The Whole Store Of Nature's Kind
Luxuriance Seemed To Have Been Exhausted On These Beautiful Meadows;
He Made Me Count The Amazing Number Of Cattle And Horses Now Feeding
On Solid Bottoms, Which But A Few Years Before Had Been Covered With
Water.
Thence we rambled through his fields, where the right-angular
fences, the heaps of pitched stones, the flourishing clover,
announced the best husbandry, as well as the most assiduous
attention.
His cows were then returning home, deep bellied, short
legged, having udders ready to burst; seeking with seeming toil to
be delivered from the great exuberance they contained: he next
showed me his orchard, formerly planted on a barren sandy soil, but
long since converted into one of the richest spots in that vicinage.
"This," said he, "is altogether the fruit of my own contrivance; I
purchased some years ago the privilege of a small spring, about a
mile and a half from hence, which at a considerable expense I have
brought to this reservoir; therein I throw old lime, ashes, horse-
dung, etc., and twice a week I let it run, thus impregnated; I
regularly spread on this ground in the fall, old hay, straw, and
whatever damaged fodder I have about my barn. By these simple means
I mow, one year with another, fifty-three hundreds of excellent hay
per acre, from a soil, which scarcely produced five-fingers [a small
plant resembling strawberries] some years before." This is, Sir, a
miracle in husbandry; happy the country which is cultivated by a
society of men, whose application and taste lead them to prosecute
and accomplish useful works. "I am not the only person who do these
things," he said, "wherever water can be had it is always turned to
that important use; wherever a farmer can water his meadows, the
greatest crops of the best hay and excellent after-grass, are the
sure rewards of his labours. With the banks of my meadow ditches, I
have greatly enriched my upland fields, those which I intend to rest
for a few years, I constantly sow with red clover, which is the
greatest meliorator of our lands. For three years after, they yield
abundant pasture; when I want to break up my clover fields, I give
them a good coat of mud, which hath been exposed to the severities
of three or four of our winters. This is the reason that I commonly
reap from twenty-eight to thirty-six bushels of wheat an acre; my
flax, oats, and Indian corn, I raise in the same proportion. Wouldst
thee inform me whether the inhabitants of thy country follow the
same methods of husbandry?" No, Sir; in the neighbourhood of our
towns, there are indeed some intelligent farmers, who prosecute
their rural schemes with attention; but we should be too numerous,
too happy, too powerful a people, if it were possible for the whole
Russian Empire to be cultivated like the province of Pennsylvania.
Our lands are so unequally divided, and so few of our farmers are
possessors of the soil they till, that they cannot execute plans of
husbandry with the same vigour as you do, who hold yours, as it were
from the Master of nature, unencumbered and free.
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