THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



Vol. III. 



JANUARY, 1836. 



No. 9. 



EDMUND RUFFIIV, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 



TOBACCO AND WHEAT CI ' TURE COMPARED. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Re 



Happening the other clay to take up Arthur 

 Young's 'Agricultural T>ur through France," a 

 work of* great and acknowledged merit, which 

 gives the best account I have ever seen of the 

 soil, climate and agriculture of that extensive and 

 fertile country, I was struck with a passao-e 

 which has reference to the husbandry of Vir- 

 ginia — and as the work is perhaps not known to 

 many of your readers and correspondents, and 

 may not be in your possession, I have copied the 

 passage, which you will publish in your Register, 

 or not, as you think best. I know not whether 

 you will think it worthy of a place there, but I am 

 persuaded that it gives a lesson well worthy of the 

 attention of our most active and judicious cultiva- 

 tors. 



The work is divided into two parts — one a Jour- 

 nal of his Travels, with remarks on the agricul- 

 ture, &c. of the districts he passed through; the 

 other of the Heads or Chapters on the soil, cl 



and rye are cultivated, as it were, to the exclusion of 

 other crops. Tobacco cannot demand an uncommon 

 degree of heat, because it has been cultivated on a 

 thousand acres of land successfully in Scotland; and 

 as to the demanding of too great exertions, the free 

 hands of Europe voluntarily addict themselves to the 

 culture, which has nothing in it so laborious as reaping 

 wheat. I take the American case to be this— ill hus° 

 bandry, not tobacco, exhausted the land. They are 

 now adopting wheat; and, if we may judge from the no- 

 tions of the preceding quotation, that culture will in a 

 few years give the finishing stroke to their lands — for 

 those who think that wheat does not exhaust, will be 

 free in often sowing it, and they will not be long in find- 

 ing out what the result w;ll prove." 



You see that Mr. Jefferson's observations on 

 the cultivation of tobacco in Virginia, are very 

 far from receiving the approbation of Mr. Young. 

 Mr. Jefferson's reputation does not rest on h?s 

 knowledge of agriculture; and I think it will ge- 

 nerally be agreed, that the passage from his Notes 

 on Virginia, quoted by Young, is at best, very 

 loosely written — and, apparently, without due con- 

 sideration of the comparative advantages and 



mate, agricultural products, &c. There is one on dis? , dvant of whea{ and tobacco ~ 



the culture of tobacco, from which you have the | QOtion that ° tobacco is a much greater exhauster 



following extract : — 



than wheat, I believe was almost universal in Vir- 



"Tobacco, as an object of cultivation, appears in ginia at the period when his notes were written. 



these notes to very great advantage; and a respectable 

 author in France declares, from information, that in- 

 stead of exhausting the land, it improves it like artifi- 

 cial grasses;* which seems to agree with my intelli- 

 gence; yet the culture has been highly condemned by 

 others. Mr. Jefferson observes thus upon it: "It re- 

 quires an extraordinary degree of heat, and still more 

 indispensably an uncommon fertility of soil: it is a 

 culture productive of infinite wretchedness; those em- 

 ployed in it are in a continued state of exertion, beyond 

 the powers of nature to support: little food of any 

 kind is raised by them: so that the men and animals on 

 these farms are badly fed, and the earth is rapidly im- 

 poverished. The cultivation of wheat is the reverse 

 in every circumstance: besides clothing the earth with 

 herbage and preserving its fertility, it feeds the labor- 

 ers plentifully; requires from them only a moderate 

 toil, except in the season of harvest; raises great num- 

 bers of animals for food and service, and diffuses plen- 

 ty and happiness among the whole. We find it easier 

 to make an hundred bushels of wheat, than a thousand 

 weight of tobacco, and they are worth more when 

 made."f This authority is respectable; but there are 

 circumstances in this passage which almost remove the 

 dependence we are inclined to have on the author's 

 judgement. The culture of wheat preserving the fer- 

 tility of the soil, and raising great numbers of animals ! 

 What can be meant by this? As to the exhausting 

 quality of wheat, which is sufficient to reduce a soil 

 almost to a caput mortuum, it is too well known and 

 too completely decided to allow any question at this 

 time of day; and how wheat is made to raise animals 

 we must go to America to learn — for just the contrary 

 is found here. The farms that raise most wheat have 

 fewest animals; and in France, husbandry is almost at 

 its lowest pitch for want of animals, and because wheat 



267. 



*De I 'Administration Provinciate par M. le Trone. Tom. 1. p. 



fNotes on tlie.'State of Virginia, pa;e 271. 



Vol. Ill— 65 



It is, I think, very far from being as general now, 

 with regard to the crop itself. But lam not sure, 

 that as a system, the culture of tobacco is not 

 much more exhausting than that of wheat. 

 Granting, what I believe, that a single crop of to- 

 bacco reduces the fertility of the soil less than one 

 of wheat, we must take into account, the much 

 greater number of hands required for a given 

 space — and of course the much more extensive 

 crops of corn required; so that the question is not 

 simply whether wheat or tobacco exhausts the 

 most, but whether tobacco, with the increased 

 crop of corn which it requires, does not injure the 

 soil more than wheat. It is also worthy of con- 

 sideration, that hilly lands subject to wash, are 

 more injured in general by crops that require hoe- 

 ing, or other constant tilth, than grain crops that 

 are only cultivated for seeding. 



Mr. Jefferson's comparative estimate of the 

 expense and profit of a hogshead of tobacco and 

 a hundred bushels of wheat, seems to rest on very 

 vague and insufficient data. Wheat being much 

 heavier in proportion to its value than tobacco — - 

 the relative value of each must be greatly influ- 

 enced by its distance from market, and wheat 

 when got ready for delivery, is subject to more 

 casualties than tobacco, which may be kept over 

 from year to year — while wheat is subject to many 

 injuries from the weevil, &c, and is constantly suf- 

 fering in quality, and diminishing in quantity, if not 

 speedily converted into flour. With regard to 

 to the greater severity of labor for a crop of to- 

 bacco, there may be some room for doubt. It is 

 difficult to draw an exact comparison, but I incline 

 to the opinion of Mr. Young, that Mr. Jefferson 

 is mistaken. The culture of tobacco requires 

 more skill and mors incessant care than thnt of 



