220 



FARMERS" R E G I S 1 E R , 



[No. 4 



For the Farmers' Register. 



THE TRUE PRIlVClPV,r.l5 OF AGRICl'LTURAL 

 AND NATIONAL I li;,'SPERITY CONCISELY 

 STATED. 



[We are rejoiced acjain to hear, though as yet but 

 indirectly, from our former corresponflent, George 

 Henry Walker, Esq., of Phila«Ieiphia county, who has 

 but lately returned from a visit to England. For the 

 following notes we are indebted to one who was an 

 agricultural pupil of Mr. Walker's, and who, besides, 

 has well studied agriculture, by reading, and extensive 

 travel and observation, as well as by correct, though 

 not long practice, at home. The simple propositions 

 here presented, concise as they are, will serve to throw 

 light on the letters of Mr. W. in vol. iii., (at pp. 536, 

 539, 600, and 601,) and prevent their continuing to be 

 to many readers no less enigmatical than amusing. 

 The several parts of this general statement may also 

 serve as texts for future particular and extended pieces 

 of discussion or practical instruction, which we indulge 

 h faint hope of having in Mr. Walker's own vigorous 

 and impressive though excentric and discursive lan- 

 guage — and a more confident hope of similar commu- 

 nications from his friend and pupil. From the private 

 letter of the latter, we will take the liberty of quoting 

 the following explanatory introduction. 



Philadelphia, June 24, 1837. 



"Inclosed you have a copy of 'some extracts from the 

 manuscript notes of a farmer.' They were furnished to 

 ilie by Mr. Walker, in consequence of our having had 

 much conversation together on the subjects to which 

 they refer, and without any restriction as to the use I 

 should make of them. I have copied them for publi- 

 cation in the Farmers' Register, from a belief that they 

 may serve 'to pave the way' to a right understanding 

 of a further exposition of the principles on which his 

 farming is based, and to a due appreciation of his 

 practice, should he furnish you with an account of 

 them." 



We may here state that it was Mr. Walker's practice 

 in regard to making manure which was referred to, 

 and in part described, at page 78 of this volume of the 

 Farmers' Register. 



The great and all important truth which is sustained 

 by the reasoning of Mr. Walker, and which is entirely 

 conformed to by his practice, is, that unless the general 

 system of agriculture of any nation gives more to the 

 land than it takes away, not only the prosperity of ag- 

 riculture, but the prosperity of the nation, and the 

 comfort and happiness of the individuals composing 

 the nation, must decline: and this truth, though it 

 would not be denied by any one, is neglected and op- 

 posed by the general practice of all the cultivators of 

 the western, and nearly all of the southern states. In- 

 dividuals may yet for a long time continue theirformer 

 and present course of wearing out and destroying the 

 fertility of one piece of land, and then flying for re- 

 fuge from the evils which they have produced, to other 

 new lands, to renew their acts of plunder and destruc- 

 tion; and not only single farms, but even extensive re- 

 gions, may be thus wasted and then deserted — as has 

 been going on to an awful extent, in lower and middle 

 Virginia. But there must be a limit to this course, 



when our country will no longer offer new spaces and 

 subjects for these plunderers and destroyers — and an 

 impoverished land must make an impoverished and a 

 miserable people. To this most calamitous termina- 

 tion, tile general system of agriculture in the far greater 

 part of the United States, is manifestly and strongly 

 tending; and the only possible means of avoiding that 

 end, is to enforce and command regard to the truth, 

 that every individual cultivator, as well as the whole 

 nation, will be most profited by feeding and enriching 

 the land, instead of taking from it as much, and return- 

 ing to it as little, as possible. — Ep. Far. Reg.] 



The real esseniial, efficient causes, and means 

 of national prosperity, advancement, stability and 

 permanence, are the people being duly fed, accord- 

 intr to the orijanization of man, and the ditlerent 

 occupations being duly proportioned lo each other, 

 according to the nainral tastes and capacities of 

 each lo fulfil the natural wants of each and of all. 



These two great and primary laws of man's ex- 

 istence and oiganization, are best and most duly 

 and fully observed in England and the United 

 Slates. 



For nations lo be duly and legtiimately fed, they 

 must be legitimately and duly proporiionately oc- 

 cupied and employed, Caccording lo the natural 

 tastes and capacities of each individual,) in acri- 

 culture, manuliictures, con)merce, the arts, &c.; 

 and to be duly, and legitimately occupied und em- 

 ployed, all must be duly and legiiimafely I't'd. 



A^ they are duly and legitimately fed and cccu- 

 pied. so is the increase of population llie cause 

 and the means of the improvement of the fertility 

 of the soil, and the consequent increase oj food. 

 Hence the rise, advancement, prosperity and sta- 

 biliiy of England and the ifniied Slates, so far 

 above all other nations, ancient and modern — these 

 laws being best observed there. 



As they are vn-duly and. non-lcgitimalely fed and 

 occupied, so is the increase of population the cause 

 and the means of the deterioration and exhaustion 

 of the soil, and the consequent decrease of lood. 

 And hence the real cause of the "decline and Ikll" 

 of all ancient empires. 



If the modes of living and occupation, produce 

 deterioration and exhaustion of the soil, a nation 

 must inevitably "decline and fall," after jt reaches 

 a certain amount of population. Increase of pop- 

 ulation then (being un-duly and non-Iegilimately 

 fed and occupied) produces decline with accelerat- 

 ing velocity. 



The prosperity of agriculture, and consequentfy 

 the prosperity of nations, depends upon the mode 

 in which the population is fed — in other words, 

 upon the rate of wages. With low wages, a 

 nation can never be either permanent or prospe- 

 rous. 



The rate of wages depends upon the extent of 

 knowledge and fi-eedom, and the extent of the 

 developement of manufactures and commerce. 

 Without these, agriculture must be in the lowest 

 possible condition, and, consequently, wages must 

 be at the lowest rate, and popuhition must be in 

 excess — being unemployed and ill fi^d — the soil, 

 consequently and inevitably, deteriorating in fer- 

 tility. 



Pauperism is the result of ignorance, want of 

 employment, too low wages, improvidence and 

 drunkenness — disease and accidents, &c. But 



