482 



FARMERS' REGISTER— ADDRESS ON AGRICULTURE. 



for the sulphuric acid which was in combination 

 witli the iron, on account of its greater alfinity for 

 tlie lime, united with the Hme and produced sul- 

 phate of" lime, which is the piaster of Paris of 

 commerce. Thus was the poison of the soil ren- 

 dered a lenilizing and valuable constituent, and 

 the barren land became very productive. Again, 

 it is at this tinje a controverted point in our section 

 of country, whether manures would better be ap- 

 plied beibre decomposition, or thrown out and ex- 

 posed to suffer a thorough putrefaction. ISIy im- 

 pre.ssion is, that a majority have adopted the latter 

 opinion. The same distinguished chemist has 

 shown, to a certainty, that in the process of fer- 

 mentation and decay, there is a loss of one-half or 

 more in weight, and an escape of a large quantity 

 of carbonic acid and ammonia, which are both very 

 nutritious to plants. The odors which escape from 

 our manure heaps, and assail and disgust our ol- 

 factories and contaminate our atmosphere, would, 

 if preserved, contribute to the sustenance of crops 

 and the subsistence of man. But it has been said 

 that experiment has decided that a crop that has 

 received rotted manure will be more abundant. 

 This may be true as to the first crop, and yet the 

 permanent utility of the manure be diminished 

 one-half and more. And if there be a necessity 

 for fine rotted manure, the loss may be prevented 

 by throwing on the heaps previous to fermentation, 

 earth to absorb and preserve the fertilizing princi- 

 ples that would otherwise be evaporated. Thus 

 the investigations of the chemist assist the agri- 

 culturist. But with us, in Virginia, for the most 

 part, but little application has been made of sci- 

 ence in the cultivation of the soil. Heretofore, 

 improvements that have been introduced, and dis- 

 coveries that have been made of practical utility 

 elsewhere, have been received by us with indif- 

 ference and neglect. Indeed, with many, a pre- 

 judice seems to exist against every thing of the 

 kind. Changes are denounced as innovations, and 

 the cry of theory is sufficient to overthrow the 

 most important fact. Theory is the bugbear that 

 frights their imagination, and woe is pronounced 

 on the man who is the victim. Singular as it may 

 eeem, such individuals are usually the most per- 

 eevering, devoted, and inveterate theorists. So 

 enamored are they of those of their own concep- 

 tion, that they give no ear to those of others. For 

 all the phenomena which they witness, they as- 

 sign abundant causes, and they are fluent on the 

 relations which facts bear to each other. The 

 misfortune is, that often there is no connection be- 

 tween their causes and their phenomena, and no 

 ex'istence for the relations of their facts, save in 

 their own minds. When this is the case, an erro- 

 neous practice is the inevitable result. This has 

 had its influence, combined whh many other 

 causes, in producinff the present state of our agri- 

 culture. Such is the impoverishment of mnny 

 farms under the svstem of tillage that has prevail- 

 ed, that they will not restore the husbandman 

 the expense of cultivation. It has been estimated, 

 and I am inclined to thinlc, correctly, that the cost 

 of cultivation averages in Virtrinia, five dollars per 

 acre. There is much land in our vicinity, and 

 that too in cultivation, w'hich does not yield pro- 

 ducts that would sell for halt this siun. But if it 

 brought the full amount, that only pnvs the cost of 

 labor, and the wenr and tear of implements; and 

 the interest upon the capital invested in the land, 



is lost. There are very many estates of wliich 

 the produce of the soils tails fur short of rendering 

 the owners a legal interest on the wlrole invest- 

 ments, and the only means of sustuining so unpro- 

 fital^le a business, is to raise negroes fior the south- 

 ern market. 



Blessed with a soil naturally productive, and 

 well adapted to a great variety of crops, in a cli- 

 mate mild and genial, midway between the "drifi- 

 iug snows and driving sleets'' of the North, and 

 the poisonous exhalations and burning suns of the 

 South, we have nothing to accuse but our own 

 waywardness and prodigality in squandering the 

 bounties with which a kind providence ha(i en- 

 riched us. While other countries have been im- 

 proving their lands, and increasing theinprcducts, 

 ours has been the downv/ard course of deteriora- 

 tion and destruction. While England has been 

 doubling her products every twenty-five years — 

 while New England, and most of the States 

 north of us, have been very rapidly augmenting 

 theirs, Ave have continued in the habits of our 

 fathers, rejecting improvements, and have been 

 going on to destroy the fertility that remained af>er 

 so long a period of exhaustion. The relative di- 

 minution of our exports, the slow increase of our 

 population, compared with that of many other 

 States; nay, the absolute decrease in fourteen 

 counties east of the Blue Ridge, the rapid tide of 

 emigration that is making out from our confines, 

 all attest the disease that is wasting the energies 

 of Virginia, and blighting her once fair prospects. 

 VVhile her population is yet sparse, her citizens 

 flee from her — the ties of kindred, the endearments 

 of home, all the tender associations that cling 

 round the place of their nativity, cannot bind them, 

 lor their wasted fields yield them a poor subsist- 

 ence. They wind their way to the far distant 

 South and West, and take reiuge on soils not yet 

 marred and destroyed by the reckless hand of 

 man. Mr. Jefferson in his Notes, written in 1782, 

 predicted that in 18.35, our population would be 

 2,2700. By the census of 1830, we have fallen 

 short a million of it. At that time Virginia was 

 the first State in the confederacy — first in wealth, 

 strength, and population. She has now fallen to 

 be third, and in a short time will probably be 

 fourth. But need we wonder at this result, when 

 we contemplate the system of husbandry that has 

 been so long practised among us] Ours has been 

 for the most part, a regular succession of clearing 

 and killing, and clearing and killing again, until 

 there is but little left of the original forest, and we 

 have nearly realized the fable of killing the goose 

 to get the golden efrs- We have pursued the pro- 

 cess of depletion and exhaustion to that extreme, 

 that the patient must expire unless there is a 

 change of practice. Intelligent travellers have al- 

 ready described a large portion of that section of 

 the State Ij-ing between the head of tide-water iind 

 the sea shore, as barren wastes, affording a bare 

 subsistence to a thin and scattered people. But I 

 rejoice that the energies of our soil arc not ex- 

 hausted, thoughlamentably worsted and enfeebled. 

 I believe that with judicious treatment, the "vis 

 medicalrix naturoi'''' will resusoilate our suffering 

 earth, and restore her to her gay and brightest ex- 

 islence. The oriiyinal vigor of her constitution 

 will facilitate tlie eflbrts of the physician. In ma- 

 ny cases there are i-eposing in tlip bosom of our 

 land, inexhaustible stores of fertility, laid up, U 



