1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



537 



food in certain proportions; these proportions vary- 

 ing from the equator to the poles; and that the 

 laws governing the full, perfect and increasing 

 production of lbod, are exactly in accordance with 

 the laws of this organization. Therefore as man 

 most duly observes this, the Creator's law of his 

 subsistence, so does the production of food in- 

 crease with increase of population — and by no 

 other means; simply because it is not otherwise 

 required; as man departs from it — so docs the 

 production of food decrease with increase of pop- 

 ulation — the latter going on to a certain extent, and 

 ultimately followed by rapid decrease of population, 

 as the soil becomes more and more exhausted. 

 Hence the real cause of the "decline and fall" of 

 Rome, and of all other ancient empires, and the 

 declining and stationary condition of many mo- 

 dern ones. You have this sad transgression in 

 operation in the south — the emigration to the west 

 relieving you from its final and worst evils. It 

 exists least in the north and is rapidly decreasing 

 since the establishment of manufactories — thetrue 

 stimulus to correct agriculture. The departure 

 from this law exists to a frightful degree in Ireland, 

 India, &c. Hence the real source of their misery. 

 and apparent excess of population. In England. 

 the rates of wages have raised parts of the mass 

 to the bread and meat power of subsistence — in the 

 United States still far more — and hence the real 

 main essential source of all the prosperity, and 

 consequently, of their advancement and civiliza- 

 tion above all other nations. This power is now at 

 work in France — and hence her progress since the 

 revolution. Malthus certainly could not have 

 known any thing of these principles, or he never 

 could have arrived at the. conclusions he did; 

 hence (to me at least,) his very obvious, great, 

 and sad errors. His conclusions are formed upon 

 the facts of decreasing production of food, arising 

 from tribes and nations {'ailing, in theirpast and ex- 

 isting ignorance, to subsist according to the or- 

 ganization of man, and consequently, from not 

 cultivating the soil, in accordance with that organ- 

 ization, which are, and must be the true and only 

 principles of increasingly productive agriculture. 

 It can scarcely be deemed possible that the break- 

 ing; two of the primary and most important laws 

 of man's nature and condition, can be amended 

 and remedied by breaking a third — still more im- 

 portant, which commands his very creation ! ! ! — 

 and the most directly imperative of the three ! ! ! 



With these views, arising from various circum- 

 stances, and from observing the difference in the 

 condition of the mass in this country and my own, 

 (England,) and from a good deal of reflection 

 upon the theories and doctrines of the existing 

 school of political economy, and from some observa- 

 tions and study of the workings and operations of 

 nature's laws, I set about the practical application 

 of the above principles. I began with the Eng- 

 lish system of agriculture in the first instance — 

 which I studied, and not idly, under three of the 

 best farmers in England and Scotland. Perpetual 

 tillage with occasional grass crops — as clover, &c. 

 intermixed, and separate perpetual pasture. This 

 boasted system, being that of England, Flanders, 

 &c. — with the exception of its arable green and 

 root crops for cattle, does not essentially differ 

 from the agriculture of the earliest, rudest, and 

 most ignorant stages of society, succeeding the mere 

 hunter and pastoral stages — such is the slow pro- 

 Vol. 111—68 



gress of this science, upon which all human exis- 

 tence and civilization depends! Hits systemdoes not 

 produce and Jill the soil with a sufficient quantity of 

 vegetable matter — the primary, main essential 

 source of all fertility and permanent and increas- 

 ing fertility — (you have most ably and clearly 

 shown in the last No. of j-our Register, the direc- 

 tion lime gives to that fertility upon the great scale 

 of nature s works — ) and I found it would not do 

 either on the score of production or expense. This 

 system mainly grew up under war prices and com- 

 paratively low ivages — the latter, the curse and 

 bane of all good agriculture — of manufactures, and 

 every thing pise, universally important and benefi- 

 cial 1o mankind. 



My farm is now not two-thirds grass, and some- 

 thing about one-third tillage; one, two, and three 

 years grass and clover — alternating with one and 

 two years only of tillage, with no permanent pas- 

 ture. I do not pretend to say that these are the 

 exact proportions according to the organization of 

 ■man, as to his due and legitimate mode of subsis- 

 tence; but I believe they are a close and correct 

 approximation to it in this latitude. I formerly era- 

 ployed four to eight men, one boy, and seven 

 horses; now only one man and two boys, and one 

 and two other men occasionally — more of course, in 

 harvest — and four horses often idle. The more 

 perfect and productive agriculture becomes, the 

 fewer hands it employs — the reverse of all other 

 professions — thus leaving the surplus (not excess,) 

 for those professions — yet supporting all. Other- 

 wise improvement and civilization could never 

 take place. The worst agriculture the attendant 

 and result of the lowest rates of wages, employs 

 nearly a whole population — otherwise excess of" 

 population would be frightful indeed, there being 

 no demand for manufactures, &c. under such 

 deadening circumstances. I have six large bar- 

 racks and three barns, all full— the latter 50 by 34, 

 40 by 32, and 80 by 40 feet. Next year I must 

 build again, and I believe I shall continue to do so 

 for several years to come. My farm is barely 100 

 acres — the soil a light hazle loam, of medium pow- 

 ers, deposited upon gneiss rock, with a white and 

 yellow clay resting between — the latter perfectly 

 permeable to water — the former not so much so. 

 Thirteen years ago when I purchased the farm, it 

 was in the lowest state of impoverishment and ex- 

 haustion. I have purchased 8000 bushels of bones, 

 and above 5000 bushels of lime — a good deal of 

 straw, and not much manure. Now I sell all the 

 hay and grain, excepting what the horses and 

 four to six hogs consume, and all the marketable, 

 straw. I keep only three to six cows, and manure 

 from 25 to 30 acres, besides ploughing up from 28 

 to 32 acres of clover and grass sod annually. 

 There is neither hoax, falsehood or mystery in all 

 this. If others will fallow nature as I have en- 

 deavored to do, they may accomplish a great deal 

 more than I have yet done, upon much better 

 soils, and with much more favorable local advan- 

 tages and circumstances than I possess. I use 

 about 150 bushels of gypsum, and 400 of lime 

 yearly. I manure no crops whatever but the grass, 

 and that upon the surface, and always in its in- 

 fant state. If this is not a law of nature, we know 

 not one of them yet. Go into the woods and 

 prairies, and find fields covered with weeds, in the 

 fall, and see if it is not so. I lime no crop except- 

 ing grass, and in its infant state, at the rate of 10 



