NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



31 



states has become either entirely run down, or greatly 

 impoverished of fertility ; and insects, blights, noxious 

 weeds, &c., the usual attendants of imperfect tillage, 

 have increased and become accumulated to an alarm- 

 ing extent. 



But the evil does not stop here. Too many of our 

 intelligent, enterprising young men, observing the 

 sad condition of the soil, and trained to false impres- 

 sions, suppose that the agricultural profession, in- 

 stead of being an open field for the efforts of science 

 to improve, is but an arena, fit only to be occupied 

 by the illiterate and unentcrjirising, under the 

 guidance of blind tradition. They accordingly press 

 in masses into other callings, fUling them to overflow- 

 ing, and leaving the " art of arts " to its fate. 



The same process of deterioration, which has been 

 so nearly completed in the Atlantic States, is now 

 going on at the west. Although nature, by a long 

 and a most liberal process, has endowed the lands of 

 that section with a fertility elsewhere unknown, still 

 they can be impoverished by the hand of man. The 

 gradation to the same climax which has obtained in 

 the older states, may be slower, yet, in the nature of 

 things, it must be sure. Many of the occupants of 

 those now generous soils, under the same mistaken 

 impression that they are inexhaustible, Avhich pos- 

 sessed the first settlers of the more fertile tracts of 

 the Eastern States, will probably live long enough to 

 find that, under a constantly depleting and careless 

 husbandry, what has been done can be done again. 

 These remarks are, of course, subject to exceptions ; 

 but they are still quite too generally true. 



While this rapid destruction of fertility has been 

 going on among us, several of the states of Europe 

 have been as rapidly advancing in productiveness. 

 There, agriculture is fostered and encouraged by gov- 

 ernment ; men of the first attainments, and in the 

 highest walks of life, devote their time and talents to 

 its improvement ; the lights of several sciences have 

 been shed upon it ; lands, under the cultivation of 

 ages previous, have been so changed within sixty or 

 seventy years past, by a judicious rotation of crops, 

 and a system of manuring adapted to the soil and 

 the crop, as to increase threefold in productiveness ; 

 thousands of acres of wet lands, heretofore of Uttle 

 or no value, have been drained, and are now under 

 profitable cultivation ; agricultural schools and col- 

 leges have been established ; and the breeding of 

 agricultural animals has been carried to so high per- 

 fection in England and Scotland, that any other breeds 

 in the known world may be improved by a cross with 

 them. 



It may be said that such high cultivation cannot 

 be profitable here. Neither can wc afford to pursue 

 our exhausting system of cultivation much further ; 

 for the decreased and decreasing crops will not re- 

 munerate our labor. If the state of things in our 

 country will not warrant high farming, to the extent 

 to which it is now carried in the countries spoken of, 

 wc certainly are warranted in the emjiloj-ment of far 

 more enlightened and correct principles of tillage 

 than are now common. 



It has been well said, that " a prosperous agricul- 

 tural district is not without patriots to defend it ; " 

 and it is uiuloubtodly true, that a high state of intel- 

 ligence and scientific knowledge among our farmers, 

 would conduce, more than any thing else, to the sta- 

 bihty and perpetuity of our republic, and to the rapid 

 and full development of its vast agricultural capabil- 

 ities. We may truly say, in this connection, that 

 " every accession which man gains to his knowledge, 

 is also an accession to his power ; and extends the 

 limits of his empire over the world which he in- 

 habits." 



About three fourths of the population of our 

 eountry arc engaged in tilling the soU. Legislation 

 to promote the prosperity of this interest, directly 



benefits the greater portion of the people ; and indi- 

 rectly, but not less surely, the remainder also. Now, 

 our legislators and otliers have not been wanting 

 heretofore in eulogy upon the antit^uity, dignity, im- 

 portance, and pleasures of agriculture ; but where has 

 been that fostering care which would seek to encour- 

 age and promote it ? Where have the farmers been, 

 who would demand for the cultivation of the soil 

 that conspicuous place to which it is so justly entitled ? 



But w'e are happy to observe that an improved sen- 

 timent is becoming prevalent. That " agriculture is 

 of primary importance; " that our nation has already 

 " advanced in population, and other circumstances of 

 maturity," to that position which " renders the cul- 

 tivation of the soil an object of public patronage ; " 

 that there is no " object to which it can be dedicated 

 with greater propriety ; " — these truths are gradu- 

 ally making their way into the minds of intelligent, 

 thinking men. 



We have, at length, a Home Department ; and the 

 question presents itself, Can it, and will it, do any 

 thing for agriculture ? It can, and we trust that it 

 will. The politicians may seek to make it an in- 

 strument for the furtherance of party ; and, with 

 the bugbear of " constitutional objections," they may 

 tell us that nothing can be done for agriculture under 

 this Department. But let the farmers, moving in a 

 mass, call loudly for a Bureau of Agriculture, Avith 

 projicr and suitable patronage from the government. 

 Let it be managed by " proper characters," selected 

 with reference to their fitness for, and devotion to, 

 the promotion of agriculture. They should be men 

 above political contamination ; and having a love for 

 science for its own sake ; and keeping constantlj' in 

 view the one great object which they were placed 

 there to promote, they would not be induced to 

 " give up to party what was meant for mankind." 



A Board of Agriculture, thus " composed of proper 

 characters, charged with collecting and diffusing in- 

 formation, and enabled, by premiums and small pecu- 

 niary aid, to encourage and assist a spirit of discovery 

 and improvement, by stimulating to enterprise and 

 experiment, and by drawing to a common centre the 

 results, every where, of individual skill and observa- 

 tion, and by spreading them thence over the whole 

 nation," would soon be found to be " a very cheap 

 instrument of immense national benefits." 



1. This Board might be in correspondence with 

 scientific men in all parts of our country, and Avith 

 Boards of Agriculture in foreign countries, — thus 

 drawing to a common centre, and from thence sjiread- 

 ing broadcast over the land, all new facts and improve- 

 ments of utility, all valuable suggestions, derived 

 from the improvements and new lights of the vari- 

 ous natural sciences which arc intimately allied with 

 agriculture. 



2. Proper premiums might perhaps be oflTercd to 

 stimulate ingenuity, in the invention and production 

 of the most valuable farm implements and machines ; 

 and by awarding to those which, upon proper test, 

 were found best to answer a desired purpose, compe- 

 tition, and an ambition to excel, Avould be excited to 

 the highest degree. 



3. Persons in the employment of our government, 

 abroad, might be directed to collect and transmit to 

 the Department those new or improved seeds, fruits, 

 plants, animals, implements, \;c., which were deemed 

 dcsiva1)le. As it would be a part of the business of 

 this Board to institute extensive inquiries into the 

 utility of introducing, for cultivation among us, the 

 various valuable productions of other countries; and 

 as the great range of latitude, of soil and climate, 

 which our country embraces, undoubtedly admits of 

 cultivating the products of almost every other coun- 

 try ; we may reasonably sui)posc, that a proper effort, 

 in this direction alone, would be attended with very 

 important results. 



