14 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



the cattle and sheep of the country. It is to explain 

 more fully the principles of this system of farming ; 

 the reasons which render it preferable to the older 

 methods ; and the general outlines of the practice to 

 be pursued, that the following remarks of Judge Buel 

 were penned, and from which the reader will no long- 

 er be detained. Editors. 



That system of agriculture known by the appella 

 tion of the New Husbandry, and the general princi 

 pies of which we propose to point out, is new only 

 comparatively, and in contradistinction to the old 

 system, which is generally adopted in the first set- 

 tlement of a country, in some degree as a matter of 

 necessity ; but which, being once established, is too 

 often persisted in, with a reckless indifference to ul- 

 terior consequences, long after the necessity for it 

 has ceased. This particularly happens in countries 

 like ours, where new and virgin soils are continually 

 inviting to emigration. What we denominate the 

 new system has long been in operation in the valley 

 of the Po, in Italy ; indeed, it seems to have been 

 practised there by the Romans in the meridian of 

 their greatness, and in Flanders, and for the last 

 half century in Great Britain ; and it has, besides, 

 for some time had many faithful followers in the 

 United States. By the old system we mean that 

 which, generally speaking, has impoverished, and is 

 still impoverishing, the soil on our Atlantic border, 

 and which is already causing indications of prema- 

 ture exhaustion and poverty in some portions of the 

 new West. "As much vacant land as this district 

 contains,".says a late writer of East Virginia, " there 

 is but little uncultivated [old fields] which, until en- 

 riched, will yield any clear profit. Therefore, East- 

 ern Virginia, in its present state, is fully populated, 

 and no increase can be expected except from the im- 



