Vol. XIX, Second Series. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y., AUGUST, 1858. 



No. 8. 



AN ENGLISH VIEW OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



In a recent conversation with the editor of one 

 of our best wes-terc agricultural papers, he alluded 

 to some articles he had written showing, from a 

 number of analyses of new soil and of soil which 

 had been under cultivation for some years, that 

 our present system of tillage is radically defective — 

 that it is rapidly exhausting the soil of its elements 

 of fertility. We endeavored to demonstrate to him 

 the impossibility of proving anything of the kind 

 by analysis, "Well," he replied, "even if what 

 you say is true, I thought, and still think, that the 

 analyses I have quoted afforded a good text from 

 which to preach a sermon on the miserable system 

 of cultivation too generally practiced. Whether 

 true or not, if the publication of such statements 



as those made by Dr. will induce our farmers 



to cultivate their land better, much good Avill be 

 done." 



Such views as these, appear to be entertained by 

 many of our most popular agricultural writers. 

 The orators at our State and County Fairs, the 

 worthy Secretaries and Presidents of our Agricul- 

 tural Societies, learned Professors, and dignified 

 Presidents of our prospective Agricultural Colleges, 

 one and all, seem to deem it necessary, in urging 

 the advantages of an improved system of cultiva- 

 tion, to prove that under the present mode of till- 

 age our soils are rapidly becoming exhausted of 

 their elements of fertility. From Maine to Min- 

 nesota, from Canada to California, there is one 

 continuous whine on this subject, and the last mail 

 bring, back a faint echo from the other side of the 

 Atlantic. The Marh Lane Express, the ablest and 

 most influential agricultural journal in England, in 

 a review of the "-Fourth Annual Report of the 

 Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Agricul- 

 ture,^'' alludes to this subject as follows : 



" It has "been said that a sterile soil is usually 

 bettor cultivated than a fertile one; and that the 

 principal reason why England exliibits features in 

 farming almost equal to gardening, is that the soil, 

 generally speaking, is so inferior that it awakens all 

 the energy of the cultivator to raise a remunerating- 



produce. This rule, however, does not hold good 

 in New England or Massachusetts. There the soil 

 is certainly inferior in quality to most of the States ; 

 notwithstanding which, the scourging system has 

 been at work there to such a degree as to extort the 

 following statement from a speaker at the Massachu- 

 setts Ag. Society's meeting: ' One thing is certain, 

 that under tlie influence of practical farming, as it 

 is called, the land of New England has notoriously 

 deteriorated to such an extent, that it is estimated 

 that at least a thousand millions of dollars (£200 - 

 000,000 sterling) would be required to repair the 

 etfects of a wasteful and exhausting system of cul- 

 tivation.' 



"Again, in the report of the committee on farms 

 of the Essex (N. E.) Agricultural Society, it is 

 stated that notwithstanding premiums are ofFered 

 of fifty dollars for the best-managed farms, onlv 

 two competitors presented themselves, and one oj' 

 these afterwards withdrew. Similar admissions 

 are made by the committees for other societies. 

 But a more striking proof of the hostility of tlie 

 farmers generally to improvements, is the fact, that 

 when a comparatively small sum was required to 

 conduct a farm for experhnental objects by the 

 State, it was refused by the House of Representa- 

 tives, although the tax individually would have 

 been of the most homoeopathic amount. 



" Now, when we consider that New England* iv 

 the foremost State of the Union in the encoura^re- 

 ment of agriculture by the authorities ; and that, ' 

 notwithstanding this, the {M-oduce of wheat has • 

 decreased in forty years 50 per cent, per acre, oats 

 40 per cent., Indian corn 70 per cent., sheep 70 

 per cent., &c., &c. ; we may conclude that in tlie 

 other States the same process of deterioration is 

 going on ; and that the accession of new land to 

 the cultivation of cereal crops does not more tliaii 

 compensate for the falling off of production on tlk- 

 old land, and the increased consumption consequent 

 on the increase of the popidation. We know from 

 universal admission that in the State of Vir-nnia 

 the drastic character of the tobacco cultivation, :i^ 

 conducted there, has reduced that fertile soil to 

 such hopeless sterility that a large portion of it is 

 no longer cultivated, * * * It is also admitted 

 that not only in all the old States, but even in thost^ 

 new one^ that have been cultivated the past twenty 

 years, the same process has produced the san.V 

 eflfect; and after a few years the .yield of corn, 

 wheat, oats, &c., falls off; no manure, general]-.' 



* We suppose our contemporary means Massachnsetts. 



