124 Address delivered before the Ag. Society ofJVeivcastle Co., Del Vol. X. 



early part of this, the foreign demand for 

 farm produce was such as almost to give 

 spasmodic stimulus to rural industry. Such 

 unnatural prosperity affected our habits, as 

 to produce evils not yet fully realized. It 

 was found much easier to lower the stand- 

 ard of habits and manners, than to bring 

 them back to a right point, when those who 

 till the earth control their wants by their 

 means. Through all those piping times, 

 there were those who looked to what we 

 now see and feel, a world at peace. Every 

 people are compelled to nourish and to hus- 

 band home resources. Maritime commerce 

 is about to be brought within the compass of 

 a wholesome exchange of commodities, not 

 to be paid on one side with gold." 



" In proceeding thirty miles north from 

 this city, what a variety of soils we find 

 crowded into that narrow space, demanding 

 treatment and attention equally various. In 

 the first settlement of this section of coun- 

 try, while the lands were yet fresh, wheat 

 gave a pretty certain return and became the 

 first object of cultivation. Buckwheat was 

 almost the only summer crop, sometimes 

 yielding a great return, but liable to injury 

 from drought, hot suns, and frosts. It agreed 

 well, however, with the wheat culture in 

 open fallow, but has very much ceased to be 

 raised in our stronger lands, because it can 

 no longer enter into a judicious course of 

 tillage. The flour is still sought as a great 

 delicacy; but this demand has not tended to 

 restore its cultivation. Wheat having fre- 

 quently of late years given but light har- 

 vests, rye, oats, corn and potatoes have 

 claimed attention. Rye became in a great 

 measure, a substitute for wheat, as an article 

 of bread stuff! In 1836 and some subsequent 

 years, rye has proved less certain in return 

 than even wheat, and the potatoe has at 

 length been affected with a disease unknown 

 until a very late period ; it has always been 

 liable to injury from drought, the more so, 

 since it has been cultivated in a short sea- 

 son. These occurrences urge the expedi- 

 ency of a varied culture, even in the crops 

 we look to for the great and essential article 

 of bread. 



" The rapid opening of fresh lands for the 

 growth of wheat, has in recent years, given 

 a largo amount for export, and in conse- 

 quence its price has been reduced, so as 

 hardly to meet expenses in this vicinity, 

 even under good tillage. Still it is and 

 must remain an article for which the farmer 

 can find^no substitute. But the richest soils 

 found in the wide domain of the West may 

 be exhausted, and our experience teaches 

 that a system of renovation can only be 

 looked for, under the promptings of stern 



necessity. Wheat must remain to be a 

 crop of great value in the interior, and the 

 open fallow system will be followed, as it 

 was in this region, until the increase of peo- 

 ple together with uncertain returns, will 

 impose a necessity for a more diversified 

 tillage. We may look for the impoverish- 

 ment of the Western paradise in process of 

 time, before renovation succeeds. There 

 and everywhere, the farmer must adapt his 

 crops to his soil and his market, to effect 

 which, all his sagacity will be called into 

 exercise. Lands may be fertilized to be 

 fruitful, but adaptation of crops, with skill 

 and judgment is only of second importance. 

 Success in one or a few instances, will be 

 found not to warrant the conclusion, that, 

 because one or a few great results have 

 been obtained, tliat they may be looked to 

 with certainly. 



"The root growing for animal subsistence, 

 cannot in this climate be of so great import- 

 ance as in the moist and high latitudes of 

 Europe. The potatoe there has become the 

 best succedaneum for bread. Though a val- 

 uable growth with us, its quality and pro- 

 duct must ever be less certain and of less 

 consequence. The varieties cultivated, in 

 my early remembrance, were but of little 

 culinary value. Here and even further 

 south, it has become an important vegetable. 

 A quick growth in a cool atmosphere, is ne- 

 cessary, fully to perfect its quality with us. 

 Wheat is adapted to a wider cultivation; it 

 will vegetate in air where our native grasses 

 are stagnant, and will mature at a proper 

 elevation under a vertical sun. It lias given 

 a good crop on the Kennebec, as cotton might 

 chance to succeed here; but in either case 

 it would hardly repay the attention it would 

 call for. Of the four staples of which piece 

 goods are composed, cotton is now applied 

 most extensively and to the greatest variety 

 of purposes. It never can, however, be- 

 come a substitute tor animal wool, lint and 

 silk. It would be an error, therefore, to 

 look to it as our main resource. Woollen 

 and linen garments are as desirable a com- 

 fort through the whole cotton growing region 

 as they are further north. How broad a 

 basis is thus presented for domestic ex- 

 changes." 



" Manures present an object of primary 

 importance in cultivation of every kind. An 

 adequate supply has become with us a cardi- 

 nal concern. It ought to be a never omitted 

 effort, to make the farm produce its own ma- 

 nures. This though the best, will be most 

 likely a late resource. Lime made caustic 

 or combined with acids, is an article found 

 in limited extent; but seldom beyond the 

 reach of farmers in a well settled countr' 



