WASTES OF AGRICULTURE. Is 7 



twenty million dollars; and of this, at least one million is 

 wasted in the misapplication of labor. Nor lb this all. We 

 shall have occasion to say that this misapplication of labor is 

 followed by a more serious loss — in the exhaustion of the land. 

 But what would be said of a manufacturer who should be guil- 

 ty of wasting one-twentieth of his whole product in the appli- 

 cation of his labors ? If his labors finally resulted in bank- 

 ruptcy, would he be entitled to public sympathy? or would ju- 

 dicious men condemn the business because it failed in such 

 .lands ? 



It is a duty to economize labor. Labor is the scarcest and 

 dearest commodity in the market; and so it is likely to con- 

 tinue. 



Again : this waste of labor is followed by a waste of land. 

 When we cultivate more land than we ought for the crop we 

 get, the process of cultivation is necessarily defective and bad. 

 This was the character of our farming during the whole of the 

 last decennial period. . 



As the land under bad cultivation loses heart and strength, 

 more and more is required to meet the demand we make. So, 

 then, from 1840 to 1850 we not only cultivated more land than 

 we ought, but we actually consumed it at the rate of many 

 thousand acres a year. The produce of 1840 was much great- 

 er than that of 1850; yet we had two million one hundred and 

 thirty-three thousand four hundred and thirty-six acres in culti- 

 vation at the latter period, and only one million eight hundred 

 and seventy-five thousand two hundred and eleven acres at the 

 former. The product of 1840, at the rates before named, 

 would have required two million three hundred and seventeen 

 thousand six hundred and ninety-six acres, while they were 

 really produced from one million eight hundred and Beventy- 

 five thousand two hundred and eleven acres — showing that my 

 estimate of the capacity of our soil under ordinary care was 

 too low. If you take the excess of the crop of 1840 over that 

 of 1850, and, according to the rates before named, find the 

 quantity of land necessary to produce thatexcoss, and add that 

 quantity to the acres in cultivation in 1850, you will have two 

 million five hundred and seven thousand three hundred and fif- 

 ty-three acres, or six hundred and thirty-two thousand one hun- 



