14 Address. 



has deteriorated very materially by improper systems of cultivation, 

 and will continue to do so unless nature's laws in relation to cropping 

 the soil are more generally observed. The largest crop of corn ever 

 grown in the country was in 1868, and amounted to 906,527,000 

 bushels. The whole number of acres planted was 32,887,246, and 

 the average yield per acre for the whole country was 25 1-2 bushels, 

 which was a great falling off from the early crops grown on our soil. 

 The returns of that year lead us faintly to hope that there is a turn 

 in the tide in certain quarters, for Massachusetts and Vermont pro- 

 duce more per acre than any of the great corn growing states of the 

 west. The statistics show that the gradual aggregate increase of our 

 corn, as well as our wheat crop, has been caused not by an increased 

 yield, indicating increased fertility and better cultivation, but by in- 

 creasing the number of acres planted, a process which enhances the 

 cost of production, and which, notwithstanding our immense territory 

 as yet untouched by the plow, will, as surely as the laws of nature 

 remain unalterable, have its end in poverty and ruin. This deteri- 

 orating process has been in operation longer, and has extended far- 

 ther, than is good for our national prosperity, and it is time that both 

 government and people should cease the cant of " exhaustless fer- 

 tility," and take efficient measures to give it a final check, rather 

 than by any means to hasten the process. Our waste of the ele- 

 ments of fertility as a nation, now, by improper systems, or want of 

 system, and disregard of the first principles of agriculture, are 

 enormous and alarming, though the larger proportion of our crops 

 are consumed at home. What, then, would be the result, if the views 

 now advocated in certain quarters were practically carried out, and 

 we should establish the policy of exporting our agricultural produc- 

 tions. Cease to increase our home consumption by importing men 

 and increasing our industries, and send our grains, with all their val- 

 uable fertilizing material, to be consumed abroad. It would be 

 nothing less than suicidal. Suicidal to the fertility and continued 

 production of our soil, and fatal to the future national prosperity. 

 We had better, by wise enactment, by liberal policy, encourage every 

 form of home industry, quadruple our manufacturing population by 

 inviting accessions to our numbers of free, intelligent workers, from 

 all nations, (including the Chinese, if there h a niche in the labor 



