rAUMEUiS' RfeGlStlCH; 



707 



upon agricdilure. VVhiltJi llie couiiiry was (resih, 

 it was iialurul lor ihe inliabiuuiid lu iicglecl llie 

 suhjcct ill the niiilst of aliUiHi<i!ico ; Ijul its evi- 

 dcui iriipoveiishnienl, ouglit to have 6uii<iesteii (o 

 us ihci iiecessily ol'rialive remedies lor local errors ; 

 arid the incoiiirruity of Euirhi^lj liooks upon ajiri- 

 cuhiire, wilh ihe climates, soils and halits of ihe 

 Uiiiied Slates. I'liis incoiiirruity, liy drawing; ridi- 

 cule U[)oii imitators, too ofien exim^uislies a patri- 

 otic ardor, and checks instead of advancing im- 

 provement. 



II' the hook now offered to the |)iihlic should 

 have no other good edects but tho^-ie of sujriijesiing 

 the necessity of wfiiing for oursches on the sub- 

 ject, and introducmi; some tattle lor sucli discus- 

 sions, the compensation lo the [jublisher (or his 

 labor will be amply repaid. To this taste, the 

 ii^ricuhure of Europe in ixenerai, and ol Britain 

 in particular, is indebted lor a vast iiDprovement 

 wiihin the lust century, and a similar spirit in the 

 Uuiied Slates will undoub ediy produce similar el- 



/ecis. Every class of men will be benefited by it. 

 The merchant will receive more produce, afid sell 

 more <rouds. The demands upon the manufac- 

 turer will extend to more and finer commodities. 

 Lawyers and physiciana will have richer clients 

 and patients, and receive belter fees. The politi- 

 cian may find more resources lor defending his 

 country, maintaining lier independence an(t re- 

 warding patriotism. The printers will sell more 

 books and newspapers. And the farmer, ihougfi 

 ihe fountain li-om which all these benefita must; 

 flow, as receiving first the IVuite of improveiuent, 

 will make them subservient to his own happiness, 

 before he ditl'uses them to advance the happiness 

 of others. A tendency to shed prosperity over 

 all these classes, has some claim to general en- 

 couragement, and whilst the publisher respectfully 

 solicits tl e public patronage o{i this ground, he 

 also confidently hopes, that a considerable portion 

 both of amusement and inlbrniation will be found 

 in the following sheet?. 



AR AT O R 



THE PRlCSr.XT STATE OF AGRICULTURE. 



I shall consider, in a succession of short essays, 

 the present state of agriculture in the United Slates, 

 iis oppressions and delccis, and the remedies, 

 poliiical and domestic, which it needs. It is con- 

 fessed, however, that the chief knowledge of the 

 author, as to modes of aiiriculture, is confined to 

 the states of Maryland, Virginia and North-Ca- 

 rolina. And therefore, whilst his remarks in rela- 

 tion to its political stale, will generally apply to 

 tlie whole union, those in relation to these modes, 

 will particularly apply to all states using slaves, 

 or to the three enumerated states. 



Mr. Strickland, an Englishman, reputed to be 

 sensible and honest, published at London, in the 

 year 1801, a pamphlet upon the a<fricullure of the 

 United States, being ihe result of his own obser- 

 vation, durini; a considerable period spent in tra- 

 velling ihroiigh ihe country, for the special [lurpose 

 of investigating it. The judgment of this impar- 

 tial stranirer ajipears in the lollowing quotations. 

 — Page "20: "Land in America aflbrds little 

 pleasure or profit, and appears in a progress of 

 continually tifibrding less." — P. 31 : " Virginia 

 is in a rapid decline." — P. 38 : "Land in New- 

 York, formerly producing twenty bushels to the 

 acre, now produces only fen." — P. 41: "Little 

 p.-nfitcan be found in the present mode of agricul- 

 ture of this country, and I apprehend it to be a 

 fact that it tiflbrds a bare subsistence.''^ P. 45: 

 " V^irginia is the southern limit of my inquiries, 

 because agriculture had there already arrived to 

 its lowest slate of degradation." — P. 49: "The 

 land owners in this state are, wilh a lew excep- 

 tions, in low circumstances; ihe inferior rank of 

 them wretched in the extreme." — P. 52 : "Decline 

 has pervaded all the stales. 



These conclusions, if true, are awfully threat- 

 ening to the liberty and prosperity of a couniry, 

 wliose hostage for both is agriculture. An order 

 of men, earninc^ a bare subsistence, in low circum- 

 stances, and whose inferior rank is wrctcficd in, 

 ihe extrerii, cannot possibly consiitote a moral 

 Jo:cej adequate to either object. It is therefore 



highly important to the agriculliiral class, (o as- 

 certain whether it is true, that agriculture is in a 

 decline. A decline terminates like QVitry oilier 

 progress, at the end of its tendency. 



Upon reading the opinion of this disinterested 

 foreigner, my impressions were, indignation, alarm, 

 conviction ; inspired, successively, by a love lor my 

 country, a fear for its welfare, and a recolleclion 

 of facts. 



The terrible facts, that the strongest chord 

 which vibrates on the heart of man, cannot tie 

 our people to the natal spot, that they view it with 

 horror, and flee from it to new climes with joy, 

 determine our agricultural progress, to be a pro- 

 gress of emigration, and not of improvement; 

 and lead to an ultimate recoil from this exhausted 

 resource, to an exhausted country. 



A patient must know that he is sick, before he 

 will take phy!?ic. A collection of a few facts, to 

 ascertain ihe ill healih of agriculture, is necessary 

 to invigorate our eflbrls towards a cure. One, ap-' 

 parent to the jnost supeificial observer, is, that our 

 land has diminished in fertility. Arts improve the 

 work of naiure — when they injure it, they are not: 

 arts, l)ut barbarous customs. It is the office of 

 agriculture, as an art, not to impoverish, but lo 

 fertilize the soil, and make it more useful than ia 

 its natural state. Such is the effect of every spe- 

 cies of agriculiurc, which can aspire to the cha- 

 racter of an art. lis object being to furnish tnan 

 with ariicles of ihe first necessity, whatever de- 

 feats that object, is a crime of the first magnitude. 

 Had men a power to idiscure or brii:;hlen the light; 

 of the sun, by obscuring it, they would imitate the 

 morally of diminishing the fertility of the earth. 

 Is not one as criminal as the olher ? Yet it is h 

 tiict, that lands in their natural state, are more va- 

 luable, than those whieh have undergone our ha- 

 bit of agriculture, of which emigralions are com- 

 plete proofs. 



The decay of a multitude of small town?, ."so 

 siiiiated as to depend for support on unalterable, 

 distfJcis, is another proof of the impo/erishrnent 

 of ihe soil. It is true, thcit a lew large towns hav« 

 grown up, but tli.s is o'.vin^, not to an increased 



