708 



FARMERS' R E G i S T i: R 



product, but to an increased pasture; whereas, in 

 every case, where the pasture is liniUed, or isolaled 

 by local circumstances, small towns have sprung 

 up, whilst the lands were flesh, and decayed, as 

 they were worn out. I have no facts to apoeriain 

 certainly the products of agriculture at diflerent 

 periods relatively to the number of people ; such 

 would furnish a demonstration of its state. But I 

 have understood, \hat sixty thousand hogsheads 

 of tobacco were exported from Virginia, when it 

 contained about one-fourth of its present popula- 

 tion. If eo, had the fertiliiy of the country re- 

 mained undiminished, Virginia ought now to ex- 

 port two hundred and forty thousand hogsheads, 

 or an equivalent. In this estimate, every species 

 of export except tobacco, is excluded at one epoch, 

 and exports of^ every kind included at the other; 

 yet the latter would fall far short of exhibiiing the 

 equivalent necessary to bring itself en a fooling, 

 86 to agriculture, with the former. Two hundred 

 and forty thousand hogsheads of tobacco, which, 

 or an equivalent, Virginia would now export, if 

 the state of agriculture had been as flourishing as 

 it was sixty or seventy years past, at the present 

 value, by which all our exports are rated, would 

 be worth above seventeen millions of dollars ; and 

 supposing Virginia to furnish one-seventh part of 

 the native agricultural exports of the United Siates, 

 these ought now to amount to one hundred and 

 twenty millions of dollars, had the products ol 

 agriculture kept pace with the increase of popula- 

 tion. If this statement is not exactly correct, 

 enough of it certainly is so, to demonstrate a rapid 

 impoverishment of the soil of the United States. 

 The decay of the culture of tobacco is testi- 

 mony to this unwelcome fact. It is deserted be- 

 cause the lands are exhausted. To conceal from 

 ourselves a disagreeable truth, we resort to the de- 

 lusion, that tobacco requires new or fresh land ; 

 whereas every one acquainted with the plant 

 knows, that its quantity and quality, as is the case 

 with most or all plants, are both srreatly improved 

 by manured land, or land, the fertility of which 

 has been artificially increased. Whole counties, 

 comprising large districts of country, which once 

 grew tobacco in great quantities, are now too ste- 

 rile to grow any of moment ; and the wheat crops, 

 substituted for tobacco, have already sunk to an 

 average below profit. 



From the mass of facta, to prove that the fer- 

 tility of our country has long been declining, and 

 that our agriculture is in a miserable slate, I shall 

 only select one more. The average of our native 

 exports is about forty millions of dollars annual- 

 ly. Some portion of this amount consists of manu- 

 factures, the materials lor which are not furnished 

 by agriculture ; another, as is extensively the fact 

 in the case of flour, has passed through the hands 

 of the manufacturer. Of the first portion he re- 

 ceives the whole price, of the second a proportion. 

 And a third portion of our products is obtained 

 from the sea. Of the forty millions exported, ag- 

 riculture, therefore, receives about thirty-five. The 

 taxes of every kind, state and federal, may be es- 

 timated at twenty millions of dollars, of which 

 agriculture pays at least fifteen, leaving twenty 

 niillions of her exports for her own use. Count- 

 ing all the elaves, who ought to be counted both 

 DB aources of product and expense, in estimating 

 the slalo of agriculture, the people of the United 

 Slates may probably amount to about eeven rail- 



lions, and it may be fairly assumed, that the in- 

 terest or occupation of six millions of these sevehj 

 is agricultural. Of the whole surplus product of 

 agriculture exported, after deducting the taxes it 

 pays, there remains lor each individual a few rents 

 above three doilais. Out ol" this mass ol" profit, 

 he is to pay fur the manutactures, luxuries and 

 necessaries he consumes, not raised by himself; 

 and the only remaining article to be carried to the 

 credit of agriculture, is the small gain it derives 

 from its domestic sales, not to itself, or from sales 

 by one of its members to another, lor that does 

 not enrich it, but to other classes, such as manu- 

 facturers and soldiers. Against the Ibrmer, agri- 

 cultuie is to be debited with the bounties she is 

 made by law to pay them ; against the latter, she 

 has been already debited by deducting her taxes 

 from her exports. Neither can be a source of 

 much wealth or profit to her, because in one case 

 she furnishes the money by taxation, and in the 

 oiher by bounties, with which her products are 

 purchased. It is, iherelbre, nearly true, that the 

 income ofagricuhure is only three dollars per poll, 

 and that this income is her whole fund for supply- 

 ing her wants and extending her improvements. 

 This estimate is infinitely more correct, than one 

 drawn from individual wealth or povertj'. To 

 infer from the first, that every body might become 

 rich, as a defence of our agricultural regimen, 

 would be a conclusion as fallacious, as to infer 

 from the tecond, that every body must become 

 poor, as a proof of its badness. Extraordinary 

 talents or industry will produce extraordinary ef- 

 fects. Instances of happiness or wealth under a 

 despotism, do not prove that its regimen is calcu- 

 lated lor general wealth or happiness. A system, 

 commercial, political or agricultural, so wretched 

 as not to exhibit cases of individual prosperity, 

 has never appeared, because a universal scourge 

 would be universally abhorred. It is not from 

 partial, but general facts, that we can draw a 

 correct knowledge of our agriculture. Even a 

 personal view of the country, might deceive the 

 thoughtless, because neither the shortness of life, 

 nor the gradual impoverishment of land, are cal- 

 culated to establish a visible standard of compari- 

 son. A man must be old and possess a turn for 

 observation from bis youth, to be able to judge 

 correctly from this source. I have known many 

 farms lor above forty years, and though I think 

 that all of them have been greatly impoverished, 

 yet I rely more upon the general facts I have 

 stated, for agreeing with Strickland in opinion, 

 " that the agriculture of the United States affords 

 only a bare subsistence — that the fertiliiy of our 

 lands is irradually declining — and that the agricul- 

 ture of Virginia has arrived to the lowest state of 

 degradation." 



TIIK POMTICAL STATE OF AGRICULTURE. 



In collectina the causes which have contributed 

 to the miserable agricultural state of the country, 

 as it is a national calamity of the highest magni- 

 tude, we should be careful not to be blinded by 

 partiality for our customs or institutions, nor cor- 

 rupted by a disposition to flatter ourselves or others. 

 I shall begin with those of a political nature. 

 These ore a secondary providence, which govern 



