EFFECTS OF CROPPING. 103 



Carolina once rich and fertile. By a long con- 

 tinued system of forced and exhausting culture, 

 these lands have become unproductive, and vast 

 tracts have been abandoned to hopeless sterility. 

 Such lands it is possible to reclaim ; but at what 

 an expense of time, labor, manure, and skilful 

 management? It is to be hoped that the new 

 States will not thus sacrifice their future power 

 and prospects to present and temporary wealth; 

 that these fine lands, w r hich now yield immense 

 successive crops of Indian corn and wheat, with- 

 out intermission and without manure, will not be 

 cropped till their strength and substance is gone; 

 but that a better conducted and more skilful 

 husbandry may be adopted, which will ensure 

 unimpaired fertility to these naturally rich and 

 productive soils. 



Another instance of exhaustion may be seen 

 in the West India sugar plantations. The cane, 

 after having had its saccharine juice pressed out - 

 at the mill, serves as fuel for boiling down the 

 syrup. The ash thus produced is rich in the 

 mineral ingredients necessary to the prosperity 

 .of the plant. The neglect to return this valua- 

 ble ash to the soil has not only occasioned a 

 large importation of foreign manures, but also a 

 serious deterioration of the soil. 



