OP THE NEW HUSBANDRY. 25 



nary ones ; yet they are not without parallels in our own 

 country. Agriculture has been in a state of progressive 

 improvement in the valley of the Hudson, for thirty and 

 forty years. The lands have been increasing in value in 

 consequence. The change has been so great in some 

 districts, that farms which twenty years ago were sold for 

 20 to 25 dollars an acre, have recently been sold for 100 

 to 120 dollars an acre ; and in other cases, particularly 

 on Kinderhook plains, farms which were bought thirty 

 years ago at five or ten dollars an acre, have lately 

 commanded from sixty to seventy dollars. Few farms of 

 tolerable land in Dutchess, Orange, or other river coun- 

 ties, contiguous to the Hudson, can now be bought at 

 less than from 100 to 150 dollars an acre, in consequence 

 of their increased productiveness, caused by improved 

 husbandry. 



Doctor Black has demonstrated, in his prize-essay, 

 published in the American Farmer, that every acre of 

 arable land in New Jersey, which now sells at from ten 

 to thirty dollars per acre, is intrinsically worth five hun- 

 dred dollars per acre ; that is, if put under a judicious 

 system of husbandry, every acre may be made to yield 

 a nett profit of thirty dollars per annum, equal to the in- 

 terest on five hundred dollars, at 6 per cent. And Mr. 

 Johnson, of Maryland, in a speech which he made in 

 Congress in 1837, cites a case in Delaware, near Dover, 

 where land was bought, a few years ago, of medium 

 quality, at thirty dollars an acre, by Messrs. Sipple and 

 Pennewell, which has paid in its product for all outlay 

 in improvement, and the owners are now receiving, in 

 the farm-crops which it gives, an annual clear income 

 equal to the interest of jive hundred dollars an acre. 



We will ofter but one other illustration in support of 

 the great superiority of the new husbandry. It is that of 

 John Robinson, Esq., an intelligent, industrious Scotch 

 farmer. Fifteen years ago, Mr. Robinson bought a 

 farm on the banks of Seneca Lake, three miles from 

 Geneva, at ten dollars an acre. The farm w^as consid- 

 ered worn out. Mr. Robinson, with the aid of sheep, 

 lime, manure, and good husbandry, has made it produce, 

 3 XV. 



