270 



Agricultural Address. 



Vol. VIII. 



Ruffin's Agricultural Address. 



After returning from the Agricultural survey of 

 South Carolina, to which duty he had been appointed 

 by the Governor of that State, a Farmer's dinner was 

 given near the close of last year to Edmund Ruffin. 

 at Garysville, Va., by his friends and neighbours of 

 Prince George county, in testimony of the high value 

 they placed upon his agricultural labours. As editor 

 of the Farmer's Register, and author of the Essai/ on 

 Calcareous Manures, no writer, we apprehend, has 

 done so much for the improvement of Virginia; and 

 it is not surprising that his old neighbours, who felt 

 their condition improved by his efforts, should be dis- 

 posed to tender him some token of their appreciation 

 of his character. We think our readers will be inte- 

 rested in the following e.xtracts from an Address de- 

 livered by him on the occasion. We are indebted for 

 them to the Charleston Mercury. — Ed. 



I SEE around me here nearly all of those 

 now living, who were both my neighbours 

 and friends from twenty to twenty-five years 

 ago, and who, afterwards, with different de- 

 grees of preliminary distrust and delay, fol- 

 lowed my example and instructions in the 

 application of calcareous manures. The far 

 greater nuinber, however, of my former com- 

 panions and seniors, and among them all the 

 most distinguished and successful of my 

 earliest disciples, have been removed by 

 death. But every one, of both the living 

 and the dead, has sons or successors, who 

 have since prosecuted and extended the good 

 work of fertilization, and all of whom, with 

 many others who are no less interested, I 

 now see assembled here to welcome and to 

 honour me, and to unite in testifying their 

 high appreciation of the benefits they have 

 derived from a single source, and which 

 benefits they ascribe to my agency. 



I will not, my friends, affect to depreciate 

 below your own high estimate — high, at 

 least, as some might suppose, — the measure 

 of pecuniary profit which you have derived 

 from marling or liming your lands. Perhaps 

 my consideration of the value of all perma- 

 nent improvements of capital, might even 

 raise the estimate much higher than you 

 have done. And, on this head, I am the 

 more free to utter my opinions, because the 

 results are mostly your own work; and the 

 credit is due to your own good judgment, 

 your readiness to throw aside old prejudices, 

 and to receive new truths, and to your in- 

 dustry and perseverance in putting your 

 new lights into execution. There is always 

 in the world enough of good advice and 

 valuable instruction, to be had for every 

 man's use — and the offering such is a merit 

 much less rare than that of following and 

 profiting by it. And the latter, in regard to 

 agriculture, is no small merit. For in all 



the history of agriculture, there is no fact 

 more general and more obvious, than the 

 extreme slowness and difficulty with which 

 all great improvements have been intro- 

 duced. Very different have been the results 

 in your case. Within ten years after the 

 first successful experiment made in this 

 county, or the first annunciation of correct 

 views of the action of calcareous manures, 

 there was scarely a landholder, having marl 

 and knowing it, who had not commenced its 

 use, to greater or less extent. There were 

 no exceptions, as might have been expected 

 — because of the poverty of some, or the old 

 age or infirmities of others. Four of our 

 county men, known to all who hear me, 

 who were among the most zealous and en- 

 ergetic marlers for their circumstances, 

 commenced their operations when severally 

 at ages from .5S to 7.5 years. 



At this time, 1 presume there are few 

 if any persons who commenced marling 

 as far back as ten years ago, and prosecuted 

 the work steadily afterwards, whose farms 

 are not now doubled, if not tripled, in pro- 

 ductive value, from this one source of in- 

 crease alone. Nor is this early and unusu- 

 ally rapid progress which you have made in 

 this mode of improvement, owing merely, as 

 some might infer, to the superior profit which 

 it promises in advance of its actual trial. 

 For though truly it presents that claim for 

 preference, and though that claim has been 

 made known by publications, to, at least, all 

 the reading and most intelligent agricultu- 

 rists of the United States, still, no where 

 else have the practical operations compared 

 with yours, and those of lower Virginia 

 generally. In western New York, where 

 agriculture in general, is better conducted 

 than with us, ihe many valuable beds of 

 marl remain untouched. Rich shell-marl, 

 of fresh- water, is found in New Jersey, Ver- 

 mont, and probably in most or all other of 

 the Northern States, and not one trial has 

 been made of them, or if made, has yet 

 been published. Not the least interest on 

 the subject seems to have been excited 

 there. Indeed, not long ago, the editor of 

 an Agricultural paper — the Massachusetts 

 Ploughman — and he a practical farmer, pro- 

 claimed his doubts of the utility or profit of 

 lime as a manure ; and Dr. Dana, a distin- 

 guished and popular writer on agricultural 

 chemistry, in his " Muck Manual," treats 

 with denial and contempt the doctrine of 

 the general deficiency of lime in soils, and 

 the necessity for a greater supply. Indeed, 

 he maintains that every soil, even the poor- 

 est and most destitute in Massachusetts, has 

 already an abundant natural supply of lime. 



