371 



Millions of acres in the United States at this time, present the sad 

 spectacle of sterile fields and barren wastes; scattered over them you 

 find dilapidated dwellings, roofless barns and prostrate fences. These 

 are the signs of the slothful but greedy farmer, who vainly supposed 

 that these sterile fields, once so rich and productive, would always re- 

 main so, without returning to them an equivalent for the rich harvests 

 they had so long and so bountifully yielded. As well might he expect 

 that the natural body could labor on, day after day, without rest and 

 repose, and fail not in its amount of labor, as that any soil is so rich aa 

 to produce equally abundant crops from year to year, without proper 

 manures and proper culture. It has been said that the individual who 

 causes two spears of grass to grow where only one grew before, is en- 

 titled to be regarded as a public benefactor. I admit this conclusion, 

 and beg leave to add that the individual who, by careless and pernicious 

 farming, lessens the soil's ability to produce, though not legally guilty 

 of pilfering, is, nevertheless, morally guilty of that offense ; for he robs 

 and destroys the best qualities of the soil, committed for a brief period 

 to his charge, and in which the pubhc as well as his family, hold an 

 interest. 



The man who settles upon land of acknowledged strength, possessing 

 every essential element which makes up the sum total of a productive 

 soil, and raises from it a good crop, is entitled to credit merely for the 

 actual labor he expends in "putting in" and harvesting the crop. But 

 the man who settles upon land abandoned by his neighbor as worn out, 

 and devoid of goodness, and from it grows good crops, is not only en- 

 titled to credit for his labor, but for his superior intelligence, energy and 

 usefulness. That man is indeed a public benefactor. To men of this 

 character must be committed the task of reclaiming those barren wastes 

 which are scattered over our north-eastern and middle States, and which 

 are multiplying too fast in the great west. Fortunes are oftener made, 

 and quicker, by such men, from such farms, than by those who till a 

 good soil, to which nothing is added to keep it as productive as the 

 proprietors found it. 



The prevailing fault of western farmers, consists mainly in attempt- 

 ing to cultivate more land than they possess the ability to cultivate prop- 

 erly. Coming from the eastern, middle, or southern States, where land 

 bears a price too great for their means, and settling upon the plains, 



