10. Very little improvement was made on art, the cultivators of the soil were chiefly the theory of this author, for upwards of a || guided by the precept and example of hundred years, when Sir Hugh Platt dis- their predecessors, which were often inapcovered and brought into use several kinds || plicable. By the aid of chemical analyof manures for fertilizing and restoring exhausted soils.

11. Agriculture again received a new impulse, about the middle of the eighteenth || century; and, in 1793, a Board of Agriculture was established by an act of Parliament, at the suggestion of Sir John Sinclair, who was elected its first president. Through the influence of this board, a great number of agricultural societies have been formed in the kingdom, and much valuable information on rural economy has been communicated to the public, through the medium of a voluminous periodical under its superintendence.

sis, it is easy to discover the constituent parts of different soils; and, with this knowledge, there is but little difficulty in determining the best mode of improving them, or in applying the most suitable crops.

15. In the large extent of territory embraced within the United States, there is great variation of soil and climate; but in each state, or district, the attention of the cultivators is directed to the production of those articles which, under the circumstances, promise to be most profitable. In the northern portions of our country, the cultivators of the soil are called farmers. They direct their attention chiefly to the production of wheat, rye, corn, oats, barley, peas, beans, potatoes, pumpkins, and flax, together with grasses and fruits of various kinds. The same class of men in the southern states are usually denominated planters, who confine themselves principally to tobacco, rice, cotton, sugarcane, or hemp. In some parts of that portion of our country, however, rye, wheat,

12. After the example of Great Britain, agricultural societies have been formed, and periodical journals published, in various parts of the continent of Europe, as well as in the United States. The principal publications devoted to this subject in this country, are the American Farmer, at Baltimore; the New England Farmer, at Boston; and the Genesee Farmer, at Rochester. 13. The modern improvements in hus-oats, and sweet potatoes, are extensively bandry consist, principally, in the proper cultivated; and, in almost every part, corn application of manures, the mixture of dif- is a favourite article. ferent kinds of earths, the use of plaster and lime, the rotation of crops, adapting the crop to the soil, the introduction of new kinds of grain, roots, grasses, and fruits, as well as improvements in the breeds of domestic animals, and in the implements with which the various operations of the art are performed.

14. For many of the improved processes which relate to the amelioration of the soil, we are indebted to chemistry. Before this science was brought to the aid of the

16. The process of cultivating most of the productions which have been mentioned, is nearly the same. In general, with the occasional exception of new lands, the plough is used to prepare the ground for the reception of the seed. Wheat, rye, barley, oats, peas, and the seeds of hemp and flax, are scattered with the hand of the husbandman, and are covered in the earth with the harrow. In Great Britain, such seeds are sown in drills; and this method is thought to be better than ours,

as it admits of the use of the hoe, while the for the most speedy execution of the task.

17. Corn, beans, potatoes, and pumpkins, are covered in the earth with the hoe. The ground is ploughed several times during the summer, to make it loose, and to keep down the weeds. The hoe is also used in accomplishing the same objects, and in de-continent, until the discovery of America. positing fresh earth around the growing vegetable.

20. This custom is most prevalent, where the greater part of the labour is performed by slaves. The blacks, when assembled for 24. Rice was long known in the east, a husking match, choose a captain, whose before it was introduced into Egypt and business it is to lead the song, while the Greece, whence it spread over Africa gerest join in chorus. Sometimes, they di- nerally, and the southern parts of Europe. vide the corn, as nearly as possible, into It is now cultivated in all the warm parts two equal heaps, and apportion the hands of the globe, chiefly on grounds subject to accordingly, with a captain to each divi- periodical inundations. The Chinese obsion. This is done to produce a contest tain two crops a year from the same ground,

and cultivate it in this way from genera-Egypt, and in many other parts of the tion to generation, without applying any world, where the climate is sufficiently manure, except the stubble of the prece-warm for the purpose. There are several ding crop, and the mud deposited from the species of this plant; of which three kinds water overflowing it.

25. Soon after the waters of the inundation have retired, a spot is inclosed with an embankment, lightly ploughed and harrowed, and then sown very thickly with || the grain. Immediately, a thin sheet of water is brought over it, either by a stream or some hydraulic machinery. When the plants have grown to the height of six or seven inches, they are transplanted in furrows, and again water is brought over them, and kept on, until the crop begins to ripen, when it is withheld.

are cultivated in the southern states of the Union-the nankeen cotton, the green seed cotton, and the black seed, or sea island cotton. The two first, which grow in the middle and upland countries, are denominated short staple cotton: the last is cultivated in the lower country, near the sea, and on the islands near the main land, and is of a fine quality, and of a long staple.

29. The plants are propagated annually from seeds, which are sown very thickly in ridges made with the plough, or hoe. After they have grown to the height of three or four inches, part of them are pull

26. The crop is cut with a sickle, threshed with a flail, or by the treading of cat-ed up, in order that the rest, while coming tle; and the husks, which adhere closely to maturity, may stand about four inches to the kernel, are beaten off in a stone apart. It is henceforth managed, until mortar, or by passing the grain through a fully grown, like Indian corn. mill, similar to our corn-mills. The mode of cultivating rice, in any part of the world, varies but little from the foregoing process. The point which requires the greatest attention, is the keeping of the ground properly covered with water.

30. The cotton is inclosed in pods, which open as fast as their contents become fit to be gathered. In Georgia, about eighty pounds of upland cotton can be gathered by a single hand, in a day; but in Alabama and Mississippi, where the plant thrives better, two hundred pounds are frequently collected in the same time.

27. Rice was introduced into the Carolinas in 1697, where it is now produced in greater perfection than in any other coun- 31. The seeds adhere closely to the cottry. The seeds are dropped along, from ton, when picked from the pods; but they the small end of a gourd, into drills made || are properly separated by machines called with one corner of a hoe. The plants, || gins; of which there are two kinds,—the when partly grown, are not transferred to || roller-gin, and the saw-gin. The essenanother place, as in Asia, but are suffered tial parts of the former are two cylinders, to grow and ripen in the original drills. which are placed nearly in contact with The crop is secured like wheat, and the each other. By their revolving motion, husks are forced from the grain by a ma- the cotton is drawn between them, while chine, which leaves the kernels more per- the size of the seeds prevents their pas fect than the methods adopted in other sage. This machine, being of small size, countries. is worked by hand.

28. Cotton is cultivated in the East and West Indies, North and South America,

32. The saw-gin is much larger, and is moved by animal, steam, or water-power.

and Morocco. The Spaniards obtained it from the Moors, and, in the fifteenth century, introduced it into the Canary islands. It was brought to America and the West India Islands, by the Spaniards and Portu

It consists of a receiver, having one side covered with strong wires, placed in a parallel direction, about an eighth of an inch apart, and a number of circular saws, which revolve on a common axis. The saws pass between these wires, and entan-guese. It is now cultivated in the United gle in their teeth the cotton, which is thereby drawn through the grating; while the seeds, from their size, are forced to remain on the other side.

States, below the thirty-first degree of latitude, and in the warm parts of the globe generally.

37. Previous to the year 1466, sugar was known in England chiefly as a medicine; and, although the sugar-cane was cultivated at that time in several places on the Mediterranean, it was not more extensively used on the continent. Now, in point of

33. Before the invention of the saw-gin, the seeds were separated from the upland | cottons by hand,-a method so extremely tedious, that their cultivation was attended with but little profit to the planter. This machine was invented in Georgia, by Eli || importance, it ranks next to wheat and Whitney, of Massachusetts. It was un- rice in the vegetable world, and first in dertaken at the request of several planters maritime commerce. of the former state, and was there put in operation in 1792.

38. The cultivators of sugar-cane propagate the plant by means of cuttings from 34. In the preceding year, the whole the lower end of the stalks, which are crop of cotton in the United States was planted, in the spring or autumn, in drills, only sixty-four bales; but, in 1834, it or in furrows formed by the plough. The amounted to 1,000,617. The vast increase new plants spring from the joints of the in the production of this article has arisen, || cuttings, and are fit to be gathered for in part, from the increased demand for it use in eight, ten, twelve, or fourteen in Europe, and in the Northern States, but months. While growing, sugar-cane is chiefly from the use of the invaluable ma-managed much like Indian corn. chine just mentioned.

35. Sugar-cane was cultivated by the Chinese, at a very early period, probably two thousand years before it was known in Europe; but sugar, in a candied form, was used in small quantities by the Greeks and Romans, in the days of their prosperity. It was probably brought from Bengal, Siam, or some of the East India Islands, as it is supposed that it grew nowhere else at that time.

36. In the thirteenth century, soon after the merchants of the West began to traffic in Indian articles of commerce, the plant was introduced into Arabia Felix, and thence into Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia,

39. When ripe, the cane is cut and brought to the sugar-mill, where the juice is expressed between iron or stone cylinders, moved by steam, water, or animal power. The juice thus obtained is evaporated in large boilers, to a syrup, which is afterwards removed to coolers, where it is agitated with wooden instruments called stirrers. To accelerate its cooling, it is next poured into casks, and, when yet warm, is conveyed to barrels, placed in an upright position over a cistern, and pierced in the bottom in several places. The holes being partially stopped with canes, the part which still remains in the form of syrup, filters through them into the cistern beneath,

while the rest is left in the form of sugar, in the state called muscovado.

40. This sugar is of a yellow colour, being yet in a crude or raw state. It is further purified by various processes, such as redissolving it in water, and again boiling it with lime and bullocks' blood, or with animal charcoal, and passing the syrup through several canvas filters.

45. When a sufficient quantity of syrup, of a certain thickness, has been obtained, it is passed through a strainer, and, having been again placed over the fire, it is clarified with eggs and milk; the scum, as it rises, being carefully removed with a skimmer. When sufficiently reduced, it is usually poured into tin pans or basins, in which, as it cools, it consolidates into

46. Most of the lands in a state of nature, are covered with forest trees. This is especially the case in North America. When this division of our continent was first visited by Europeans, it was nearly one vast wilderness, throughout its entire extent; and even now, after a lapse of three centuries, a great portion of it remains in the same situation. The indus

41. Loaf-sugar is manufactured by pour-hard cakes of sugar. ing the syrup, after it has been purified, and reduced to a certain thickness by evaporation, into unglazed earthen vessels of a conical shape. The cones have a hole at their apex, through which may filter the syrup which separates from the sugar above. Most of the sugar is imported in a raw or crude state, and is afterwards refined in the cities, in sugar-houses. 42. Molasses is far less free from extra-trious settlers, however, are rapidly clearneous substances than sugar, as it is nothing more than the drainings from the latter. Rum is distilled from inferior molasses, and other saccharine matter of the cane, which will answer for no other purpose.

ing away the natural encumbrances of the soil; and before a similar period shall have passed away, we may expect that civilized men will have occupied every portion of this vast territory which may be worthy of cultivation.

47. The mode of clearing land, as it is termed, varies in different parts of the United States. In Pennsylvania, and in neighbourhoods settled by people from that state, the large trees are deadened by girdling them, and the small ones, together with the underbrush, are felled and burned. This mode is very objectionable, for the reason, that the limbs on the standing trees, when they have become rotten,

43. Sugar is also manufactured from the sap of the sugar-maple, in considerable || quantities, in the northern parts of the United States, and in the Canadas. The sap is obtained by cutting a notch, or boring a hole, in the tree, and applying a spout to conduct it to a receiver, which is either a rude trough or a cheap vessel made by a cooper. This operation is performed late in the winter, or early in the spring, when the weather is freezing at night, and thaw-sometimes peril the lives of those that may ing in the day.

44. The liquid in which the saccharine matter is suspended, is evaporated by heat, as in the case of the juice of the cane. During the process of evaporation, slices of pork are kept in the kettle, to prevent the sap, or syrup, from boiling over.

be underneath. It seems, however, that those who pursue this method prefer risking life in this way, to wearing it out in wielding the axe, and in rolling logs.

48. A very different plan is pursued by settlers from New-England. The underbrush is first cut down, and piled in heaps;