INTRODUCTION. 8 



crop, some of the elements of fertility must of necessity be removed, and the greater 

 the crops the speedier the exhaustion, unless some adequate compensation be made. 

 The following fact, stated in the fifth volume of that valuable American periodical, 

 " The Cultivator," shows the progress of deterioration in one of the finest wheat dis- 

 tricts in the whole country. 



" Thomas Burrall, Esq., has a most excellent wheat farm in the neighbourhood of 

 Geneva, (New York,) which he began to clear and improve twenty-one or twenty- 

 two years ago, and on which he has made and applied much manure. Mr. Bur- 

 rall informed us, in the summer of 1836, that he had noted down the average product 

 of his wheat crop every year; that dividing the twenty years into three periods, he 

 found that his wheat had averaged twenty-nine bushels per acre during the first of 

 the.se periods ; twenty-five bushels the acre during the second ; and but twenty bushels 

 the acre during the third period thus showing a diminished fertility of nearly one- 

 third, under what may there be denominated a good system of husbandry." 



All, then, who are engaged in agricultural pursuits, and even those now luxuriating 

 upon the most fertile soils, must, sooner or later, be reduced to the necessity of adding 

 to their fields some of the agents of fertility, and of adopting new means by which 

 they can obtain crops that may be compensating and profitable. 



The late Judge Buel, in referring to a picture drawn by the Hon. James M. Gar- 

 nett, of the deteriorated condition of Virginia agriculture, says: "Let not the 

 Northerners take credit to themselves, from this outline of old Virginia husbandry, or 

 from the ingenuous detail of the causes which brought it to so low a condition. Though 

 not exactly the like causes have operated, the same deteriorating system of husbandry 

 has prevailed with us, though perhaps to a more limited extent. Though we have 

 personally attended more to the art to the practice yet we have been equally defi- 

 cient in the science with our brethren in Virginia -equally indifferent to the study 

 and application of the principles upon which good husbandry must ever be based. 

 And although we may have begun earlier in the business of reform, whether from 

 necessity or from choice we will not say, we are still too defective in practice to boast 

 of our trivial acquirements. The truth is, we have regarded the soil as a kind mother, 

 expecting her always to give, without regarding her ability to give. We have 

 expected a continuance of her bounties, though we have abused her kindness, and 

 disregarded her maternal admonitions. We have managed the culture of the soil as a 

 business requiring mere animal power, rather than as one in which the intellect could 

 be brought largely to co-operate." 



" But," continues the judge, in the full fervour of his zeal for the promotion of 

 agriculture, "there is a redeeming spirit abroad. The lights of science are beaming 

 upon the agricultural world, and dissipating the clouds of superstitious ignorance 

 which have so long shrouded it in darkness. The causes which have for some time 

 been actively operating to improve the condition of the other arts, and to elevate the 

 character of those who conduct them, are extending their influence to agriculture.'* 



The course of tillage followed in America since its first settlement, and with such 

 exhausting and disastrous effects upon the soil, has been of late aptly styled the old 

 system, to distinguish it from the New Husbandry, which last consists in the employ- 

 ment of means calculated not only to arrest and prevent the exhaustion of soils, but to 

 increase their productiveness. It is indeed gratifying to know that in many parts of 

 our country which have suffered from the impoverishment of the land ; agriculture 

 has for many years shown signs of progressive improvement, reduced farms haying 

 been brought into increased value, and the products of many of them being raised 

 even above the amount afforded in the days of their first exuberant culture. Thi^ 

 has occurred in New England, in the Valley of the Hudson, in New Jersey, Penn- 

 sylvania, the upper portion of the Peninsula including Delaware and Eastern Mary 

 land, in several parts of Western Maryland, Old or Eastern Virginia, etc. 



It is the chief object of the numerous and many admirable agricultural publications 

 so extensively circulated at the present day, as well as of the active societies everywhere 

 instituted, to set forth the principles and practical details of the new system of hus- 

 bandry, and to demonstrate the advantages resulting from the judicious application of 

 manures and all sorts of fertilizing agents ; from good tillage ; from proper rotat 

 of crops; from the assistance to be derived from root-culture ; from the substitution 

 for naked fallows, of clover and other good fallow crops. All these means are to be 



