74S 



FARMERS' R E G I S T E 



[No. 12 



prime quantity of milk which they gave at the 

 time at which they were spayed; and this, on a 

 fair calculation of the usual gradual diminution of 

 the secretion, is double ihe amount that would 

 otherwise have been obtained in the whole period. 

 We must not yet go farther than this, but if cows 

 that, have been spayed should continue to yield 

 such anextra quantity of milk as long as they 

 live, the operation will be valuable indeed. 



SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 

 IN VIRGINIA, AND THE CAUSES OF ITS 

 DECLINE, AND PRESENT DEPRESSION. 



An address to tlic Historical and Philosophical Society of Vir- 

 ginia, by Edmund Ruffin. 



Prepared by request of the Executive Committee, for 

 the Annual Meeting, in February 1836 — and by re- 

 solution of the Society, ordered to be published in 

 the Southern Literary Messenger, and the Farmers' 

 Register. 



Though fully sensible of the honor conferred on 

 me by the request of the Executive Committee of 

 this Society, to prepare an address on agriculture, 

 it is with reluctance that the effort to comply is 

 made — and nothing would have induced the at- 

 tempt, but the fear that my declining the perform- 

 ance, would be attributed to any but the true mo- 

 tive. Heretofore, I have been accustomed to 

 treat of such subjects as needed only to be render- 

 ed intelligible — of which, the manner and style 

 were of far less importance than the matter con- 

 veyed — and for which a plain and even rustic 

 mode of expression was not altogether inappropri- 

 ate and inexcusable. The task now imposed on 

 me requires abilities of a different and higher or- 

 der; but still, for its execution, no aid will be 

 sought in the grace and beauty of language. Be- 

 ing sensible of possessing no powers to draw from 

 these sources, the fruitless attempt will at least be 

 avoided. 



But if no difficulty of this kind existed, others 

 would be presented in the vast field embraced by 

 the subject, and the impossibility of compressing 

 it, or of doing justice to even anyone distinct part, 

 in an address as concise as the occasion requires. 

 It is necessary to choose some limited portion only, 

 for consideration: and therefore, my remarks will 

 be confined to a hasty view of the progress of ag- 

 riculture in Virginia, and the most efficient causes 

 of its depression, and continued decline. Even 

 for this detached portion of the subject, fir more 

 time and space would be required than this occa- 

 sion will afford: and scarcely more can be present- 

 ed than a copious table of contents — or the mere 

 outline of a picture, which will be left for others to 

 fill up and complete. 



In a sketch so rapid, it is impossible even to 

 name the many incidents and changes which go- 

 vernment caused, during the early times of the 

 colony of Virginia. These however would fur- 

 nish many matters curious and interesting to the 

 reader of history, or useful to the political econo- 

 mist, as illustrations of the effects of legal mis-di- 

 rections of industry. '[A.] Afterwards, when sepa- 

 rate individual rights in lands were fully established, 

 and the direction of industry was no longer mate- 

 rially influenced by law, nearly the whole agricul- 

 tural labor of the country, and for a long series of 

 years, was given to the culture of tobacco. In 

 Europe, tobacco has never been raised in perfec- 



tion; for however luxuriant the vegetation, and 

 abundant the crops, the peculiar flavor which 

 gives value to the product, has been always found 

 deficient. This inferiority is certainly not owing 

 to want of sufficient heat, or to any other defect of 

 climate, in every region of Europe — and therefore, 

 I infer that is caused by a genera! difference in the 

 constitution of soil. Perhaps the deficiency of 

 calcareous matter in the soils of Virginia, and ge- 

 nerally also of her sister states, and its more usual 

 diffusion through the best lands of Europe, have 

 caused this one difference in our favor — a superi- 

 ority however, of which the effect, as well as the 

 cause, is subject for regret, rather than rejoi- 

 cing. 



Until times comparatively recent, there was but 

 little skill used, (or required by purchasers,) in 

 the tillage and after-management of tobacco. 

 Steady and regular work, and nearly all of it of one 

 kind at each separate period of the crop, occupied 

 all the laborers on a plantation — so that but little 

 intellect was required, either to execute, or to su- 

 perintend, the several processes. The clearing of 

 woodland engaged the labor of the whole force, 

 every winter, and for months together, all at a time 

 under the eye of the supervisor. The tillage 

 was mostly performed by hand labor, because (un- 

 der the existing circumstances,) it was cheaper 

 than the extended use of the teams and expensive 

 implements, and the accompanying varying and 

 dispersion of labor, which belong to the most im- 

 proved and perfect husbandry. 



During the time of general tobacco culture in 

 Virginia, there was no thought of increasing pro- 

 ducts by enriching the soil. New clearings of fo- 

 rest land were the only means used, both for ex- 

 tended tillage and increased products — and each 

 new piece of land was planted in tobacco as long 

 as it was able to bear that crop, and then in corn, 

 until reduced to such a state of sterility as to in- 

 duce the owner to throw it out of cultivation alto- 

 gether, to be recruited, bj' nature's care alone, un- 

 der a new growth of trees. The amount of cul- 

 tivation for corn was bare!)' enough to feed the la- 

 boring force — and that also was carried on by 

 nearly or quite all the hands being employed to- 

 gether, and in the same operations. This is near- 

 ly the same kind of tillage that is necessarily 

 adapted in every new "planting" country, whe- 

 ther the crops be of corn, tobacco, cotton or sugar 

 — and however rude and imperfect, and even im- 

 poverishing to the soil, may be such a mode of 

 tillage, it was wisely adopted under such circum- 

 stances as formerly existed in Virginia. It was 

 the existence of similar circumstances in still 

 greater strength, which forbade the general use 

 of the plough, and even the cart, on the sugar 

 estates of the West Indies, and which still makes 

 the hand-hoe almost the, sole utensil on some of 

 the cotton estates of South Carolina. The error 

 consists in continuing such rude tillage after the 

 circumstances which required it have ceased — 

 and such has been the error probably in all the 

 cases cited. In a new country, where land is 

 cheap, and labor dear, it is good economy so to di- 

 rect tillage that each laborer may be able to yield 

 the greatest product, (without much regard to the 

 land — ) and also, in such manner that as little in- 

 tellect as possible may be necessary in the opera- 

 tive class. This rude kind of culture, and the 

 employment of slave labor, are well suited to each 



