1854. 



NEW E}^Lx\ND FARMER. 



2G1 



beginning, so that every labor and expense shall 

 contribute to a desired result, and that the exam- 

 ple shall be one, worthy of imitation by every for- 

 mer in the State, as well as those who desire to 

 embellish a private country home — that good sense 

 and a pure taste shall be so blended with a wise 

 system of practical farming as to satisfy the good 

 people of the Commonwealth that there may be 

 both beauty and profit found in rural life, when 

 its afi'.iirs arc properly conducted. 



For the iVf if England Farmer. 



FAKMING m HEW ENGLAND-No. 5. 



The constant deterioration of the soils in New 

 England, and indeed, throughout most of the ag- 

 ricultural c^stricts of the United States, is a fact 

 of portentous and alarming significance, though 

 it has not yet arrested very extensively the notice 

 of the public. Probably there is no one fixct, in 

 our agricultural economy, of more pregnant inter- 

 est than tliis, in its bearings upon our future pros- 

 perity. Some statistics, illustrating this down- 

 ward tendency in our ability to produce the fruits 

 of the earth, will now be given, and they will, 1 

 think, conclusively prove that a more prudent, 

 skilful and scientific mode of cultivating the soil, 

 is absolutely indispensable. 



Between 1840 and 1850, three hundred thous- 

 and acres of land were added to those previously 

 under [improvement in [Massachusetts. Ninety 

 thousand acres were added to our mowing lands, 

 and yet there was a relative depreciation of the 

 hay crop during that decade of years, of 12 per 

 cent. Our tillage lands, during the same term, 

 were increased forty thousand acres, and yet there 

 was an absolute depreciation in our grain crop of 

 six hundred thousand bushels. The pasturage lands 

 were increased more than one hundred thousand 

 acres, with scarcely any increase of neat cattle, 

 and a reduction of one hundred and sixty thousand 

 sheep, and seventeen thousand sicinc. 



The same law of deterioration is also observable 

 in the richer regions of the South and AVest — 

 showing, that with our present unskilful modes of 

 farming, we are taking much more from the pro- 

 ductive ability of our soils than wc are returning 

 to them, and that our agricultural prosperity is 

 really and constantly on the wane. Tliis down- 

 ward tendency is partially hidden from public ob- 

 servation by the vast products which arc raised 

 upon the new and almost limitless regions wliioh 

 arc every year put under cultivation at the AVest ; 

 Ijut the fact itself is still indubitable. 



In the Stiite of New York, between the years 

 1845 and 1850, 671,092 acres were added to those 

 previously under improvement, and of course, 

 there ought to have been at least a corresponding 

 increase in the agricultural products of the State. 

 But what was the fact? 



The number of horses decreased 58,111. 



Milch cows decreased 68,066. 



Of other caltlc, there was a decrease of 127,525. 



Of sheep, there was a decrease of 2,990,624. 



Of swine, there was a decrease of 560,092. 



Of potatoes, the decrease was 7,255,066 Ijushcla. 



Of peas and beans, there was a decrease of 1,182,054 bushels. 



Of flax, the decrease was 1,958,485 pounds. 



Of wool, the decrease was 3,793,527 pounds. 



Of wheat, the decrease was 270,724 bushels. 



Of buckwheat, the decrease was 450,724 bushels. 



There was an increase in the amount of corn, 

 rye, oats, barley, hay, butter and cheese raised in 

 that State, but'no greater than would have been 

 expected from the increase tf the population, 

 which was 494,323, during those five years. 



In Tennessee, the number of cattle raised was 



In 1840 .... *! 822,861 hea.l . 



In 1S50 750,765 head. 



Showing a decrease of 72,086 head. 



In Kentucky, more than nine-tenths of the en- 

 tire area of the State are covered with farms. The 

 number of neat cattle raised was 



In 1S40 789,098 head. 



In 1850 • 753,312 head. 



Showing a decrease of 33,786 head. 



Horses and mules raised in Kentucky : 



In 1840 395,853 



InlS50 381,291 



Decrease 14,562 



It is estimated by intelligent farmers in Indiana, 

 that their river bottoms, which used to produce an 

 average crop of sixty bushels of corn to the acre, 

 now produce only forty. In "Wisconsin, which is 

 younger still, it is estimated that only one-half tht 

 number of. bushels of wheat are now raised on the 

 acre, which were raised twelve years ago. 



These estimates are based on the returns made to 

 the Patent Ofiice, and are as reliable as any now be- 

 fore the public. "What, then, is the conclusion of 

 the whole matter 1 It is this, that the soils of 

 New England, after all the admonitions we have 

 received upon the subject, are annually growing 

 poorer, and that even tlie virgin lands of the 

 Great West are rapidly becoming exhausted of 

 their fertility. Other and better modes of culti- 

 vation must therefore be introduced and practiced, 

 or our country — now the gramiry of the world — 

 may at no very distant day, become dependent on 

 other lands for its daily bread. AVithin fifty years, 

 our population will undoubtedly reach the enor- 

 mous number of o«c hundred millioris ; but the 

 grave question is, how are these teeming myriads 

 to be fed and clothed and educated, if our present 

 impoverishing agricultural proces,ses are to^ be 

 continued? AA''e have territory enough, and it is 

 j naturally rich enougli to support a population of 

 lone thousand millions — a number to which we 

 niay yet attain — but how can they be sustained, 

 unless some method is devised to keep up the pro- 

 jductive capabilities of our country, and return to 

 our liberally discounting soils, as much, at least, 

 as we abstract from them ? This is a problem, 

 which many thoughtful and far-seeing men are 

 beginning seriously to ponder, and which requires 

 no little wisdom to solve. 



The large annual exports of our surplus cereal 

 productions, furnish no replgf to the positions tak- 

 en in this article, but rather go to corroborate 

 them. Such surplus only shows that we are stim- 

 ulating our farms to the highost point of present 

 productiveness, for the sake of immediate benefit, 

 while wc are making no compensating returns to 

 the acres on which we are levying such exhaust- 

 ing conscriptions. Our apparent prosperity is de- 

 ceitful. AVe arc attempting to fill our own pock- 

 ets, at the expense of future generations. 



Waltham, April, 1854. D- c. 



