274 ADDRESS. 



maintaining the condition of our lands, is another cause 

 of declension in the profits and character of our Agricul- 

 ture. The farnner is too prone to invest his surplus 

 means in some new business, or in adding to his acres, 

 instead of applying them to increase the profits of his la- 

 bor and the products of his farm. He either works more 

 land than he can work well and profitably, or he diverts 

 to other objects the means which would yield a better 

 return if applied to the improvement of the farm. He is 

 apt to consider twenty or thirty dollars an enormous and 

 wasteful outlay upon an acre of land, or upon a choice 

 animal ; and yet the interest of this outlay will be ten 

 times paid by the increase of crop or the increase of the 

 animal ; and in most cases the principal also will be re- 

 turned to him in the course of two or three years. Many 

 of the most thriving farmers in southern New York, Nev^^ 

 Jersey, and Pennsylvania, make a quadrennial expenditure 

 of twenty dollars or more to manure an acre ; and it has 

 become a maxim with them, that the more the outlay for 

 manure, the greater the net profit of their lands. But 

 it is not the outlay for manure alone, that demands a lib- 

 eral expenditure of capital. Good seed, good farm-stock, 

 and good implements, are all essential to the economy of 

 labor, and to neat and profitable farming. And I think 

 it will appear from the cases I have quoted, that in many 

 locations, capital may be very advantageously employed, 

 in reclaiming wet and marshy grounds, generally rich and 

 the most productive when laid dry. 



When t)ur cattle grow lean, and threaten to disappoint 

 our hopes of profit, we do not hesitate to impute the evil 

 to the want of food, or to inattention in the herdsman. 

 And if we are prudent managers, we at once graduate our 

 stock to our food, knowing that one well-fed animal is of 

 inore value in the market, than two animals that carry but 

 skin and bones; and w^e take care that the food is properly 

 fed out. When our crops become lean, we need not 

 hesitate to ascribe the decrease in product to hke causes 

 — want of food, or want of attention in the farmer ; and 

 prudence and profit in like manner require, that our crops, 

 like our animals, should be limited to the food and labor 



