DEMANDS OF AGRICULTURE. I E 1 



thousand." And upon these premises the Board justly urge 

 the necessity of agricultural education. 



Let us examine the State of New York, with her area of 

 forty-six thousand square miles. In that State, in 1845, there 

 were under improvement eleven million seven hundred and 

 thirty-seven thousand nine hundred and sixty-eight acres; in 

 1850, twelve million four hundred and eight thousand nine 

 hundred and sixty-eight acres — making- a gain in live years of 

 six hundred and seventy-one thousand six hundred and ninety- 

 two acres. With uniformness of fertility during these year.-, 

 all vegetable and animal productions should have gained propor- 

 tionally with the increased area of cultivation. Allowing the 

 seasons of 1845 and 1850 to be equally favorable, if a greater 

 amount of productions were yielded per acre in 1850 than in 

 1845, this would prove an enhanced productiveness; but if the 

 productions were less per acre, then the inference is that the 

 land must have parted with more of its fertilizing properties 

 than it regained. 



The following is a statement of the decrease of crops and 

 animals, comparing 1850 with 1845: — 



Potatoes, 7,255,056 bushels; pease and beans, 1,182,054 

 bushels; flax, 1,956,485 pounds; wool, 3,793,527 pounds; wheat, 

 270,724 bushels ; buckwheat, 450,724 bushels. In regard to 

 animals, they diminished in numbers in the above years thus : 

 Horses, 58,141; cows, 68,066; other cattle, 127,525 ; swim', 

 566,092 ; sheep, 2,990,624. There was an increase in the crops 

 of corn, rye, oats, and barley, falling greatly short, however, of 

 the proportionate requirement.-' 



If we were to extend our examination throughout the North- 

 ern and Middle States, results not more flattering than those 

 adduced would be discovered. 



The facts in regard to agricultural improvement in our South- 

 ern States are not more gratifying. But on this subject let a 

 distinguished southern agriculturist be heard: "The great 

 error," says our author, "of southern agriculturists is the 

 general practice of exhausting culture — the almost universal 

 deterioration of the productive power of the soil — which power 



• Patent Office Report for 1852-53. 

 61 • 



