2[2 SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES 



impaired the natural fertility of our soils ; — and that, with 

 the aid of improved implements of husbandry, and a good 

 system of management, we may also greatly increase the 

 profits of its culture. 



These principles do not rest upon mere theory. They 

 have been long reduced to practice, and their correctness 

 has been most amply vej-ified. They have, in their prac- 

 tical application, virtually converted Flanders into a gar- 

 den, and rendered it so fertile in human food, that each 

 acre is said to be capable of supporting its man. The 

 system, which these principles inculcate, has changed 

 Scotland, in a litde more than half a century, from com- 

 parative sterility and unproductiveness, into one of the 

 richest and most profitable agricultural districts in Europe. 

 It has increased the products of the corn harvest, in Great 

 Britain, in sixty years, from 170 to 340 millions of bush- 

 els. It has doubled, trebled, and quadrupled, the agri- 

 cultural products of many districts in our own country. 

 It has augmented the value of farms, in some of these 

 districts, two, three, and four, hundred per cent. — from 

 twenty and thirty dollars, to one hundred dollars, and more, 

 per acre. It has made every acre of arable land, upon 

 which it has been practised ten years, and lying contigu- 

 ous to navigable waters or a good market, worth, at least, 

 one hundred dollars, for agricultural purposes. 



We will state some cases of comparison, between the 

 products of the old and new systems of farming, to illus- 

 trate, more fully, the advantages of the latter. 



The average products in Flanders are stated, by Rad- 

 cliffe, as follow^s : wheat, 32 bushels, rye, 32J, oats, 52, 

 potatoes, 350, per acre. Flanders has generally a flat 

 surface, with a light, sandy soil, ill adapted to wheat. It 

 is, naturally, very similar to the sandy district upon the 

 seacoast in New Jersey and Maryland, and to the san- 

 dy plains in the valley of the Connecticut. 



In the fertile districts of Scotland, according to Sir 

 John Sinclair, and in ordinary seasons, " the farmer may 

 confidently expect to reap, from 32 to 40 bushels of 

 wheat : from 42 to 50 bushels of barley ; from 52 to 64 

 bushels of oats ; and from 28 to 32 bushels of beans. 



