76 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL BY 



dered, then, that under such reckless management, of 

 returning to the soil only a quarter, or an eighth, of 

 what we take from it, of the food of plants, our lands 

 should continue to grow poor, till they no longer yield a 

 reward to culture ? The cultivated lands in New York 

 are estimated at eight millions of acres. On the suppo- 

 sition that one half of these are appropriated to tillage 

 and meadow — and this is a low estimate — we might pro- 

 duce, and apply annually, under the new system of hus- 

 bandry — and we ought to do so — sixteen million tons of 

 manure, worth, to the country, at a low computation, six- 

 teen millions of dollars ; — whereas, we now produce, un- 

 der the old system, certainly not more than four millions 

 of tons — thereby suffering an annual loss, independent of 

 the certain and constant diminution in the product and 

 value of our lands, of twelve miUions of dollars, in the 

 single item of manures ! This is not a visionary specula- 

 tion — it is sober truth — and we ask any intelligent man, 

 to show, from facts, a less favorable conclusion. 



But, to relieve this sombre picture, so discreditable to 

 American husbandry, we are happy to have it in our pow- 

 er to cite some illustrious exceptions to the conclusions 

 we have drawn ; which go to prove both our general neg- 

 lect in this branch of rural economy, and the vast benefits 

 which it is capable of dispensing when duly attended to. 

 Among other notable examples which might be mentioned, 

 we state, on the authority of the Essex Committee on 

 Manures, that in Plymouth county, when a premium was 

 to be given to the man who made the greatest number of 

 loads of manure on his farm, the prize was awarded to a 

 farmer who made 798 loads — the lowest competitor claim- 

 ing for 350. William Clark, Jr., of Northampton, with 

 an average stock of 8 oxen and cows, 3 horses, and 8 

 hogs, made in a year 920 loads. A friend of the writer 

 on Staten Island, who has a stock of some 20 or 30 cat- 

 tle, assured us that he could or did make, from his cattle, 

 peat earth, peat ashes, and sea-weed, enough manure to 

 thoroughly dung more than one hundred acres of his farm 

 annually. 



The cases we have cited will serve to show, that a 



