Review of Essays on Calcareous Manures. 147 



The settlers of Pennsylvania commenced the cultivation of that 

 state under different circumstances, and with different views from 

 those either of the east or of Virginia. Penn's plan made cities or 

 boroughs, the seats of traffic and markets of produce, the nuclei of 

 his agricultural settlements, and by a mutual dependence thus crea- 

 ted, fixed the agriculturist in the neighborhood of the merchant and 

 manufacturer. The very state of things which a slow course of 

 events has brought about in New England, was contemplated by that 

 enlightened proprietor from the first. The dairy and the beeve were 

 therefore the staples, and other products became the accessories ; 

 thus it has happened, that the farmers of the neighborhood of Phila- 

 delphia, are the only settlers of English blood, who have resisted 

 the migratory habits of other parts of the country. In that neigh- 

 borhood, the original fertility has been kept up by the manure yield- 

 ed by the stocks of cattle which formed the basis of the system, and 

 that which is afforded by the stables and streets of the city. A simi- 

 lar dread of change influenced the Germans, who followed the Qua- 

 kers, in the occupation of the more remote districts of Pennsylvania ; 

 and while bread stuffs naturally became the only profitable objects 

 of culture, they avoided the exhaustion which their growth produced 

 in other districts, by a most valuable secret they brought with them 

 from Europe. We call it a secret, for those of other blood, who see 

 it used in their presence, do not discover its value. This is neither 

 more nor less than the use of lime. By this simple but efficient 

 aid, the farms of Pennsylvania have generally maintained their ori- 

 ginal character for fertility, and in some places have increased in 

 products, beyond the early crops that are given by the proverbial 

 energy of a virgin soil. To show how slowly an agricultural pro- 

 cess, however valuable, passes from one race of settlers to another, 

 we may mention what we ourselves saw, during the last summer, in 

 Hunterdon County, New Jersey. The southern part of this county 

 is settled by Germans, who have entered from Pennsylvania ; the 

 northern, by those of various races who have mounted the valley of 

 the Raritan. The soil, in many places, is to appearance identical, 

 being formed by the decomposition of the red shale ; the Germans, 

 by the use of lime, raise from thirty to forty bushels of wheat per 

 acre, and their other products are in proportion ; the settlers of 

 Yankee and Dutch blood, are happy to get from fifteen to twenty. 

 We hope, for the sake of our argument, that the same German race 

 has carried the same practice along with it, in its progress through 



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