Our Present System of Agriculture; [January, 



thought that there is a vast area yet intact in the far West.. Thus, from 

 the time our forefathers landed on Plymouth Eock, has the wilderness 

 Tbeen disappearing, and the population, with constantly increasing tide, 

 has been moving westward, wasting and destroying timber and soil, and 

 like an army of locusts, leaving a desert in their track. And now that 

 our facilities for travel and transit are so much increased, our people, 

 with true Anglo-Saxon rapacity, are extending with unwonted strides 

 this vandal policy to the wild woodlands and prairies of our vast Western 

 domain. 



Productiveness of crops and destructiveness of soil are two of the most 

 prominent features of American agriculture. 



Wherever reliable statistics have been furnished, the rapid deteriora- 

 tion of our soil is fully demonstrated. Depletion, constant depletion, 

 has been the inculcation and practice enforced by precept and example 

 by all who have exercised guardianship of these matters. The absurdity 

 of this policy must be apparent to every reflecting man. 



In the State of New York, according to a recent report of the Patent 

 Office, while the amount of land under cultivation was increased near 

 seven hundred thousand acres from the year 1845 to 1850, the crops, 

 neat stock, horses, swine, and sheep, instead of having gained in like 

 proportion, were actually greatly diminished. The facts presented by 

 the figures are at once startling. For instance, the number of horses in 

 1845 was 505,155, in 1850 it was 447,014, being a decrease of 58,141 ; 

 during the same period the decrease in cows was 68,066; of other cattle. 

 127,525 ; of swine 566,092. Of sheep there were 6,443,865 in 1845, and 

 only 3,453,241 in 1850, nearly one-half. Of the great staples, potatoes, 

 peas, beans, flax, wool, wheat, and buckwheat, there was the like enor- 

 mous falling oif. Only in the articles corn, rye and oats,, was there a 

 gain ; and these in by no means such quantities as to make up the 

 deficiency ; so, while the area under cultivation was greatly increased, 

 there was an actual and absolute diminution in the amount produced. 

 It is estimated that two-thirds of all the improved lands in this State 

 are damaged to the extent of at least three dollars per acre yearly, 

 involving an annual depreciation of twenty-five millions of dollars. And 

 this state of facts is not confined to New York, but is applicable to a 

 greater or less extent to all the States, especially to the cotton and 

 sugar growing States, South. 



Of the one hundred and twenty-five millions of acres under cultivation 

 in the United States, it is estimated that four-fifths, or one hundred 

 millions, are damaged to the extent of three dollars an acre per annum. 

 That is, that complete restitution of the elements of crops removed, such 



