AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



vol.. xvi. 



PUBLISHED BV JOSEPH UKKCK &. CO., NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agkicultuhal Warehouse.) 

 BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 21, 1S38. 



>0. 37. 



A<3S;iis^^i£.irwsi^m; 



leport by J. Bud at the N. Y. Agr. Convention, 



on the Necessity and Means of Improving our 



Husbandry. 



We eaiiiiot be too ofton reminded of the con- 

 B8t wliifli exists between good and bad hiisband- 

 f, — nor too often admonished to search into the 

 iiisi'S of this difference, am! to apply the needful 

 imedies. The difference does not consist alone 

 I a single crop, or a single season : The soil in 

 le case is beooniing more and more exhausted of 

 rtility, and losing its intrinsic value, while in 

 e other its relative worth is on the increase, and 

 le difference in product is consequently nnnunlly 

 creasing. 



We will illustrate our proposition l)y a compar- 

 on between American and Scotch husbandry, 

 )W and sixty years ago. Sixty years ago, 

 e agriculture of Scotland, was in a wrelch- 

 lly low and unproductive condition ; v.hile the 

 ■oducts of our yet unexhausted soil were ahiiii- 

 mt. But sixty years ago the -eijirit of improve- 

 ent fell upon Scotland, her agricultural socic«y 

 as instituted, and couuiience<l its useful labors, 

 id was soon after greatly aided by the organiza- 

 )n of a national board of agriculture ; agricultu- 

 I surveys were made and published of erery 

 'linty — the best practices of every district thus 

 icarne known to the whole nation — men of for- 

 ne and science turned their attention to the eii- 

 if.nigement and improvement of this parent art ; 

 id the consequence has been, that a wonderful 

 id salutary change has come over that land, 

 lughf with abundance and with bles.iings. The 

 due of land has in consequence been eirhanced 

 ree anil four fold, and its products have been 

 creased in a proportionate ratio. " In fertile dis- 

 ieta," says Sir John Sinclair, " and in propitious 

 asons, the farmer may cgnfidently expect to reap 

 om 32 to 40 bushels of wheat ; from 42 to 50 

 isliels of barley ; from 52 to 64 bushels of oats, 

 id from 28 to 32 bushels of beans, per statute 

 ^re. As to green crops, 30 tons of turnips, three 

 ns of clover, and from 8 to 10 tons of potatoes, 

 sr statute acre, may confidently be relied on. — 

 I favorable seasons the crops are still more ubun- 

 int." 



Now, what has heeil our progress during the 

 n sixty years ? Has it not been retrograde in 

 Ticulturo ? We have, to be'sOre, obtained abun- 

 .nt crops from our rich virgin sciils, and when 

 ese have become exhausted, under bacf tuanage- 

 jnt, we have occupied and exhausted othe."* "• 

 eir turn. But what is the condition now of the 

 ids that were cultivated by our fathers half a 

 ntury ago ? Do they produce the average crops 

 •lieh are given above as the products of Scotch 

 ibandry .' — under all our favorable circumstan.. 

 s of climate and of civil liberty. Are our crops 

 If as large? Nay, are they more than a third 

 I large ? Do we get from our old districts, nn 

 erage of more than 10 (o 13 bushels of wheat, 



l4 to 17 of barley, or of 17 to 21 bushels of 



tion almost entirely agricultural, — e.xempt from 

 the enormous burthens, as tithes, rents and poor 

 rates, which i)ress like an incubus upon the ag- 

 ricullural la'lior of Euro|ie,— and de|)eudant on 

 foreign suprilies for the means of subsistence! ! — 

 The idea is, humiliating — is alaru\iug — to al^ who 

 look to th e ultimate prosperity and happiness of 

 our coiui'iiy. Our maritime commerce depends 

 upon CO iitingencies which we can neither foresiie 

 nor cor ,trol. Venice and Genoa, and Portugal an<l 

 Spain , have each in turn, had their " days of com- 

 merc jal (jrosperity " — they successively rose to 

 opu' leiice — to power— arsd successively sunk, the 

 vie tiins of corruption, into effeminacy, vice and 

 d' ;spotism. Manufactures too, as we have had 

 >■ dnindant cause to know, sre but a precarious de- 

 pendence for national greatness. Commerce and 

 manufactures aie the shaft and capital of the so- 

 Gial coluaui, of which agriculture constitutes the 

 base ; and without this base, they can no more 

 wilhstiind the shocks and revolutions of tune, 

 than could the short lived glory of the nations we 

 have r.ame<i. Great Britain now wields the tri- 

 dent, and the world is made tributaiy to her work- 

 shop's. But great a.s she is in conwnerce, and ui 

 manufactures, these are yonsiiiered secondary and. 

 au.»iUary to hep agrvcultural greatness. Land is 

 the basis o* her national WPu'llh,— it is ti'o surplus 

 iK«i-k.etnble prod-^^e of her soil, says Sir John Sin- 

 *ch.!|-, tliat is the source of all her political power., 



oats per acre ? At the close of the last, and in 

 the beginning of the present century, the surplus 

 proilucts of northern agriculture were exported, to 

 an immense auionut. Now we import the agri- 

 cultural [iroducts of Europe, to avert the evils of 

 famine ! The cause of this remarkable difference, 

 in the surplus products of the soil, may be par- 

 tially owing to unpropitious seasons, but is mainly 

 to be sought for in the neglect of our agriculture 

 — both by the pciople and the governments. In 

 Europe, the governments, and influential individ- 

 uals, have bestowed spirited attention upon the 

 improvement of agriculture, as constituting the 

 basis of national jirosperity and independence. — 

 While with ns, improvement in husbandry has 

 been considered a minor concern, — it at leasl has 

 not received the consideration of the statesman or 

 the political economist. Party politics, and local 

 or personal schemes of aggrandizement, li»ve S' j 

 much engrossed the attention of the men w} ,0 

 ought to lead in these matters, and who do lear' , i,^ 

 every other public improvement, that the bur ,^1,1^. 

 claims of agriculture have failed to attract their 

 notice, or engage their attention, although ' ,( ctjn- 

 stitutes the base which supports the wholf . gupgr- 

 structure of civilized society. If we wr ,yi,i^ p,.y_ 

 serve the superstructure, with its einbel' jslmients 

 we must take care to make strong and permanent 

 this foundation. Our farmers, too, sae „, <ren';rKlIy 



indifferent, or spiritless, in regard t „ t|,^: geiVehilv. - .., ...^ ,s li.o — ,. , ^;,i,eii8-- 



improvement .,f our agriculture, either "^'^...is" I and of the no, 'o"»' enjoyment ot her Q'w^ » 



- -- ---■■ ! . - ""- P"- , of domestic iniftistr*' 



they mistake their duty and true 7 ...terest,. or tiVat, I and ,|,en. ,s no sourr 

 under the influence of a strange fatuity, they fear i foreign com 

 they shall sink as others rise. j,g °^ j^ 



We should consider our soil ^s we do our free t 



, ^^1 of 

 It cats in any respect 



competition, with the imp^"'''"^ culiiva-. 

 ■on of her soil. The agriculture of Great J_'''^»<a 



7nierce,.headds,i.., 



institutions— a patrimonial t rust— to be A^rferf f employs hut tWo thirds of Kprr'ZJ,"'^" . 

 doivn. t;NtMrAiRED, /o poster Uy . to be ,«c</, but ^bn ^.....r., -''''"'* ^^ I'" f''*'>."''''*^^^ '""f' J'" 



not abused. Both are more easily impaired than 

 they are restored— both b elong, in their pristine 

 vigor and purity, as mucl- , to ourchildren, as they 

 do to us. In some of tb e once populous and fer- 

 tile districts of the olf' , continent, the fertility of 



the surplus products of her soil, suffice 10 feed 

 ami support the other third, and to assist in sup- 

 plying our deficiencies. Our population is at 



oast five-sixths agricultural ; yet during the two 

 last years we have bad to import about ten mil- 



ions worth of bread stuffs to supply our deficien- 



the soil has been recld.essly wasted by men, wtfose cy in this fim eT.ne t f lif^^'^Ln;:;' 

 ilescendants have. CO' ispniK^.,.!.. 1 . ,- .. "ic , uuu e>en 



descendants have, coMsequently, become poor and 

 wretched, and their country almost virtually a 

 desert. In other ))ort-,ons, where the fertility of 

 the soil has been se.iulously preserved for ages 

 or centuries, tlie population has continued pros- 

 perous, weo'.thy and happy. 



It is undeniably true, that our general system 

 of fartPing is bad ; that In most parts of oi'ir coun- 

 try the natural fertility of the soil has been grad- 

 ually diminishing, and its products becomins less; 

 that the evil is increasing ; and, that without n 

 .-adical reform, wo shall, in the north, not only 

 cease '"^ 'lave surplus products to pay for the for- 

 eign commollilies which long habit has rendered 

 necessary to our convenience, but lack a supply of 

 bread stuffs for our own population. To what 

 degrading dependence will this course of things 

 in \ few years reduce us — unless prompt and effi- 

 cient means are adopted lo check our down-hill 



course in the products of agricultural labor! 



With the finest country in the world, a jiopula- 



, in the 



r.ipst favorable seasons, the exports of the surplus 

 prodtlCtg of our northern soil, have been merely 

 nominal. 



We will state one fact, derived from official doc- 

 uments, which will demonstrate beyond the power 

 of refutation, our down hill cours"e is this great 

 branch of national industry. It is this: the aver- 

 age increase of bread stuffs, passing from our ca- 

 nals to tide waters, from the great grain ilistrict of 

 the west — from the Flanders of America,— has 

 amounted to three and three quarters per cent; 

 vyhile our population has increased in the ratio of 

 six per cent per annum ! If such has been the 

 deficiency, in our grain growing, new and fertile 

 districts, to meet the wants of our increasing pop- 

 ulation — how much greater must that deficiency 

 have been in the exhausted soils of oM settled 

 districts.' Many portions of our country, which 

 once exported grain, have, by bad husbandry, be- 

 come dependent upon the comjiaratively new set- 

 tlement.'', or upon foreign supplies, for this indis- 



