THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



71 



attention to manuring and grassing of land to pre- 

 vent its deterioration. 



Barley is better adapted to our soil and climate, 

 is not so exhausting, and may, in those parts ol' 

 the state where there is a demand for it, be culti- 

 vated to more advantage than wheat. 



In the rich vegetable soils of Kentucky, which 

 are well adapted to the growth of hemp and to- 

 bacco, these crops, together with the necessary 

 grains lor feeding stock, such as corn, rye and oats, 

 and the appropriate vegetables for the same pur- 

 pose, should be the principal objects of culture. 



Tobacco can be grown to advantage in every 

 part of the state where the soil is suitable, but it is 

 more peculiarly adapted to the Green River coun- 

 try, where the climate is better suited to the pro- 

 duction of a first rate article. 



A system of agriculture best suited to our cir- 

 cumstances, whilst it should embrace every vari- 

 ety of product, to which our soil and climate is 

 adapted, should be so diversified as to appro- 

 priate lands of various qualities and lying in va- 

 rious latitudes, to the production of those articles 

 which are best adapted to the nature ol the soil and 

 most suitable to the surrounding circumstances. 



Thus lands lying near a large town or city, 

 where the facilities lor obtaining manure are very 

 great, may be advantageously applied to the pro- 

 duction of such articles as will serve for the con- 

 sumption of the place. 



By directing our efforts to the production of as 

 great a variety of articles as the nature of our soil 

 and climate and other circumstances will justily, 

 we shall obtain all the advantages resulting from 

 a division' of labor, and at the same time guard 

 against the consequences of over production. 



W the whole energies of our state were directed 

 to the culture ol tobacco, there would not only be 

 a misapplication of labor in attempting to produce 

 that article in lands unsuited to the crop, but there 

 would be an over production, and consequently a 

 considerable diminution of price. If a like eflbrt 

 should be made to extend the culture of hemp, a 

 similar consequence would result ; and so in rela- 

 tion to any other agricultural product. Still greater 

 evils would result if we were to direct all our 

 efforts to the raising of live stock. The conse- 

 quence would not only be the usual result of 

 a supply exceeding the demand, but there would be 

 a surplus left on hand, which would have to be 

 fed and sustained in the hope of a future demand 

 at some distant but uncertain period. 



But although our agricultural efforts should be 

 directed to as great a variety of products as cir- 

 cumstances will admit of, yet the same individual 

 ought not to attempt the culture of too great a 

 number of articles. In general farmers will suc- 

 ceed better by directing their main ejfforts to some 

 one crop as an article for sale, and such others as 

 are necessary to feed their stock and furnish sub- 

 sistence for their lamilics. 



In one particular our system of agriculture 

 should be uniform. Whatever may be the na- 

 ture of the crops we cultivate, the utmost care 

 should be taken so to cultivate our lands as never 

 to suffer ihem to become less fertile. 



Although there has been considerable improve- 

 ment in our system of agriculture within the last 

 twenty years, yet there can be no doubt we are 

 still far behind the improvements of the age in 

 the highly useful science of agriculture. 



The extreme natural fertility of our best lands 

 induced our early settlers to /all into the error, 

 that it would be impossible to exhaust them. 

 The great depth of the vegetable mould and a 

 most excellent subsoil founded upon limestone 

 rock, very naturally induced the opinion that it 

 was inexhaustible. Experience has shown the 

 fallacy of this idea, but is difficult even at this day, 

 to make the generality of liirmers sensible of the 

 extent of deterioration which much of our natu- 

 rally rich soil has already undergone; and still 

 more difficult to convince them of the great ad- 

 vantages which would result li-om such a change 

 of our system of husbandry as will restore our 

 exhausted soil to its original state o! fertility. 



A continued cause of deterioration must ulti- 

 mately terminate in such a reduction of soil as 

 will render the product of less value than the 

 labor necessary to bring ii to maturity. Such a 

 course of cultivation not only diminishes the pro- 

 fit of the farmer each succeeding year, until his 

 profit is reduced to nothing, but his capital vested 

 in land will be almost entirely sunk. 



The least reflection will satisfy any one of the 

 disadvantHge of such a system. It costs nt> 

 more labor to cultivate an acre of ground pro- 

 ducing sixty bushels of corn than would be re- 

 quired to cultivate the same acre afier it has been 

 so reduced in fertility as to produce only Ihirtj' 

 bushels. Now if the agriculturist who raises 

 thirty bushels of corn per acre is barely paid for 

 the labor expended in raising it, it is evident that 

 the additional thirty bushels which it would have 

 produced if the soil had not been suffered to di- 

 minish in fertility, would have been clear gain. 



The same would be equally true of hemp, to- 

 bacco, and every other crop, except the small 

 additional labor of harvesting the increased crop 

 and preparing it for market after it has been 

 brought to maturity. 



As land can be much more easily kept in good 

 heart and fertile condition than it can be restored 

 after it has been deteriorated, a discreet farmer 

 will always resort to the easier method, especially 

 as it is by far the most profitable one. 



If we take from land all or nearly all that it 

 produces, and restore nothing, we gradually ab- 

 stract from it those nourishing principles, which 

 are essential to the growth of plants; and when 

 the work of destruction has been carried to a 

 certain extent, there will no longer remain in the 

 soil a sufficient quantity of nourishing ingredi- 

 ents to produce a crop sufficient to pay (or its 

 cultivation. If a beneficent Providence had not 

 made provision for a supply to a considerable ex- 

 tent of those elementary principles which consti- 

 tute in various states of combination, the appro- 

 priate food of plants over and above what is fur- 

 nished by the soil, our best lands under a bad 

 state of cultivation would long since have been 

 reduced to a state of complete sterility. In a 

 state of nature every thing is restored to the 

 soil which is drawn from it by the growth of 

 plants, and hence it continually increases in fer- 

 tility. To preserve the fertility of land while in 

 a state of cultivation, it i? only necessary to re- 

 store to the soil such a proportion of the .'ertiliz- 

 ing ingredients as will, tocjcther with those fur- 

 nished from the atmosphere, be equivalent to the 

 sum of those drawn from the soil by the grovving 

 crops. 



