Use Thy Time With The Most Perfect Freedom; I Too Shall Do
So Myself." I Thankfully Accepted The Kind Invitation.
We went to view his favourite bank; he showed me the principles and
method on which it was erected; and we walked over the grounds which
had been already drained.
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. Oh, America!
exclaimed I, thou knowest not as yet the whole extent of thy
happiness: the foundation of thy civil polity must lead thee in a
few years to a degree of population and power which Europe little
thinks of! "Long before this happen," answered the good man, "we
shall rest beneath the turf; it is vain for mortals to be
presumptuous in their conjectures: our country, is, no doubt, the
cradle of an extensive future population; the old world is growing
weary of its inhabitants, they must come here to flee from the
tyranny of the great. But doth not thee imagine, that the great
will, in the course of years, come over here also; for it is the
misfortune of all societies everywhere to hear of great men, great
rulers, and of great tyrants." My dear Sir, I replied, tyranny never
can take a strong hold in this country, the land is too widely
distributed: it is poverty in Europe that makes slaves. "Friend
Iwan, as I make no doubt that thee understandest the Latin tongue,
read this kind epistle which the good Queen of Sweden, Ulrica, sent
me a few years ago. Good woman! that she should think in her palace
at Stockholm of poor John Bertram, on the banks of the Schuylkill,
appeareth to me very strange." Not in the least, dear Sir; you are
the first man whose name as a botanist hath done honour to America;
it is very natural at the same time to imagine, that so extensive a
continent must contain many curious plants and trees: is it then
surprising to see a princess, fond of useful knowledge, descend
sometimes from the throne, to walk in the gardens of Linnaeus? "'Tis
to the directions of that learned man," said Mr. Bertram, "that I am
indebted for the method which has led me to the knowledge I now
possess; the science of botany is so diffusive, that a proper thread
is absolutely wanted to conduct the beginner." Pray, Mr. Bertram,
when did you imbibe the first wish to cultivate the science of
botany; was you regularly bred to it in Philadelphia? "I have never
received any other education than barely reading and writing; this
small farm was all the patrimony my father left me, certain debts
and the want of meadows kept me rather low in the beginning of my
life; my wife brought me nothing in money, all her riches consisted
in her good temper and great knowledge of housewifery.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 65 of 79
Words from 65158 to 66168
of 79752