No. C. 



Some of the Principles of the New Hushandrt/. 



175 



ing, hueing, &c., we may preserve, unim- 

 paired, the natural fertility of our soils; — 

 and that with the aid of improved implements 

 of husbandry, and a good system of manage- 

 ment, we may also greatly increase the pro- 

 fits of its culture. 



These principles do not rest upon mere 

 theory. They have been long reduced to 

 practice, tlioroughly tested, and their correct- 

 ness amply verified. They iiave, in their i 

 practical application, virtually converted; 

 Flanders into a garden, and rendered it so fer- 

 tile in human food, that each acre is said to be 

 capable of supporting its man. The system 

 which these principles inculcate, has changed 

 Scotland, in a little more than half a century, 

 from comparative sterility and unproductive- 

 ness, into one of the richest and most profita- 

 ble agricultural districts in Europe. It has 

 increased the products of the corn harvest, in 

 Great Britain, in sixty years, from 170 to 340 

 millions of bushels. It has doubled, trebled, 

 and quadrupled the agricultural products of 

 many districts in our own country. It has 

 augmented the value of farms, in some of 

 these districts, two, three, and four hundred 

 per cent. — from twenty and thirty dollar?-, to 

 one hundred dollars and more per acre. It 

 has made every acre of arable land, upon 

 which it has been practised ten years, and 

 lying contiguous to navigable waters or a 

 good market, worth at least one hundred dol- 

 lars, for agricultural purposes. 



We will state some cases of comparison, 

 between the products of the old and new sys- 

 tem of farming, to illustrate more fully the ad- 

 vantages of the latter. 



The average products of Flanders are stated 

 by Radcliffe as follows: wheat thirty-two 

 bushels, rye thirty-two and a quarter, oats 

 fifty-two, potatoes three hundred and fifty, per 

 acre. Flanders has generally a flat surface, 

 with a light, sandy soil, illy adapted to wheat. 

 It is naturally very similar to the sandy dis- 

 trict upon the sea-coast in New Jersey, Mary- 

 land, and the sandy plains in the valley of the 

 Connecticut. 



In the fertile districts of Scotland, accord- 

 ing to Sir John Sinclair, and in propitious 

 seasons, " the farmer may confidently expect 

 to reap, from thirty-two to forty bushels of 

 wheat ; from forty-two to fifty bushels of bar- 

 ley; from fifty-two to sixty-four bushels of 

 oats, and from twenty-eight to thirty-two 

 bushels of beans, per statute acre. As to 

 green crops, thirty tons of turneps, three tons 

 of clover, and from eight to ten of potatoes, 

 per statute acre, may be confidently relied 

 on. In favourable seasons, the crops are still 

 more abundant." Professor Lowe gives the 

 average products of Scotch Husbandry some- 

 what lower than the above. It is to be re- 

 membered, that, sixty years ago, the average 



was probably not one quarter so much as it is 

 now. 



Loudon states the average product of wheat 

 in England, at twenty-tour, twenty-eight, 

 and thirty-two bushels per acre — mean aver- 

 age twenty-six bushels. 



The preceding references are made to old- 

 settled countries — to lands which have been 

 under culture for many centuries — to lands 

 which were once worn out by bad husbandry, 

 but which have been renovated and rendered 

 highly productive by the new system. 



In 1790, General Washington, in a letter 

 to Arthur Young, computed the average crop 

 in Pennsylvania, then one of the best wheat- 

 growing States, as follows: — wheat fifteen 

 bushels, rye twenty, barley twenty-five, oats 

 thirty, Indian corn twenty-five, potatoes sev- 

 enty-five. Mr. Strickland, who resided in 

 Maryland about forty years ago, In a report 

 which he made to the British Board of Agri- 

 culture, gave the average product of our 

 wheat crop at twelve bushels the acre, and of 

 Dutchess county, then, as now, our best cul- 

 tivated county, at sixteen bushels. 



Bordley, about the period we are referring 

 to, stated the average yield of Indian corn, on 

 the Eastern Shore of Maryland, at fifteen 

 bushels per acre. 



These quotations are sufficient to show, 

 that in our old-improved districts, the crops 

 do not in any wise compare with those grown 

 in Flanders, Scotland, and England, — and 

 this difference in product is owing entirely 

 to the different modes of managing the soil ; 

 for wherever the new system has had a fair 

 trial among us, it has been as successful as it 

 has been in Europe. 



We will illustrate still further the differ- 

 ence between the two systems, by stating the 

 products, or their value, on the same lands, 

 under the old and under the new system of 

 husbandry. 



We are furnished, in Rees's Cyclopedia, 

 with many statements, demonstrating the su- 

 periority of the new over the old system. 

 We will quote some of them. The first com- 

 parison is made on a farm devoted to grazing, 

 breeding, and tillage, of three hundred and 

 fourteen acres, in Yorkshire. Under the old 

 mode of husbandry, the net profits amounted 

 to £316 lOs. : under the new system the 

 same lands gave a net profit of £596, making 

 a difference of £278, or nearly one hundred 

 per cent., in favour of the new system. The 

 second is thatof a tillage farm of one hundred 

 and thirty-nine acres in Lincolnshire. Under 

 the old system the profits were £130 — under 

 the new £452; difference in favour of the 

 latter £322, or 250 per cent. The third 

 statement exhibits the profits of an acre of 

 land, being the medium of a farm of several 

 hundred acres, in Yorkshire, for six years. 



