THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



Vol. VIII. 



DECEMBER 31, 1840. 



No. 12. 



EDMUND RUFFIN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR, 



ARATOR: 



A SERIES OF AGRICULTURAL ESSAYS, 



PRACTICAL AND POLITICAL. 



BY JOHN TAYL-OK, 



OF CAROLINE COUNTY, VIKGINIA. 



PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION. 



BY THE EDITOR OF THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



The first publication of the following work was in 

 the form of separate short essays, or numbers, which 

 were written for and appeared in 'The Spirit of Se- 

 venty-six,' a newspaper then recently established. 

 This was in 1809 or 1810, and the numbers were af- 

 terwards embodied and republished in a volume, in 

 1812, Five subsequent editions were afterwards call- 

 ed for, from the latest of which, the sixth, (published 

 in 1818,) the edition now offered will be copied. 



The publication, and the first few years of the ex- 

 istence of ' Arator,' constituted a memorable epoch in 

 the condition of agriculture in Virginia. It was the 

 first original agricultural work (worthy to be so called) 

 which had ever been published in Virginia, or in the 

 southern states ; and it appeared at a time when agri- 

 cultural improvement was still neglected by the men 

 of intelligence and wealth whose interests were al- 

 most exclusively agricultural. The previous high 

 prices of agricultural products, caused by the Eu- 

 ropean wars, and increased foreign demand, which 

 had given great profits even to the most wretched agri- 

 cultural practice, had been sunk to less than half the 

 gross amount, by the operation, first, of foreign depre- 

 dations on our commerce, and, next, the singular de- 

 fensive policy of this government, by the general 

 embargo on all export trade, and prohibition of com- 

 mercial intercourse with Europe. 



This was a fortunate combination of circumstances 

 for the appearance of 'Arator;' and the work pro- j 

 duced an immediate sensation, and also durable and | 

 excellent effects, surpassing those of any publication ! 

 which had ever appeared in Virginia on any subject. ' 

 Almost every intelligent land-holder became a readerof i 

 Arator, and which book also constituted generally his • 

 earliest and sole agricultural study. The previous va- j 

 cancy of all minds, in this respect, prevented (he ex- I 

 istence of any obstruction, from prepossession, to the ' 

 author's precepts, or any doubt of the certain fulfilment 

 of his glowing pro?pecfa of improvement and rrofit. ' 

 Vol. V1II.-89 ^ 



The valuable (ruths were eagerly received, and soon 

 extensively acted upon— and so highly esteemed was 

 the authority of the writer, (hat even his most erro- 

 neous views and opinions were received as readily 

 and universally as the most sound and unquestionable. 

 Many readers even went far beyond the positions of 

 their teacher, and applied his lessons in situations and 

 under circumstances which he never would have em- 

 braced under his general rules. The particular errors 

 of practice made by these new disciples were nume- 

 rous, and the consequent losses were great. But the 

 indirect effect of the publication was to give the first 

 great impulse to agricultural improvement in eastern 

 Virginia; and the genera! and legitimate results have 

 been such as to claim justly for the name of John 

 Taylor of Caroline, independent of his other great 

 merits as a statesman and political teacher, a distin- 

 guished place on the list of the great benefactors of 

 his countiy. The writer of these remarks is among 

 those who esteem most highly the merits of John 

 Taylor in both these important respects ; nevertheless, 

 his gratitude and veneration have not prevented his 

 freely criticising, in former publications, the mistaken 

 and erroneous views of the illustrious autiior, and his 

 improper applications of views which are entirely cor- 

 rect under different circumstances. The great but in- 

 direct benefit which resulted from the publication of 

 'Arator' was the producing a new zeal for, and giving 

 a strong and lasting impulse to, agricultural improve- 

 ment in general. The other and peculiar merits of 

 the author were most conspicuous in his urgino- the 

 practices of deep ploughing, (he making and applying 

 of barn-yard or prepared manures, both of which prac- 

 tices were of very limited use in general— and still 

 more the plan of manuring the fields by their own ve- 

 getable growth, or the "inclosing system," of which 

 he was the earliest teacher and advocate. 



The principal defects of this work, and the causes 

 of injury to its earliest followers, grew out of pre- 

 cepts, which, even when correctly deduced from the 

 author's experience in cultivation on the originally 

 rich and deep gandy noils of the wide level borders of 

 the Rappahannock, were improperly recommended by 



