1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



97 



ing an absolutely barren soil to an unproductive 

 field. The earlier settler, who thinks no soil wor- 

 thy of cultivation, which demands any manure, 

 would be even more aslonished. were hetoiil, that 

 by the use of a small quantity ol' a subsiance 

 which his experience tells him destroys vegetation, 

 he might have easily maintained his lands in their 

 origmal fertility, and instead of losing his whole 

 labor in clearing the soil, have continued to reap 

 crops equal to the earlier ones, whose prospect 

 tempted him to that arduous task. Yet these pro- 

 positions are strictly true. 



One only mineral manure has been of any ex- 

 tended use in our country, namely the sulphate 

 of lime, usually called plasterol" Paris. This was 

 luckily (breed into notice by scientific larmers, and 

 produced such obvious eliects that tlie most skep- 

 tical could not doubt. Yet th« reasons cf its ben- 

 efits are not generally understood, the causes of its 

 failure in some positions not accoimtcd lor, and 

 the injury that an unskilful use ol" it may produce, 

 is rarely guarded against. 



The agriculture of America has proceeded h-om 

 thfee distinct centres, and nuiy be divided into 

 three distinct and separate characters. The set- 

 tlers o( Now England were thrown upon a bleak 

 shore, incapable of yielding any valuable agricul- 

 tural product lor export. They Ibund and adopt- 

 ed the culture of maize as practiced by the In- 

 dians; this consisted in planting it in hills, each ol' 

 which was minured by one or moie fishes; and 

 unable at first to see its value as a lallow crop, re- 

 peated it in continual succession upon the same 

 field. To this they added the culture of Euro- 

 pean corn of various descriptiotis, Ibllou'ing with- 

 out alteration the husbandry introduced by the 

 Romans into Great Britain, and which is de- 

 scribed almost indenlically in the Georgics ol'Vir- 

 gil. With a less command of labor, however, the 

 lallow were less perfect than in En<rland, ;uid pre- 

 sented rather the aspect of plantations of weeds, 

 than of the naked pulverized sjil which ought to 

 characterize them. Wheat was first atteujpied, 

 but gradually abandoned as unprofitable; rye fol- 

 lowed, and is still cultivated, while a great im- 

 provement has taken place in making it, or oats, 

 follow corn, and thus introducing the rotation of 

 crops. The failure of wheat was in New Eng- 

 land ascribed to any thing but the true cause; and 

 it has been usual to lay the blame to the presence 

 of the barberry bush. This indeed infests the 

 fields from which wheat is banished, but is no 

 more than the natural growth of a soil from which 

 the earthy matter necessary to the nutriment of 

 wheat is exhausted. This eastern mode of farm- 

 ing has derived great imjirovementlrom the intro- 

 duction of sown meadows instead of naked fal- 

 lows, and the climate ad.aiits of grazing them with 

 benefit to the soil rather than injury. At a dis- 

 tance from the sea, clover has been introduced lor 

 this purpose, and has by the aid of plaster extend- 

 ed its beneficial influence along the southern 

 shore of the great lakes, almost to the JMissis- 

 eippi. 



It is to this lucky accident, as it may in fact be 

 termed, that it is owing that the more newly 

 opened regions in the northern states have not de- 

 preciated as much as those which were cultivated 

 more early. Still, the habits of the pioneers of 

 civilization, of eastern origin, are such as to make 

 ead havoe with the native bounty of the earth. 



Vol. IV— 13 



The settlers of Virginia, on the other hand,- 

 Ibund in their soil and climate the capacity of 

 yielding tobacco, Avhich formed an article of such 

 value, as to dispense with their raising any other, 

 for by its sale they coulil proviile themselves even 

 with bread stuffs. Not only ilid it do away with 

 this as a necessity, but it furnished them with the 

 means of purchasing slave labor, by which thev 

 were enabled to increase the extent of ground 

 brought into cultivation, in a ratio far greater tluiri 

 was at first attempted m the eastern states. While 

 in the latter regions, the settlers were at first col-^ 

 lected in villages and hamlets, around which their 

 arable lands were opened at the least possible dis- 

 tances, and every consideration of interest led the 

 inhabitants to attempt to keep them in tolerable 

 condition, the settlers of Virginia, after the first 

 struggle with the natives was over, spread them- 

 selves in separate jilantations at great distances 

 from each other. Each planter took into posses- 

 sion an extensive district of wood-land, of which 

 he cleared as much as his slaves were able to cul- 

 tivate. So soon as by a continual succession of 

 hard cropping with the same article, the power of 

 raising tobacco was exhausted, new woodland 

 was cleared and brought into cultivation; and thu.sl 

 in the older regions there has been no single acre 

 of land of tolerable promise, that has not at some 

 period or other been subjected to the plough. The 

 virgin soil having been thus completely explored, 

 it remained to abandon the country altogether, or 

 bring it back to cultivation by enriching manures, 

 and in the manner of applying, the proposed rem- 

 edy became almost as fatal as the disease itself. 

 The putrescent manures furnished by the whole 

 stock of a plantation v/ere lavished upon a few 

 acres, and applied to the continual cultivation of 

 the favorite staple, until they were again exhaust- 

 ed; and thus in succession, until a se'cond round of 

 ruinous cropping had been completed- 



As the staple fell in value, from the increase^ 

 population employed in its culture, Indian cor„ 

 and wheat became objects of attention; but they 

 were merely secondary, and did not enter into ro- 

 tation with tobacco. Were we to hazard an opin- 

 ion founded upon analogy, we should feel almost 

 certain that tobacco well manured would form a 

 substitute for a Mlaw crop, and might, in a well 

 planned rotation, impair in no degree the native 

 lertility of a soil. We have ascertained, in fact, 

 that It is an admirable preparation for v/heat; but 

 the teiTiptation to continue the tobacco culture ia 

 such, that it is rarely intermitted until the land 

 becomes a caput moriuum. 



The same system has been pursued in all the 

 southern states, which may in this respect be con- 

 sidered as colonies of Virginia, and in all have the 

 same consequences inevitably followed; immense 

 products at first, in consequence of the intrinsic 

 valueof the peculiar staple, whether cotton or to- 

 bacco; improvident expenditures, arising fi-om the 

 difficulty of distinguishing what part oflhe annu- 

 al income was in fact an encroachment upon the 

 capital; and finally, impoverishment or ruin. To 

 the latter event the large families of slaves, which 

 the apparent profits of the earlier culture induced 

 the planters to acquire, contribute in no small de- 

 gree, as well as their disproportionate increase in a 

 state of being free from all care and anxiety. This 

 state of things is well described bv Mr. Ruffin, ira 

 one of his notes. 



