1837] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



255 



been for m;uiy ye;iiv, both in quantity iind quality. 

 Our Indian corn looks very pronii-jinii, inul must 

 be aliuiniant, unlcpj: rut short by a droujilil. Cot- 

 Ion had an unioward spriny; to contend with, vvhicli 

 caused it to come up badly in some in.^taiices, and 

 retarded its irrowth; but, the hite warm weather 

 has produced a liivora[)le chan<re n)r the better. 

 'I'liis plant tiirives best under an arden; sun, and 

 wlien the niijhts are warm. The present low price 

 ol' tile article, has, in a small tieirree, diminished 

 the quantity planted, which consequently is so 

 much wained to the corn crop, a circumstance 

 much to be desireii. The hiiih prices heretolbre 

 obtained, stimulated planters to auoment the pro- 

 duction, and the increased production has measu- 

 rably overtulcen, and perhaps exceeded the con- 

 sumption. This result would necessarily have re- 

 duced the price, hut the reduction would have been 

 more <iradual,and the fidi less rapid, had not other 

 causes o|)erated. which accelerated the declension. 

 The people ol'South Carolina, had not embarked in 

 those enormous and ill-|ud<fed speculations which 

 threaten to overwhelm some of the other states. 

 VVe will be able to weather the storm without be- 

 ing materially injured. Lejrislative interposition 

 is not deemed necessary to shield the citizens from 

 the impeiidin(r ruin brouuht on others by wild and 

 unwise schemes ormakinir i()rtunes suddenly. Our 

 merchants and planters have been in the main, 

 prudent. These terrible revulsions read admoni- 

 tory lessons which are too olten tbriiolten in the 

 seasons of prosperity. The tremendous effects of" 

 the present embarrassments may, perhajis be lon<? 

 remembered, and stand, like beact)n liirhts, to warn 

 future (fenerations of the lolly ol" ifovernniental in- 

 terference with the currency, and of the danoer, 

 and bad consequences of oveilradin<r. But the 

 subsiding of the mad vnse lor speculation, the res- 

 toration of a sound seneral currency, and irood 

 crops, with the practice of economy, will, it is to 

 be hoped, cause the country to recover li-om its 

 paralysis, and dift\ise, once more, the smiles of 

 plenty and prosperity over the Itice of" our happy 

 land. 



REMARKS ON THK AGRICULTURAL SURVEY 

 OF THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



The commonwealth of Massachusetts has earned a 

 new and most honorable distinction, by having, first of 

 all the confederated states, directed the making an ag- 

 ricultural survey of her territory. The execution of 

 this important public work is entrusted to the Rev. 

 Henry Colman, who is very advantageously known as 

 a farmer, and writer on agriculture. 



The people of New England are noted for under- 

 standing well their pecuniary interest, and pursuing 

 whatever course tends to promote their profit; and we 

 believe that they never had abetter chance to get back 

 fully, and with increase, their "money's worth," than 

 upon the sum that will be expended in this earliest ad- 

 venture of this kind, in our new country. If we did not 

 know it to be as vain as "to call spirits from the vasty 

 deep," we should earnestly recommend to the people 

 and legislature of Virginia, to follow this example of 

 our hard working, frugal, and thrifty sister common- 

 wealth, Massachusetts. 



As the first and an essential step towards restoring 

 the health and vigor of a sick man, i? ibr the physician 

 to search out and to learn the nature, the extent, and 

 malignity of his diseases, .so is >t a necessary prelimi- 

 nary to general or extensive improvement of agriculture 

 throughout a country, to know well its existing con- 

 dition — including all that is wrong, as well as aM that 

 is correct, commendable and ])rofitable. When the 

 British Board of Agriculture was established, the first 

 and most valuable measure undertaken, was the exe- 

 cution of minute and accurate agricnltural surveys of 

 every county in Britain, the results of which were 

 presented to the public in full reports. This part of 

 the operations of the board, engaged the labors and the 

 talents of perhaps fifty of the best infonaed scientif.cr 

 agriculturists and practical fai-mers of Britain; and 

 their reports, though confined mostly to statements- of 

 then existing circumstances, contained a more valua- 

 ble and instructive body of information than- ever hfa(£' 

 before been presented to the farmers of that country,, 

 and the world. Before that time, many old and usefuE 

 practices, of some districts, were scarcely known at the 

 distance of fifty or an hundred miles. Among theear- 

 liest fruits of the surveys, and obtained almost immedi-. 

 ately, were the first public information of Elkington's- 

 theory and mode of vertical draining, and the process^, 

 of "u^ar/nng-," (or adding to the soil of tide lands byr 

 retaining and depositing the mud suspended by the; 

 water) — the first of which alone, to a country like 

 Britain, was worth the cost of all the county surveys. 

 Parliament even voted a reward of £ 1000 sterling to 

 Elkington — a rare, if not a singular case of benefits to 

 agriculture being thus acknowledged and revvardtd, bj^ 

 any government. 



The expense permitted to be incurred for the survey 

 of the state of Massachusetts will probably not exceed 

 what the British government paid for the single county 

 of Yorkshire — and of course the performance of service, 

 and the utility, must be slight and imperl'ect, coirpared 

 to what might be available. Still, it must be very ben- 

 eficial to the improvement of the agriculture of Massa- 

 chusetts; and such a work would be productive of ten- 

 fold profit to Virginia, Maryland, or the Carolinas, 

 (without lojking further,) because their natural and 

 as yet almost dormant resources for improvement are 

 very far greater than those of Massachusetts. 



But neither this measure, nor any other of the many 

 by which agricultural instruction and improvement and 

 profit might be advanced by government, are to be ho- 

 ped for in Virginia. We have hoped, but now despair 

 of any such movements and their results. Rather than 

 pay $10,000 for the benefit and improvement of agri- 

 cultural interests, the legislature of Virginia would ex- 

 pend $100,000, in the time and cost of speechifying 

 against any measures proposed for that end. Very 

 recently, an extra session was held, which cost nearly 

 $30,000, (and which was not grudged, and has scarcely 

 been complained of,) solely for the purpose of relieving 

 the banks from the penalties which they had incurred, 

 by violating their legal and most solemn and impera- 

 tive obligation to pay specie for their bills — and to 

 place these institutions, for all future time, beyond all 

 control of any legal or moral obligations, by showing 



