378 



FARMERS' REGISTER— CONDITION OF AGRICULTTRE. 



KKSULTORY OBSERVATIONS ON THE CONDI- 

 TION OF AGRICULTURE IN VIRGINIA, AND 



THE MEANS FOR ITS IMPROVEMENT. 



To the Editor of the Faimers' Register. 



I have not the pleasure of a personal acqiiaint- 

 ance with yourself, but am a subscriber to the 

 "Farmers' Register," and liope that, while the 

 enclosed amount ibr my arrearages is Ibrwarded, 

 you will not consider the lew observations that ac- 

 company it, as expressive of the interest which I 

 feel in your undertaking and etibrts as the editor 

 of that invaluable periodical, as inexcusably ob- 

 trusive. There is no debt, I assure you, which I 

 pay with more cheerfulness, and none of my |5e- 

 cuniary expenditures are made under a lidler be- 

 lief of receiving an ample and almost immediate 

 equivalent than those which are mcurrcd in the 

 expense of procuring the able agricultural journal 

 which you have the honor of presenting to the 

 public. My object is not to offer adulation, but to 

 afford you, if you will accept it, my humble mite 

 of encouragement in the laudable enterprise (as 1 

 conceive it to be) in which you have embarked. 

 Yours, if I mistake not, is the first publication of 

 the kind in our country, which has excited any 

 considerable degree of attention south of the Po- 

 tomac, and has appeared to me, from its com- 

 mencement, to be sustained with an ability not ex- 

 ceeded by any similar publication to which I have 

 had access, (and I have seen several,) that has is- 

 sued from any direction, or originated in any quar- 

 ter of the world. My profession is not a secular, 

 but a sacred one, and while consistency and con- 

 viction both constrain me to magnify my office, and 

 to claim for it, in its bearings on the happiness of 

 the human race, the superiority over all other occu- 

 pations which engage the attention of men, truth 

 and candor at the same time oblio-e me to acknow- 

 ledge that, in the peculiar circumstances of this 

 cmmtry at present, the indivitlual, who shall fill 

 with respectability the station which you occupy, 

 has the power, in my humble judgement, to exert 

 a more salutary and extensively lasting and bene- 

 ficial influence, than any other that can be men- 

 tioned, whether his employment be that of a lite- 

 rary teacher, or statesman, or lawyer, or physi- 

 cian, or preacher. Agriculture lays at the founda- 

 tion of every thing useiiil, or comfortable, or desi- 

 rable in human liit?. No nation or people can be 

 permanently prosperous or tliriving, whose agri- 

 cultural interests are neglected. The profits of 

 the earth are for all, and the kins; himself is served 

 of the field. The prott^ssional characters to which 

 I have alluded, can have no opportunity or scope 

 for exertion on a large scale, in a country that is 

 not an agricultural one, and for the plain and suf- 

 ficient reason, that none but an agricultural coun- 

 try can ever become very populous. A sparse 

 population is the necessary result of ignorance, in- 

 experience, and indifference in the business of ag- 

 riculture; and to suppose that professional men can 

 find useful and profitable emplovment in a country 

 of but ^cw inhabitants, would be as unreasonable 

 as to expect that animals will fatten on a meagre 

 subsistence. I am pleased that, in connexion 

 with others, you have succeeded in establishing 

 some highly important truths which were formerly 

 either not known, or entirely discredited, (it is la- 

 mentable that many should still be so slow to em- 

 brace them,) but which are now received by the 



more intelligent among the cuhivators of the soil, 

 as agricultural axioms, about which all doubt and 

 discussion may cease; axioms that may be ex- 

 prcersed in i'ew words, and on the correctness of 

 which any one, who chooses, may immediately 

 and safely proceed to act. A few of these are — 



That deep ])loughing never need be dreaded. 



A small farm well conducted is a source of 

 greater revenue, than a large one indifferently 

 managed. 



It would be a vast amount of saving to the 

 whole community, if every private owner were 

 required to keep his stock fi-om committing depre- 

 dations on his neighbors, instead of imposing this 

 onerous burden upon them. 



The profits of agriculture (other things being 

 equal) are in proportion to the attention paid to 

 manuring; that is, as is the extent of the latter, so 

 will be tiiat of the former. 



The corn crop, with the stalk cut up from the 

 ground entire, [it a much earlier period thtm has 

 usually been practised, is worth almost double 

 what it is when gathered in the old way. 



Prepared food of some kinds, and for some ani- 

 mals, will go nearly, if not quite, twice as far as 

 that which is given in a raw and natural state. 



The raising of tobacco need notempovensh the 

 land, but it is only to the undue and dispropor- 

 tionate space that is allotted to this sta])le commo- 

 dity that the mischief it is said to have produced, 

 is attributable. 



Other points of a similar nature, and of like im- 

 portance, might be mentioned, but these may suf- 

 fice as specimens. If I had time, I should regard 

 it as a pleasing amusement to collect from your 

 own, and other ayricultural papers, a sheet or two 

 of such short sententious sayings, which, when put 

 together, I would style "The Farmer's practical 

 Compend and Guide," which would serve as a 

 manual to spread out before him, within a narrow 

 compass, the results of agricultural experience 

 and wisdom. 



I have also been mucli gratified with the resolu- 

 tion you have manifested to grapple with preju- 

 dices of" extensive prevalence and long standing, 

 which oppose their obstructing force to the im- 

 provements you would introduce, and which seem, 

 with some, to abide with a fixedness almost as 

 firm as "the Ridge of Blue" on our west. But 

 time must melt even these, if not that away. May 

 yours be the honor and the achievement first to 

 start them into motion that will be kept up till 

 they shall be driven to "a returnless distance" 

 from the "Old Dominion." To whatever other 

 cause the low state of agriculture that is complain- 

 ed of in Virginia may be referred, it is certain to 

 my mind, that it cannot, with the least shadow of 

 propriety, be attributed to a deficiency in natural 

 advantages. In these respects, as in the extent of 

 her territory, she surpasses her proud sister, the 

 State of New York. Her soil is as good, if not 

 better — her water and land jirivileges for internal 

 improvements, on the lohole about equal — her tim- 

 ber more valuable — her mines, as far as j'et ex- 

 plored, more numerous and rich, and her climate, 

 beyond all question, vastly superior. But still it 

 must be admitted that she now falls behind in al- 

 most every thing that constitutes the wealth and 

 strength of a commonwealth. An adequate 

 cause for an effect so obvious, and so extensively 

 experienced, must somewhere exist, and may be 



