Among other auxiliaries, I would take the liberty to recommend the establishment of libraries, to be composed of useful books. These might be located in the school-houses of each neighbourhood, and the teacher should be appointed to the care of the establishment. In the country, it is customary to assemble but once, in the day assigned, for social worship; in the afternoon of that day, the library might be opened for the delivery and reception of books. How much better would it be, to witness the people passing, in an orderly manner, to, and from the library of the vicinage, than assembling at taverns, or employed in idle and pernicious sports, on the evening of a day, set apart by Christian professors, for the worship, which is publicly due _to the Sovereign of the world_!
You may suppose, fellow citizens, that these suggestions are the offspring of a visionary brain; but the period is coming, with no tardy step, when sound morals and undefiled religion will be found to be the best estate. Men and governments prosper solely in proportion as they are regulated by principles which GOD approves. It is idle, in the last degree, to expect prosperity from any other source. All history, sacred and civil, teaches but one lesson; VICE AND IGNORANCE CONDUCT NATIONS TO THE TOMB!
This epistle is shorter than I had designed it to be; various avocations have claimed my attention. I have only to solicit your attention to the subjects submitted in it to your notice, and to assure you of my good will.
Of the actual state of Agriculture in Europe.
8. _Holland_, though essentially commercial has, from causes rarely occurring, become also highly agricultural. To the descendants of Dutchmen, the following description of her industry, in this respect, cannot but be acceptable. It is from the pen of an excellent judge and faithful narrator.[1]
[1] M. Yoarst, professor of agriculture at Elfort. See his introductory address to his class, in 1806.
"Their rotation of crops, always begins with the culture either of some leguminous plant or profitable root, and generally with the potato, as the best preparative of the ground. Whatever may be the grain which follows, whether wheat, rye, &c. &c. it is generally sown with _red clover_; and where it is not, the stubble is ploughed in immediately after harvest, and a crop of turnips taken and either consumed on the ground or housed for the winter. A single department (that of Zealand) obtains by the culture of madder alone, an annual profit of six millions of florins; while that of Brabant boasts its twenty thousand bee-hives; in a word, this commendable nation, upon an extent of surface not exceeding seventeen hundred square leagues, (the greater part of which has been redeemed from the ocean) counts two hundred and forty-three thousand horses, seven hundred and sixty thousand horn cattle, about a million of sheep, from ten to twelve thousand goats, four hundred and eighty-nine thousand hogs, and about three millions of poultry, of every species. Their stock of manure is necessarily great, and is both well understood and well managed."