386 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 7 



This system requires time, I iinow, as well as 

 patience and perseverance. But it is completely 

 within the reach of every man in this house. 

 There are those who contend thai the cultivation 

 of tobacco IS utterly at war with the improvement 

 of our lands, and that to improve at all, wc must 

 first abandon this crop. But if the sysleni which 

 I reconmiend be based on true principles; if it be 

 practicable — if it be in the reach of all — what hin- 

 ders us from going into it at once? One of our 

 worthy members, very truly and wisely at the last 

 meeting, told us, that to abandon our tobacco 

 crop, would be an abandonment of our country. 

 What other resource have we'? None. I con- 

 ceive this doctrine, that we cannot make tobacco 

 and improve our lands, as fraught with incalcula- 

 ble mischief: it acts as an extinguisher to every 

 praiseworthy effort, and a damper to every gene- 

 rous motive of those who would take up the cause 

 of agricultural improvement, and urge it upon the 

 people ; and is prevalence has driven more of our 

 industrious citizens to emigration than all other 

 causes combined. But it is a remarkable fact, 

 that this doctrine is held only by those who have 

 done nothing for the good cause, either by their 

 own example, or by encouraging the efforts of 

 others — those who are not satisfied to receive dai- 

 ly a golden egtr from the goose, but must rip her 

 at once. I am, perhaps, too sanguine ; but 1 do 

 verily believe that this portion of Virginia is as 

 highly susceptible of improvement as any portion 

 of the globe : and I as firmly believe, that the 

 cultivation of tobacco does not (however it ma}', 

 and does impede our pr .gress,) impose, necessari- 

 ly, a complete check to improvement. All know 

 that it requires rich land, and that lots producing 

 heavy crops of it, will produce heavy ameliora- 

 ting crops, and by changing the scene of ma- 

 nuring yearly, you will yearly add to the surface. 

 Those who choose to make the calculation, may 

 very easily tell how many years it will require, to 

 manure a surface sufficiently large to give them a 

 three shift rotation. The man w'ho cultivates 

 100,000 hills, can clear and manure 50,000, annu- 

 ally. Say that he does this next winter, and in the 

 fall of '37, seeds it in wheat and clover, and soon, 

 annually adding 50,000 hills to his available sur- 

 face, he may, in six years, have secured 300,000 

 hills, which will give him the full amount oi' to- 

 bacco land; and aiter that, the whole of his ma- 

 nure may be applied to his corn land. Is there 

 any thing absurd or impossible in thisl I think 

 not. So far from being discouraged at this view 

 of the subject, we have every reason to press for- 

 ward. Indeed it would not be absurd — it would 

 not be unreasonable to say, that by a judicious, 

 economical, and persevering adherence to this or 

 some other similar system, an ordinary farm may 

 become one common scene of luxuriance, a perfect 

 Goshen, or one great tobacco lot — and that in no 

 great many years. Thus, in a life of thirty years, 

 the man who annually manures twenty acres, 

 would see himself surrounded by a plantation of 

 six hundred acres of land, every acre- of which 

 would be rich enough for a garden. He would 

 then have no reason to sever the ties of blood and 

 friendship, and bury himself and his sons in the 

 wilds of the west, or the poisoned swamps of Ar- 

 kansas, or mingle with the mongrel races of 

 Texas. 



Gentlemen, we listen too much to discourage- 



ments. Virginia is ruined by ihe mistaken policy 

 of her sons, and that sad mistake, theit the cultiva- 

 tion of tobacco is necessarily ruinous. I know 

 that great popular changes are not often produced 

 by reason alone ; but here we have interest, love 

 of country, and vaiious other considerations work- 

 ing in fiivor of our cause, and strengthening our 

 arguments in establishing the iiict, that our coun- 

 try is not doomed to hopeless desolation. 



I shall, before your next meeting, in all probabi- 

 lity have changed my place of residence; but I 

 shall retain my membership, and gain all I can by 

 occasionally meeting you here : and should I ever 

 have it in my power to contribute my mite to the 

 great cause, either here or elsewhere, I shall be 

 prompt to do it. JEmigration, legislation, and still 

 more, reckless cultivation, or rather nmtilation of 

 her soil, has kept this old commonwealth down, 

 until many seem to think she is in a hopeless de- 

 cline ; but though her energies are crippled, she 

 is yet a noble star of the old constellation. She will 

 rouse herself. She has materials enough, if her 

 sons will still remain to maintain her weight. 

 Her institutions of learning, her agricultural socie- 

 ties, her rail roads, her canals, must rouse her from 

 her Rip Van Winkle slumber. She will yet put 

 on her beautiful raiment, and renew her youth, 

 and resume her stand among the old 13 : And it 

 is you, and such as you, that must be the instru- 

 ments of this new creation. I have the most sat- 

 isfactory evidence, that this society has alrea- 

 dy given an impulse that will be long and deep- 

 ly felt. The people need to be roused. Set them 

 to thinking, and half the battle is over. But if 

 you suffer your efforts to be palsied — if you let 

 this institution sleep the sleep of death, I care not 

 what may be your individual example, your influ- 

 ence will be lost. 



I hope then, your devotion to the best interest 

 of your community, as well as regard for your 

 own, will keep you together as a band of brothers. 



I hope that I shall be excused for keeping you 

 so long with this disjointed sketch, and only regret, 

 that in return for your patient attention, I have not 

 given you something to merit it. 



From tlie History of Insects in tlie Family Library . 

 NATURAL HISTORY OF ANTS. 



[Continued from p. 333 vol. IV.] 



The wonders of the ant-tribe are far from be- 

 ing exhausted; we have seen them subjugating 

 their own species, and reducing them to the con- 

 dition of domestic slaves. But a more singular 

 trait in their manners remains to be stated. They 

 keep and feed certain other insects, from which 

 they extract a sweet and nutritious liquid, in the 

 same manner as we obtain milk from cows. 

 There are tv/o species of insects from which the 

 ant-tribe abstract this juice — the aphides, or plant- 

 lice, and the gall-insects. Linnaeus, and afrer 

 him other naturalists, have called these insects the 

 milch cattle of the ants; and the term is not inap- 

 plicable. In the proper season, any person, who 

 may choose to be at the pains of watching their pro- 

 ceedings, may see, as LinniBus saj's, the ants as- 

 cending trees that they may milk their cows, the 

 aphides. The substance which is here called 

 milk is a saccharine fluid, which these insects se- 

 crete; it is scarcely inferior to honey in sweetness, 



