KATION!L IGNORANCE OF THE AGRICULTURAL INTEREST. 391 



arise almost as much from the migratory habits of our people, and 

 the constant taking-up of rich prairies, yielding their virgin harvests 

 of breadstuffs, as from the institutions peculiar to our favored 

 country. 



We regret to say, that it does not require much scrutiny on the 

 part of a serious inquirer, to discover that we are in some respects 

 like a large and increasing family, running over and devouring a 

 great estate to which they have fallen heirs, with little or no care to 

 preserve or maintain it, rather than a wise and prudent one, seeking 

 to maintain that estate in its best and most productive condition. 



To be sure, our trade and commerce are pursued with a thrift 

 and sagacity likely to add largely to our substantial wealth, and to 

 develope the collateral resources of the country. But, after all, trade 

 and commerce are not the great interests of the country. That in- 

 terest is, as every one admits, agriculture. By the latter, the great 

 bulk of the people live, and by it all are fed. It is clear, therefore, 

 if that interest is neglected or misunderstood, the population of the 

 country may steadily increase, but the means of supporting that 

 population (which can never be largely a manufacturing population) 

 must necessarily lessen, proportionately, every year. 



Now, there are two undeniable facts at present staring us Amer- 

 icans in the face amid all this prosperity : the first is, that the pro- 

 ductive power of nearly all the land in the United States, which has 

 been ten years in cultivation, is fearfully lessening every season, from 

 the desolating effects of a ruinous system of husbandry ; and the 

 second is, that in consequence of this, the rural population of the 

 older States is either at a stand-still, or it is falling off, or it increases 

 very slowly in proportion to the population of those cities and towns 

 largely engaged in commercial pursuits. 



Our census returns show, for instance, that in some of the States 

 (such as Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, and Maryland), the 

 only increase of population is in the towns for in the rural popu- 

 lation there is no growth at all. In the great agricultural State of 

 New-York, the gain in the fourteen largest towns is sixty-four per 

 cent., while in the rest of the State it is but nineteen per cent. In 

 Pennsylvania, thirty-nine and a quarter per cent, in the large towns, 

 and but twenty-one per cent, in the rural districts. The politicians in 



