Review of Essays on CalcaraoUs Manures. 145 



article, the power of raising tobacco was exhausted, new woodland 

 was cleared and brought into cultivation, and thus in the older re- 

 gions there has been no single acre of land of tolerable promise, that 

 has not at some period or other been subjected to the plough. The 

 virgin soil having been thus completely explored, it remained to 

 abandon the country altogether, or bring it back to cultivation by 

 enriching manures, and in the manner of applying, the proposed 

 remedy became almost as fatal as the disease itself. The putrescent 

 manures furnished by the whole stock of a plantation were lavished 

 upon a few acres, and applied to the continual cultivation of the fa- 

 vorite staple, until they were again exhausted, and thus in succes- 

 sion until a second round of ruinous cropping had been completed. 



As the staple fell in value from the increased population employ- 

 ed in its culture, Indian corn and wheat became objects of atten- 

 tion, but they were merely secondary, and did not enter into rotation 

 with tobacco. Were we to hazard an opinion founded upon anal- 

 ogy, we should feel almost certain that tobacco well manured would 

 form a substitute for a fallow crop, and might, in a well planned ro- 

 tation, impair in no degree the native fertility of a soil. We have 

 ascertained, in fact, that it is an admirable preparation for wheat, but 

 the temptation to continue the tobacco culture is such, that it is rarely 

 intermitted until the land becomes a caput moriuum. 



The same system has been pursued in all the southern states, 

 which may in this respect be considered as colonies of Virginia, and 

 in all have the same consequences inevitably followed ; immense 

 products at first, in consequence of the intrinsic value of the pecu- 

 liar staple, whether cotton or tobacco ; improvident expenditures, 

 arising from the difficulty of distinguishing what part of the annual 

 income was in fact an encroachment upon the capital ; and finally, 

 impoverishment or ruin. To the latter event the large families of 

 slaves, which the apparent profits of the earlier culture induced the 

 planters to acquire, contribute in no small degree, as well as their 

 disproportionate increase in a state of being free from all care and 

 anxiety. This state of things is well described by Mr. Ruffin, in 

 one of his notes. 



"A gang of slaves on a farm, will often increase to four times 

 their original number in thirty or forty years. If a farmer is only 

 able to feed and maintain his slaves, their increase in value may 

 double the whole of his capital originally vested in farming, before 

 he closes the term of an ordinary life. But few farms are able to 



Vol. XXX.— No. 1. 19 



