336 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



by honest labor — will you not make an effort to se- 

 cure yourselves and your posieriiy from ihe enor- 

 mous and increasing exactions and depredations 

 ol' this system of Iraud and usurpation ? 



THE CONDITION OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE, 

 AND THE PROPRIETY OF AFFORDING TO IT 

 GOVERNMKNTAL AID. 



Extract from Hie Address of tlie Hon Cliilton Allan to tlie 

 Keiitucliy estate Agricultural Society. 



^ i)f ^ vF TF 



We will now take a view ol the agriculture of 

 our own beloved country, and in doing this, I will 

 enumerate the circunittances thai have contri- 

 buted to its advancement and those which have 

 made against it. 



Since the revolution, the repeal of the law ol 

 primogeniture — allodial iiiles, the facility ol ac- 

 quiring portions of uur vast lerrilory, and protect- 

 ed industry presented a grand theatre lor the 

 display of tlie productive powers ol agriculture, 

 and with these advantages, without aid lioni 

 government, it has been the chief agent in mak- 

 uig the United Slates what they are. Here has 

 been an expansion of populaiion, inieiligeiice and 

 wealth, which has astonished the world. The 

 disadvantages which have operated against agri- 

 culture in Uie United States are the lolloiving : 



The original emigrants brought with them a 

 very imperlect knowledge of tillage, ihe an being 

 then bui little undersiood in the mother country. 



The emergencies attending new settlements in 

 a savage land prevented improvement. 



The great quantuy of land and scarciiy of la- 

 borers, causeil the people to be perlecily regard- 

 less ol the preservation of the soil. The liishion 

 was to tend corn and tobacco in the same fields as 

 long as they would produce, then throw them 

 away and clear new unes. 



In the old slates we find thousands of acres that 

 have been thus exhausted and grown up ui thick 

 undervv9od. 



In Kentucky, our habits of negligence have 

 been increased by the leriilily of our toil ; nature 

 having done so much, many of us concluded there 

 was very little lor man to do, and it is a melancholy 

 laci thai, at ihis very time, two-thirds of the first 

 cleared fields in the state will not produce hall as 

 much as they did at first. 



Among the causes that have retarded the pro- 

 gress of our liirming, none more deserves our 

 notice than the general pas^sion lor large tracts ol 

 land. The great length of our rivers, the vast 

 extent of our continent, and thecheu|)iiess of wild 

 lands, have given us large ideas, and we have 

 come to measure our wealth by the number ol 

 acres we possess. And in this wild career, with 

 hearts of controversy, we lay out all our means 

 in extending our territory. Hence our country 

 now presents so many large tracts incumbered 

 with old logs, brush piles and weeds. It is said 

 there are three elements ofwealth — land, labor and 

 capital — this is a bad classification, there is m 

 truth but one element ofwealth, and that is labor. 

 Capital is nothing but concentrated labor. The 

 man who lives on the profits of houses, goods and 

 money, lives on labor that has been perlormed. 

 Land without labor is of no value. It is fi-om the 

 labor and not from the land we derive profit. A 



million of dollars laid out in wild land will not 

 bring ilie owner a dinner or a cent. One acre in 

 good rultivaiion produces more profit than a thou- 

 sand that is uncultivated. There never was a 

 greater mistake than the invesimenl of capital in 

 land to lie idle. Let us look at a case in minia- 

 ture, and the idea can be applied lo the whole 

 slate. 



Of two neighbors having good land, suppose 

 one has kept one hundred acres of his land lor 

 the last fifiy years under good lillage, while the 

 other has kept a hundred acres of his uncleared, 

 the profits of the one hundred acres under tillage, 

 say IS worth it>300 annually, and ihis annual in- 

 come is pill at such profiiable use as that the prin- 

 cipal and interest accruing will have yielded 6 per 

 cein. annually ; Ihe amount in fifiy years would 

 be $i90,416 70 ; while he of ihe wooiJland would 

 have lieen all the time paying taxes and receiving 

 no profits. If one half the capital that is now 

 invested in land in Kentucky was invested in 

 labor upon the oiher hallj it can be demonstrated 

 by any man competent lo make calculations, that 

 ihe aggregate wealih of the suite would he more 

 than doubled. The criterion ol the size of farms 

 ought to be this : to have them no larger than the 

 labor employed could keep in the highest state of 

 cultivaiion. While a farmer has logs and brush, 

 and weeds and worn-out fields in his limits, he 

 should ne»?er think of adding. He thai has a 

 lai'iie trad of land and lew laborerts, and is living 

 in poverty among thorns and ihisilet", let him sell 

 half and employ the proceeds in culiivating the 

 oiherhali; and he will grow rich by the chanye. 

 Our people are sent ofi to the new states — our 

 school houses are empty from the sparseness of 

 our population, and thousands of children are 

 growing up in ignorance and actual poverty from 

 the vain pride of their fathers to have large tracts 

 of land. 



But the great disadvantage under which Ame- 

 rican agriculture has had lo labor, is the neglect of 

 the government. When we have seen that the 

 ancient Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Phoenician, 

 Jew, Chinese, and the inhabitant of ancient India, 

 became great and prosperous by bringing the 

 power of government and religion in aid of indi- 

 vidual indusiry in cultivating the earth : when we 

 have seen mat all the modern governments of 

 Euiojie have discovered and are now practising 

 upon ihis ancient principle of national improve- 

 meni, is it not astonishing that our national and 

 state liovernments are ihe only ones in the world 

 that give no direcl assistance lo tillage'? Our 

 surprise is increat-ed when we read the lollowing 

 words from the last message of President Wash- 

 iiigiDii to congiess : 



"•• li will noi be doubted thai with reference 

 either to individual or national welfare, agricul- 

 ture is of primary importance in proportion as 

 nations advance in population and other circum- 

 stances of maturity ; this truth becomes more 

 apparent and renders the cultivation of the soil 

 mure and more an object of public patronage. 



" Institutions (or promoting it grow up, sup- 

 ported by the public purse ; and to what object can 

 ii be dedicated with greater propriety ? Among 

 the means which have been employed to ilus 

 end, none have been attended vviih greater suc- 

 cess than the establishment of boards composed of 

 proper characters, charged with collecting and 



