1S37] 



F A R M E R S ' R E G I S r E R 



41? 



in ijocxl heart, slioultl \n'. kept so; that, every one 

 not in ijooJ heiirt slioiilil he made so; and that 

 what is riirlvt as to the tiirn) ij^onerally, is so as to 

 everv part of every tlirni. Any system, therefiire, 

 or want of system, which tends to make a rieh 

 farm poor, or does not leml to make a |)oor fiicm 

 rich, cannot he ijood lor the owner, whalever it 

 may be tor the tenant or su|)enntendant. who lias 

 a transieni interest only ia it. The profit, where 

 there is any, will not halance the loss of intrmsic 

 value sustained by the land. 



I[. The evil of pressing too hard on the land 

 has also been much increased by the bad mode of 

 ploughing it. Shallow ploughiuir, and ploui^hing 

 up and down hilly land liave, by exposing the 

 loosened soil to be carried o(f by rains, hastened 

 more than luiy thing else, the waste of its fertili- 

 ty. When the mere sul'ace is pulverized, mode- 

 rate rains on land but little uneven, if ploughed 

 up and down, gradually wear it away .And hea- 

 vy rains on hilly land plo'<ghed in that manner, 

 soon produce a (ike edect, notwithstanding the im- 

 proved practii-e of deeper plouiihinij. How have 

 the beauty and value of this ridge of country suf- 

 fered from this cause? And how much is due to 

 the happy improvement introduced by a iriember 

 of this society, whom I need not name,* by a cul- 

 tivation in horizontal drills, with a plough a(Japted 

 to it? Had the practice prevailed from the first 

 settlement of the country, the sreneral fertility 

 would have been more than the double of what 

 thje red hills, and indeed all other hilly lands now 

 possess; and the scars and sores now defacing 

 them would no where be seen. Happily, experi- 

 ence is provinir that this remedy aided by a more 

 rational njanagement in other respects, is adequate 

 to the purpose of healing yvhat has been wound- 

 ed, as well as of preserving the health of what 

 has escaped the calamity. It is truly gratifyinsr 

 to observe how fast the improvement is spreading 

 from the parent example. The value of our 

 red hills, under a mode of cultivation, which 

 guards their fertility against wasting rains, is pro- 

 bably exceeded by that of no uplands whatever; 

 and without that advantage, they are exceeded in 

 value by almost all others. They are little more 

 than a lease for years. 



Besides the inestimable advantage from horizon- 

 tal ploughing, in protecting the soil against the 

 wasting effect of rains, there is a greater one, in 

 its preventing the rains themselves from beinc 

 lost to the crop. The Indian corn is thecrop which 

 most exposes the soil to be carried off by the 

 rains, and it is at the same time the crop, which 

 most needs them. Where the land is not only 

 hilly, but the soil thirsty, (as is the case particular- 

 ly throuffhout this mountainous range) the pres- 

 ervation of the rain as it falls, between the drilled 

 ridges, is of peculiar importance: and its gradual 

 settling downwards to the roots, is the best pos- 

 sible mode of supplying them with moisture. In 

 the old method of ploughing shallow with the 

 furrows up and down, the rain, as well as the soil, 

 was lost. 



HI. The neglect of manures is another error 

 which claims particular notice. It may be traced 

 to the same cause with our excessive cropping. 

 In the early staijes of our aorriculture, it was more 

 convenient and more profitable to bring new land 



*CoI. T. M. Randolph. 

 Vol. V— 53 



j into culiivafion, than to im[>rove exhausted land. 

 I The litilure of new land has lonix called ftr the im- 

 provement of old land; but habit has k<'pt us deaf 

 to the call. 



Noiliiiig is more certain than thai continual 

 cropping witiio-ut manure deprives the soil ol" its 

 fi'rtility. Ii if^ ecjuaily certain, that IfTiility may 

 be preserved or restored, l)y giving to the earili 

 animal or veixetable manure equivalent to the mat- 

 ter taken li'nm it; and that a [jcrpetual lerlility is 

 not, in itseli; incompatible, with an uninterrupted 

 succession of crops. The Chinese, it is said, 

 smile at the idea that land needs rest, as it" like 

 animals, il had a sense of fatigue. Their soil 

 does not need rest, because an industrious use is 

 made of every teriilizing particle, that can contri- 

 bute towards replacino; what has been drawn fi-om 

 it. And this is the more practicable with them, as 

 almost the whole of what is grown on the fiirms 

 is consumed within them. Tliat a restoration to 

 the earth of all that annually grows on it, prevents 

 its impoverishment, is sufficiently seen in our for- 

 ests; where the annual exuvRe of the trees and 

 plants, replace the fiirtility of which they deprive 

 the earth. Where frequent fires destroy the 

 leaves and whatever else is annually dropped on 

 the earth, it is well known that the land becomes 

 poorer; this destruction of the natural crop having 

 the same impoverishing effect as the removal of 

 a cultivated crop. A still stronger proof that an 

 annual restoration to the earth of all its annual 

 r)roduct will perpetuate its productiveness is seeU 

 where our fields are left uncultivated and un- 

 pasiured. In this case, the soil receiving li-oill 

 the decay of the spontaneous weeds and grasses; 

 more fertility than they extract from itj is lor a 

 time at least, improved, not impoverished. Its 

 improvemiMif may be explained, by the fei'lilizing 

 matter, which the weeds and grasses derive Irotii 

 water and the atmosphere, which forms a net gairl 

 to the earth.. At what point, or Irom what causej 

 the f()rmation and accunmlaiion of vegetable 

 mould fi-om this grain ceases, is not perhaps very 

 easy to be explained. That it does cease, is prov- 

 ed by the stationary condition of the surface of the 

 earth in old forests; and that the amount 6i' the 

 accumulation varies with the nature of the subja- 

 cent earth, is equallv certain. If seems to depend 

 also on the species of trees and plants which hap- 

 pen to contribute the materials for the vegetable 

 mould ■;. 



But the most eligible mode of preserving the 

 richness, and of enriching the poverty of a farm i§ 

 certainly that of applying to the soil a sufficiency 

 of animal and veiietable matter in a putriffed stalej 

 or a state ready ibr putreliiction, in order to pro- 

 cure which, too much care cannot be observed iti 

 savifig every material furnished by the farm. — 

 This resource was among the earliest discoveries 

 of ttien living by airriculture; and a proper use of 

 it has been made a fesi of good husbandry in al! 

 countries, ancient and modern, where its princi- 

 ples and profits have been studied. 



Some liirmers of distinction, headed by Tullj 

 supposed that mere earth, in a pulverized state; 

 was sufficient without manure, for the growth of 

 plants; and consequently, that continued pulveri- 

 zation would render the soil perpetually produc- 

 tive; a theory, which never would have occurred 

 to a planter of tobacco or of Indian corn, who 

 finds the soil annually producing less and less, un- 



