Agriculture is the most Healthy and Honorable, as it is the most Natural and Useful pursuit of Man, 



VOL. XI. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y. — AUGUST, 1850. 



NO. 





RESUSCITATION OF WORN OtTT LANDS. 



Under the above heading the American Artisan, 

 published in the city of New Yorlj, has the follow- 

 ing remarks : 



" ' To repair damage already done to the soil, (of 

 the United States,) will cost over one thousand mil- 

 lions of dollars." 



" Such is the conclusion of the Patent Office Re- 

 port on Agriculture^ on the subject of Chapter II, 

 'What the country has lost by impoverishing its 

 soils.' This impoverishing is effected by the unwise 

 mode of culture that takes off the soil all it can and 

 puts nothing on. That there is a vast amount of 

 such culture, statistics as well as observation abund- 

 antly show : and tlie waste of labor and loss of profit 

 by such culture is immense, no doubt fully equal to 

 whnt this Report states. But its conclusion that it 

 will require millions to restore these lands, is falla- 

 cious. The Report itself refutes its own conclusion, 

 when it states a well known fact in proof of its posi- 

 tion, that 'this deterioration is not unavoidable, for 

 thousands of skillful farmers have taken fields poor 

 in point of natural productiveness, and instead of 

 diminishing their fertility, they have added ten cents 

 on an acre to their annual income, over and above all 

 expenses,' — yes, and often much more. And there 

 is not an acre of these worn out lands that ran not 

 be resuscitated by such skillful farmers, without cost 

 and with actual profit. The startling, unfounded 

 position which the Report put forth, that it 'will cost 

 on an average $12.50 an acre to renovate the par- 

 tially exhausted lands of this State,' is not sustained 

 by a single proof. There is quite a penchant in the 

 Commissioner to make startling statements. He 

 says, 'a million tons of human food pass down the 

 Mississippi, where one ton of the elements of such 

 food arcend,' just as if, for the production of this 

 food, such a return of the elements of it was neces- 

 sary. There is no truth in either of the theories. 

 The elements are in the air, water, and earth, and 

 the process of resuscitation can be carried on not 

 only without loss but with profit. The cost of the 

 manure, which, as that of leaven to the bread, will 

 be more than returned in the crop, and the land more 

 and more enriched each year by a right cultivation, 

 which is ever a profitable one. The productiveness 

 will be increased or renewed each year, much on the 

 principle that leaven produces or multiplies itself 

 when the appropriate materials are in contact with 

 it. And as to the vegetative power of the earth, let 



there be due proportions of air, moisture, and warmth 

 on any land, be it even nothing but sand, it will be 

 manifested. But when aided by manure, it will be 

 with far greater rapidity and always with profit with- 

 out loss, if skillfully done ; and the outlay is no 

 actual cost in the sense of this Report, when there is 

 a profitable return over all expense of cultivation. 



" The great importance of this subject to the coun- 

 try, is fully borne out by the statistics it gives. The 

 yearly diminishing of production from the acre, till 

 it becomes so little as to cause the exhausted land to 

 be abandoned, is a wide spread process, going on over 

 the whole country, and well may Government resort 

 to measures to arrest it. But alarming statements 

 of thousands of millions of cost to do it, will not pro- 

 mote it, but only aid to continue it. What is wanted, 

 is the full and enforced statement, with its proof over 

 the whole country, that the deterioration is not neces- 

 sary — that it is solely the result of wrong culture — 

 that the abandonment of an acre is an acre of con- 

 demnation of the farmer who does it — that in fact 

 there is within the power of every farmer the means 

 of resuscitating every acre at a cost less than it will 

 require to subdue new land. This should be done ; 

 and may the census now to be taken be used to effect 

 it, and every agricultural paper, report, or society in 

 the land, give its influence to impress on the public 

 mind the truth that there is no necessity for this 

 deterioration — that it is the sole effect of wrong cul- 

 tivation — that the right will not only prevent it, but 

 is far the most profitable — that the single principle 

 of leaving half the annual vegetation on the land will 

 enrich it, and this is all the change required. The 

 forest is enriched from its yearly fall of leaves and 

 dead limbs. The careful use of the grape leaves has 

 been found ample to keep the grapery productive." 



The writer of the above may know what is the 

 " right cultivation" to prevent the " deterioration" 

 of cultivated land ; if so, his light is most effectually 

 hid under a bushel. No one not a fancy writer on 

 agriculture would say that " the productiveness will 

 be increased or renewed each year, much on the 

 principle that leaven produces, or multiplies itself, 

 when the appropriate materials are in contact with 

 it.'' But, most sage critic, suppose " the appropriate 

 materials" are lacking in the soil or in the "knead- 

 ing-trough ;" what then? Will your "leaven" 

 make wheat or bread without " the appropriate mate- 

 rials?" Certainly not. 



When we stated that there were 8,000,000 acres 

 of land in the State of New York so much exhausted 



