1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



751 



the clover tribe, feed on, and draw their growth 

 and substance from air and water principally, if 

 they are left to rot on the. soil, they return to it 

 much more enriching matter, than they had previ- 

 ously taken up for their support. This vegetable 

 manuring is in itself a vast source of fertilization 

 —but may be greatly increased by adding, in pro- 

 per manner, the rearing of live-stock, and use of 

 prepared manures. The attention which has but 

 recently been directed to the use ol calcareous ma- 

 nures, has already been productive of signal bene- 

 fits — and every year's experience will serve—the 

 better to establish the necessity for their applica- 

 tion, and the immense profit thus to be obtained, 

 on our .soils that are so generally deficient in that 

 ingredient which is essential to a high grade of 

 value and productiveness. 



The observer of the progress of agricultural im- 

 provement in Virginia, may remark that the intro- 

 duction of almost every new and profitable prac- 

 tice has been caused by means that amounted to 

 compulsion — and rarely, if ever, has a general 

 change been produced by the clearest reasoning, 

 if not attended by the pressure of necessity. Thus, 

 it required long continued and ruinous low prices 

 to stop the general and injudicious culture of to- 

 bacco in lower Virginia — and the almost total de- 

 struction of the wheat crop throughout an exten- 

 sive region, to prove that it was altogether unsuit- 

 ed to the soil. We may therefore hope that there 

 still remain great blessings, in other new kinds of 

 culture, to be forced on our acceptance by some 

 supposed calamity, but real good. Thus, sheep 

 husbandry, (which now the dogs alone can effec- 

 tually prohibit,) and silk culture, may possibly be 

 established with profit; and by such or other simi- 

 lar means, a prosperous population may be renew- 

 ed in the central region, where emigration seems 

 now to threaten a wide-spread waste. If it was 

 possible that such a calamity could occur, as that 

 we should be entirely shut out from the rich lands 

 of tiie west, we would be forced to learn the value 

 of our own position and resources, and the im- 

 mense profits to be obtained by remaining con- 

 Icnted at home, and making the best of the ad- 

 vantages offered by the land of our birth. 



I shall now state more particularly the several 

 causes which are most operative in repressing the 

 improvement, and serving to prostrate the inter- 

 ests of agriculture. 



I. The first cause in order, though not in 

 grade, of injury to agriculture in Virginia, is the 

 continuing too long the early and exhausting, as 

 well as rude system of tillage, which was neces- 

 sarily and properly adopted when our country was 

 generally in the forest state. The error of too 

 long a continuance of this course, was not so im- 

 portant (as is often asserted,) as to have blighted 

 agricultural improvement over all the state. If no 

 other and greater errors had existed, this one, the 

 result merely of want of information, would have 

 cured itself soon enough, in every case, to prevent 

 any serious loss to individuals, or to the nation. 

 This error has not operated alone, but has been 

 aggravated, and endowed with its evil power, by 

 other errors, which will be named hereafter. 



II. A very mistaken opinion has prevailed ge- 

 nerally as to the improvable nature of soils — and 

 this mistake has served to misdirect effort, and to 

 disappoint, and render profitless, the attempts of 

 the most energetic farmers to enrich poor soils. 



It is but a late discovery that nearly all the soils 

 of Virginia, (and it is believed also of all the At- 

 lantic States,) are singularly wanting in lime as 

 a natural ingredient — and it is yet but little known, 

 that without a certain proportion of that ingre- 

 dient, all efforts to fix new fertility in soil are vain. 

 As a consequence of these positions, the adding 

 the ingredient which is wanting will be the more 

 effective and profitable, in proportion to the previ- 

 ous deficiency: and if our tillage in general has 

 yielded profit, under this great and remarkable de- 

 fect, far more profitable must it be, after that de- 

 fect shall have been removed. The ignorance of 

 these important truths, is here and elsewhere one 

 of the greatest obstacles to agricultural improve- 

 ment. It is in vain to prescribe remedies for a 

 disease, so long as its cause is totally unknown to 

 the physician — and even if the only effectual 

 remedy is found to be unattainable, it is better 

 that the truth should be known, than to persist in 

 a vain and profitless pursuit. Eut nature has not 

 been niggardly in offering means for applying this 

 remedy to the lands of Virginia. Large portions 

 of the state are abundantly supplied either with 

 fossil shells, or limestone — and recent discoveries 

 give hopes that similar means maybe found in, or 

 cheaply conveyed to. much of the most destitute 

 region. Geological surveys and investigations 

 may add incalculably to the one benefit — and the 

 new and great facilities for transportation offered 

 by canals and railways, will perhaps as greatly 

 promote the other. 



III. A third cause of injury to agriculture, 

 and one which acts upon and aggravates all other 

 causes, is the total absence of every thing like ag- 

 ricultural instruction, whether practical or theoret- 

 ical. If in any other great and complicated busi- 

 ness, it was the universal course for capitalists to. 

 commence as undertakers without any knowledge 

 of the theory or principles — and to engage opera- 

 lives and superintendents who were equally igno- 

 rant of the practical details — and that for all 

 to acquire the knowledge wanted, reliance was 

 placed solely on their subsequent untaught opera- 

 tions — in such cases, every voice would pronounce 

 that the business must inevitably result in bank- 

 ruptcy and ruin. Yet such is the case, nearly to. 

 the letter, in almost every agricultural business in 

 Virginia, whether on a large, or small farm. Of 

 the former, the wealthy young proprietor is edu- 

 cated far from his future property, and receives in- 

 struction almost exclusively in dead languages, 

 and sciences designed never to have any practical 

 application to his future pursuits — and perhaps af- 

 terwards he adds thereto more or less of study, 

 £on the pretence of it,) of law or medicine — and 

 having arrived at manhood, he throws ail aside to 

 undertake the new business of farming. Still, a 

 rare and admirable aptitude lor the pursuit may 

 sometimes enable a proprietor to overcome all the 

 disadvantages of his own ignorance, and that of 

 his agents, and to succeed in spite of such enor- 

 mous obstacles. But because some few such 

 cases are before us, it is a great and dangerous 

 mistake to suppose that good farmers can be thus 

 formed, in all, or in many cases. It would be as 

 rational to infer that all education in literary and 

 scientific institutions was unnecessary, because, 

 without such aid, a Franklin could reach the high- 

 est station of celebrity and usefulness. 



But however great" may be these disadvantages 



