pei-sons in 
 England, the rentei-s of farms of about fifty acres, are univer- 
 sally allowed to be in a miserable situation ; and on that ac- 
 count they were actually exempted from the income tax — a 
 forbearance which describes, at once, the measure of that 
 wretchedness which could appease or defy even the spirit of 
 the Exchequer. But the inquiry is sufficiently interesting to 
 tempt us into a comparison, between the arable farms, within 
 reach of the markets, of London and Piula(leli)liia — their re- 
 spective expenses and pi-otits; that is, the prices at which they 
 may be obtained and cultivated, and then tlie prices of the 
 pi"oduce of them. The first naturally resolves itself into the 
 heads of rent and taxe«, and labour and manui*e. 
 
 The rent of land within twenty-five miles of London, vary- 
 ing as it does from two to fifty dollars, it is not easy to esti- 
 mate with precision ; but we shall err on the side of modei-a- 
 tion, if we place the average rent of good ai-ablc land at ten 
 dollars. The taxes and tithes, as they are stated by Sir John 
 Sinclair in 1821, would be fifty -three per cent, on this rent, 
 say five dollars ; making the rent and taxes on a farm of 200 
 acres amount to three thousand dollars. Now, if we except 
 our allu\ ial meadows, the average rent of land within the 
 same distance from Philadelphia, cannot, 1 think, be estimated 
 beyond three dollars. Of tithes there are of course none ; and 
 the taxes of all kinds, judging freni those of Bucks county, 
 do not exceed twenty-five cents per acre: making the rent 
 and taxes of a fami of two hundred acivs six hiuidred and 
 fifty dollars. 
 
 Ill the memorial of the English AgricultunU Commit- 
 
29 
 
 tee of 1819, it is stated, that the tithes and taxes amount 
 to one-third of the market price of agricultural productions. 
 In this country they form a proportion so inconsidei'able, that 
 a single acre of good wheat will pay all the public demands on 
 a farm of one hundred acres. 
 
 With regard to labour, I know it is against all our received 
 opinions, but I incline to think that farm woi-k in Pennsylva- 
 nia is very little dearer, if it be not actually cheaper, than in 
 England. The comparison is difficult, because at this dis- 
 tance we have not yet seen all the effects which the embar- 
 rassments of the last two yeai's have produced on the rate of 
 wages — because their nominal wages are generally swelled by 
 perquisites, and because in a country, where every sixth or 
 seventh person is legally a pauper, the poor rates are in fact 
 only a disguised increase of wages. But, rejecting these con- 
 siderations, and taking the average wages of day labour to 
 be what it was in 1810, fifty-five cents (2s. 6d.) and a dinner 
 — and it is not probably now less near London — even this 
 •does not, I believe, fall more than about twenty-five or thii'ty- 
 five per cent, below the price of day labour in the same dis- 
 trict near Philadelphia. But the nominal price of labour is a 
 less true mode of comparison, than the actual expense of exe- 
 cuting any given work in the two countries. Now, we have 
 more long, clear, good working days, and our workmen — as 
 I have spoken freely of our faults, I may be allowed to state 
 our capacities — our workmen are better fed, moi-e active, 
 more intelligent, and more dexterous in their labours. Not to 
 speak of the axe, in all the uses of which they have no rivals, 
 I believe that three Pennsylvania farmers, with their scythes 
 fresh ground and their tough ash cradles, might stand before 
 any wheat field in Europe, and challenge twice or thrice 
 their number pf reapers. This is no exaggeration. Sir 
 
80 
 
 ■Tuhn Sincluir, iu liis work published as late as l&21,saysy 
 that thit'c good reapers will cut an aci*c of wheat in one day. 
 Now an American cradlcr will, in a licld with the average 
 ci"op of England, cut three, four, and even more acres in one 
 day. He further calculates, that the cutting and binding of 
 this acre will cost fifteen shillings, from which, if we deduct 
 Os. Gt/. as the wages of the binder, who performs his part in 
 hiUf a day, there remains 12s. 6d. or 82.75 per acre. Now, 
 allowing a moderate average of work for a cradlcr, — three 
 acres, — and a high average of wages, — one dollar, — the Ame- 
 rican acre will be cut at the price of thirty-three cents, and 
 the English acre at two hundred and seventy-five cents j and 
 done as well too, lor the dift'erence as to the shattering out of 
 grain between good cradling and reaping, is in fact very 
 little, and even that may be saved by cutting rather before 
 the complete maturity of the grain — a system to which the 
 best English practice is now approaching. So too, an English 
 labourer, with a driver and lour or five or six hoi-ses, will 
 not plough more in a day, than a Pennsylvanian alone with 
 two; and no excess of wages to him, can balance the expense 
 of a driver and two or three superiluous horses. 
 
 Again, reaping oats in Middlesex is stated to cost 8s. 
 (81.75) per acre. The same field in this country would pro- 
 bably be cradled for one-sixth of the expense. These details 
 might be pursued into other departments of farming labour, 
 and they would show, that an aci*c of ground may be pre- 
 pared for seed, and the produce carried to market, at an ex- 
 pense, if not less, certainly not much greater, in America 
 than England.* 
 
 • These estimates may be svipportcil by examples from other branches 
 rtl" industry. There can be no fairer me;isiire of prices for instAncc, tlian tlic 
 expense of removing, b\ mauu;il labour, •* given quAntity of earth; that i\ 
 
31 
 
 The means of enriching land, by lime and other manures, 
 are cheaper near Philadelphia than near London ; and that 
 most important article of husbandry, salt, is much cheaper 
 here than in England, where the excise has almost banished 
 it from their farm yards. 
 
 The prices of produce may be more readily compared. Of 
 the great production of England, wheat, her farmers have 
 the monopoly until the price rises to about Si. 8 5. This, 
 however, being a scarcity price, is, of course, much above the 
 ordinary price. In July last, the average of all England was 
 about one dollar and fifty -three cents. At the same period 
 with us — a season of great depression — ^the price varied from 
 seventy-five to ninety cents, and at the present moment, with- 
 out any foreign demand, it may be stated at about one dollar 
 and ten cents. The flesh markets are also considerably higher 
 in England. But wheat forms only one-fourth of the crops ; 
 and in the articles of turnips and potatoes — in the root crops 
 generally, the price is probably higher here than in England. 
 The great staple of wool is certainly dearer. These elements 
 will enable us to contrast with our own, the condition of an 
 English farmer, whose rent is three times as great, whose 
 taxes are twenty times as great — manures more expensive — 
 labour not much cheaper — and prices, on a whole rotation of 
 crops, not much higher. 
 
 of excavating a canal, though all the benefits of experience in that business 
 are certainly on the side of England. Yet, yard for yard, a canal may pro- 
 bably be made as cheap in this country as in England. The latest British 
 work of that kind is the Caledonian Canal, completed in 1820. There the 
 average price in common earth was six pence, or 11 1-9 cents per cubical 
 yard. Now the contracts recently made by the Company for constructing a 
 canal by the side of the Schuylkill, are in some cases as low as seven cents 
 per cubical yard; in other and peculiar cases, as high as twenty -eight cents; 
 but the average of the whole twenty-two miles, will not probably exceed 
 11 9-10 cents per cubical yard. 
 
32 
 
 Yet they make their farnis more productive j they pu^ 
 higher rents. Near London or Edinburgh they can afford to 
 pay lor wlieat lands twenty or thirty dollars rent per acrej 
 and — wliat ought to shame us into better husbandry — in spite 
 of all their burdens — in spite of a freight of 3000 miles, a com- 
 mission to two mrirhants, and a duty of fifteen per cent., they 
 reach our own market with their produce, and arc always 
 preferred to us. But then they raise twice or thrice as much 
 wheat, and probably five times as much of other produce. 
 They have forty bushels of wheat, and fifty of barley, and 
 sixty or seventy of oats, and twelve hundred bushels of tur- 
 nips, and four liundred bushels of potatoes; all following each 
 other with tiie least practicable intervals. They succeed better 
 than we do, because, in fact, they are better farmei's than we 
 ai'e. But the reason of the difference is, simply, that we will 
 not bestow on our lands the same well directed labour, or the 
 fiftieth part of the capital which they intrust to theii*s. \Mien- 
 ever these have been ai>plied, as in other countries, our soil 
 has never refused returns as abundant. Of this the premium 
 crops of our agricultural societies affurd decisive evidence : 
 and we have recently seen an experiment, which I mention as 
 illustrating at once the judicious employment of capital, the 
 productiveness of small spots of ground, and the benefits of 
 soiling. The Pennsylvania Hospital has in its neighbourhood 
 fourteen acres of ground, from wliich, during the last year, 
 were soiled seventeen cows. Some of these, as their milk 
 failed, wei-c replaced by others. But an account of this ex. 
 pense, and of all the other charges, was accurately kept, 
 and credited witli the market price of the pi-oducc, either 
 consumed in the hospital or sold at market. The clear pro- 
 fits amounted to more than two thousand three hundred dol- 
 lars. 
 
33 
 
 These calculations arc, of course, not applicable to the re- 
 mote farmers, whose markets are liabitually less valuable, and 
 who arc now suffering under the extinction of the accustomed 
 demands fi-om abroad. Their embarrassments should, how- 
 ever, direct their industry to new channels; and there are, 
 fortunately, now presented to the farmers of Pennsylvania, 
 two distinct branches of industry, which may enable them to 
 retrieve their losses, and t^ive a new impulse to the husbandry 
 of the state. I mean to speak of the growth of wool, and the 
 cultivation of flax and hemp. 
 
 The consumption of woollens in the United States cannot 
 be less than twenty or thirty millions of dollars, of which the 
 greater part is manufactured in the country. It is needless 
 to be exact as to the amount, since my purpose will be explain- 
 ed by the facts, that the domestic supply of wool is not equal 
 to the domestic demand — that the manufactories of Pennsyl- 
 vania receive much of their wool from abroad — and that wool 
 is at this moment probably dearer in Pennsylvania than in 
 England, or perhaps in any of the wool growing countries; 
 and this w hile we possess the finest breeds of sheep, capable of 
 an almost indefinite increase. These unhappy animals have 
 been the victims of the most extraordinary caprice. When the 
 war of the Peninsula threw into this country some of the very 
 best breeds of Spain, they were eagerly purchased at extra- 
 vagant prices. But, in too many instances, the owners were 
 deceived by calculations of their very small consumption of 
 food ; and they omitted to adopt for them, what in the long 
 winters of this climate is indispensable, the turnip culture. 
 Large flocks were, therefore, crowded into narrow fields; 
 w here, as there was soon no other means of subsistence, their 
 hunger forced them to eat the roots, and they were then de- 
 nounced as utterly destructive to grass lands. Their ijiade- 
 
3t 
 
 quatc supply ot" winter lood too wits soon cxhauslcd, iiiid tluy 
 weiT then irproarhcil lor their voracity. Even this migiit be 
 borne, wliilc tlio war price of wool repaid the expenses of 
 buying subsistence for tjicm, but when peace diminished their 
 value, Nvitliout lessening their appetite, the owTiei-s, disgusted 
 with a stock which they did not know how to manage, sacri- 
 ficed them as rasldy as they had houglit them, gave them 
 away, and almost drove them away from their faiins. Thus 
 entire flocks of the finest merino sheep were devoted to the 
 knife, for no other reason but that, contrary to the wish and 
 expectation of the owner, they would persist in eating. The 
 extent of these saci'ifices is scarcely credible. A very re- 
 spectable butcher assured me, that he bought, for one dollar a 
 head, a Hock of merinos, among which was an imported ram, 
 who the owner declared, and I have no doubt truly, had cost 
 one thousand dollars. That extravagance has now passed, 
 and excellent merino sheep may be procured, well calculated 
 to cover the interior of Pennsylvania with a most productive 
 soui'ce of wealth. On the rich natural herbage of the woods 
 they would subsist, without any expense, during a greater 
 jiart of the year, and a small field of turnips woidd carry 
 them through the winter. The only serious obstacle in the 
 less populous districts is the wolf, and he is fast disappearing. 
 
 The culture of flax and hemp in Pennsylvania has been 
 hitherto limited by the imperfection of our machinery for 
 working it, and by the inferiority of our dew-retting to the K\i- 
 ropean practice of water-retting. Accordingly our trade in flax 
 consists chiefly in exporting the seed to the Irish farmers, 
 wjio, after raising and prepaiing it, return it to our factories. 
 It is selling the fountain and buying back the stream. 
 
 The society has been for some time engaged in endeavoiirs 
 to remedy tliis deficiencv, and the result of the exhibitions this 
 
day inspire a conlidcnt liope of their success. We liave just ex- 
 amined a machine scarcely less impfirtant than the cotton-gin, 
 by which all the expensive and troublesome labours of dew 
 and water-retting are superseded ; which will prevent the de- 
 terioration both in the colour and strength of the fibre caused 
 by those processes; which will save the whole quantity — about 
 one-half — now lost in the ordinary method ; and by enabling 
 us to gather the flax before ripening, save the land fiom the 
 most exhausting process of all plants, the seeding. By the gene- 
 ral adoption of this machine, the farmers may increase their cul- 
 tivation of flax and hemp — prepare it themselves — and pro- 
 vide a cheap supply for the whole consumption of the country. 
 Nor is this all. As the flax manufactiu'es cheapen, their con- 
 sumption will of course increase, till they may be made to 
 regain that ascendancy in general use which they lost by the 
 cheapness of cotton, and enable the farmers of the middle 
 states to engage in a generous competition with the cotton 
 growers of the south. This expectation may not be visionary. 
 The great consumption of cotton is due to the machinery. 
 Now this machine will greatly diminish the cost; and the 
 manufactories of this country can, it is said, work flax as 
 easily as cotton. If, then, the same facilities be given to flax 
 or hemp, their prosperity may be equal; since they enter with 
 great advantage into our rotation of crops, and the actual pro- 
 duce on an acre is twice as great as that of cotton. 
 
 If, gentlemen, I have wearied you with these details, you 
 will ascribe it to the deep conviction, that nothing is more im- 
 portant to this community than to extend the taste for agricul- 
 ture, from which the habits of the last twenty years, and the 
 present depressed value of its produce, combine to estrange 
 ns. AVc, in Permsylvania, have reached precisely that point 
 where, witli all the finest materials for good husbandry, one 
 
36 
 
 strp only is necessary to ensure distinejiiislied sik cess. Why 
 ilien can we not make this final effort? While all around us 
 are roused into an honourable zeal lor agricultui*c — while Vir- 
 .^inia possesses so many societies devoted to her cultivation — 
 while the most distint^uished gentlemen from distant parts of 
 Mai-yland crowded a few months since to their fine exhibition 
 at Baltimore — while almost eveiT county in New York has 
 its agricultural society and its cattle show, why is it that 
 this Pennsylvania, this land emphatically of farmers, suf- 
 fers herself to be outstripped in this generous cai'eer? A\ by 
 is it that, although the legislature has assigned a fund for 
 an agi'icultural society in every county, that with the ho- 
 nourable exception of Bucks and Chester and Susquehanna 
 and Franklin and Allegheny, whom I enumerate in justice 
 to theii" spirit, the farmers of Pennsylvania have never yet 
 found leisure to associate for the advancement of their own 
 best interests ? The establishment of these societies through- 
 out the state, would be among the surest means of pro- 
 moting its improvement. They inspire mutual confidence — 
 they kindle mutual competition — they draw into notice the 
 skill of experienced cultivators — they diffuse useful informa- 
 tion — and, more than any other measure, they tend to im- 
 prove and exalt the character of the Avrmer. The exhibitions, 
 too, are admiiablc auxiliaries. By placing in tlicir most 
 attractive lights the labours of industry, they reward the de- 
 serving, while they stimulate the indolent, and enlist in the 
 great cause of |)ublic improvement all the pleasures of social 
 enjoyment and the enthusiasm of emulation. What indeed can 
 be moi-e exhilarating than the assemblage of a healthy, well 
 clad, free, happy people, surrounded by the fruits of their 
 well directed industiy — the animals which display their kind- 
 ness — tiie iniph inents whi( h attest their ingenuity. A> ho i-. 
 
37 
 
 tlicre even on tliis side of the Atlantic, who does not read with 
 more pleasure the accounts of the agiicultural meetings at 
 Holkham, tlian of the coronation at Westminster, or the as- 
 semblage of sovereigns at Troppau ? Who did not feel more 
 satisfaction at the exhibitions of Massachusetts or Maryland, 
 than in the gaudiest displays of military power? 
 
 If I have failed to prove that the pursuits of agriculture 
 may be as lucrative as other employments, it will be an easier 
 task to vindicate their pleasures and their importance. I need 
 not dwell on that retirement, one of the purest enjoyments of 
 this life, and the best preparation for the future — on those 
 healthful occupations — on that calmness of mind — on that high 
 spirit of manliness and independence, which naturally belong 
 to that condition. These are attractions which must have 
 deep roots in the human heart, since they have in all times 
 fascinated at once the imagination and won the judgment of 
 men. But I may be allowed to say, that in this nation agri- 
 culture is probably destined to attain its highest honours, and 
 that the country life of America ought to possess peculiar 
 attractions. The pure and splendid institutions of this people 
 have embodied the bi-ightest dreams of those high spirits, who 
 in other times and in other lands have lamented or struggled 
 against oppression — tliey have realized the fine conceptions 
 which speculative men have imagined — which wise men have 
 planned, or brave men vainly perishe<l in attempting to estab- 
 lish. Their influence in reclaiming the lost dignity of man, 
 and inspiring the loftiest feelings of personal independence, 
 may be traced in every condition of our citizens^ but as all 
 objects ai*e most distinct by insulation, their effects ai'e i)ecu- 
 liarly obvious in the country. 
 
 The American farmer is the exclusive, absolute, uncon- 
 trolled proprietor of the soil. His tenure is not from the 
 
38 
 
 •government; the .a;overnmcnt derives its power from liini. 
 There is above him nothing l)ut God and the laws; no here- 
 ditary authority usurping the distinctions of personal genius ; 
 no established church spreading its dark shadow between him 
 and heaven. His frugal goverruncnt neither desii*es nor dares 
 to oppress the soil ; and the altars of religion arc supported 
 only by the voluntary offerings of sincere piety. His pur- 
 suits, which no per\ er.sion can render injurious to any, ai'e di- 
 rected to the common benefit of all. In multiplying the boun- 
 ties of Providence, in the improvement and embellishment of 
 the soil — in the care of the inferior animals committed to his 
 ( harge, he will find an ever varying and interesting employ- 
 ment, dignified !)y the union of liberal studies, and enlivened 
 by the exercise of a simple and generous hospitality. His 
 character assumes a loftier interest by its influence over the 
 public liberty. It may not be foretold to what dangers this 
 country is destined, when its swelling population, its expand- 
 ing teri'itory, its daily complicating interests, sjiall awake 
 the latent passions of nun, and reveal the vulnerable points 
 of our institutions. But whenever these perils come, its 
 most steadfast security, its unfailing reliance will be on that 
 column of landed propriettn-s — the men of the soil and oi" the 
 country — standing aloof from the passions whit h agitate 
 denser communities — well educated, brave, and indepeTi- 
 dent — the friends of the government, without soli( iting its 
 favours — the advocates of the people, without descending to 
 Hatter their passions; these n>en, rooted like their own fo- 
 rests, may yet interpose between the factions of the tountry, 
 to heal, to defend, and to save. 
 
 There are many such men in this nation; and ilivvc wai 
 one, whom the old among us loved, and the youngest vene- 
 rate — whom we may proudly place by the side of llie master 
 
39 
 
 spirits of the best ages — the man whom his country's danger 
 always sought at his farm, and his country's blessings always 
 followed there — the model of American farmers. His memory 
 is in all our hearts, and his example may well inspire a fond- 
 ness for those pursuits which Washington most loved, and 
 teach us that there is no condition in which our lives may be 
 more usefid — in which we may more honour ourselves and 
 serve the country. 
 
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LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 
 
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