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The inhabitants of the country, dispersed in distant places,

cannot easily combine together. They have not only never been

incorporated, but the incorporation spirit never has prevailed

among them. No apprenticeship has ever been thought necessary to

qualify for husbandry, the great trade of the country. After what

are called the fine arts, and the liberal professions, however,

there is perhaps no trade which requires so great a variety of

knowledge and experience. The innumerable volumes which have been

written upon it in all languages, may satisfy us, that among the

wisest and most learned nations, it has never been regarded as a

matter very easily understood. And from all those volumes we

shall in vain attempt to collect that knowledge of its various

and complicated operations which is commonly possessed even by

the common farmer; how contemptuously soever the very

contemptible authors of some of them may sometimes affect to

speak of him.