18G0.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



401 



An Address 



On ihe Op^wsite ResulU of Exliamting and 

 Ferfiliziyig Sj/stems of Agriculture, Read 

 Before the Soiitli Carolwa Institute, at 

 its^ Fourth Annual Fair, Novmihcr ISth, 

 1852. 



BY EDMUND RUFFIN^ ESQ. 

 [We omit the introductory part of this admir- 

 able address as mainly applicable to the time, 

 place and circumstances of its delivery, but the 

 subject discussed is one of general and perma- 

 nent interest to all intelligent improvers of the 

 soil. We, therefore, desire to rescue it from the 

 oblivion to which it might be destined, if not 

 committed to some more enduring form of pub- 

 lication fhan the fugitive pages of the merely 

 occasional pamphlet in v/hich we find it. — Ed. 

 Southern Planter.] 



The particular object of the address 

 which Avill now be read, is to exhibit in full, 

 and place in contrast, the opposite results on 

 a country and people, of exhausting and im- 

 proving systems of Agriculture. 



In every leeling and opinion there is no 

 more true and zealous Southerner than my- 

 self. I have long studied the domestic life 

 and institutions, and social and moral con- 

 dition of the people of the slave-holding 

 States, and in every important respect, I 

 may truly say, that 1 concur with, approve, 

 and sympathize with yourselves on these 

 subjects. Yet it is my present design and 

 busuiess not to treat of our many points of 

 perfect agreement of opinion, but of the 

 few of difference; not to speak of your 

 laudable works, but your errors; and to ap- 

 ply to the planters of South Carolina, censure 

 where deserved, as readily as I would ap- 

 plaud them in other respects, which have no 

 relation to my present general subject. 

 Even in the general system of southern 

 agriculture, in which there is so much to 

 condemn, I cannot but admire the energy 

 and intelligence exercised by the cultivators 

 to attain the object usually sought — which 

 is to draw from tlie land the greatest ■i7n7ne- 

 diatc production and profit. If their ob- 

 ject were instead, as it ought to be, the 

 greatest continued products and profits, and 

 that object were pursued with as much 

 ability, the people of South Carolina would 

 soon stand in as exalted a position of agri- 

 cultural success, as now and heretofore, for 

 social and moral qualities, as men and 

 citizens. Even for the few years which have 

 26 



passed since I investigated and reported 

 upon your abundant resources for fertiliza- 

 tion, and urgtd their use, if these means had 

 been properly applied, already the agri- 

 cultural production of half the arrable lands 

 of the State might have been increased full- 

 fifty per cent. ] may dare to express this 

 opinion, inasmuch as on a newly purchased 

 farm, I have myself more than tripled that 

 amount of increase by the means recom- 

 mended, and within the same short time 

 since uttering the precepts for the like im- 

 provement here. 



The great error of southern agriculture 

 is the general practice of exhausting culture 

 — the almost universal deterioration of the 

 productive power of the soil — which power 

 is the main and essential foundation of ali 

 agricultural wealth. The merchant, or 

 manufacturer, who was using (without re- 

 placing) any part of his capital to swell his 

 yearly income — or the ship-owner, who used 

 as profit all his receipts from ft eight, allow- 

 ing nothing for repairs, or deterioration of 

 capital — would be accounted by all as in the 

 sure road to bankruptcy. The joint-stock 

 company that should (in good faith, as many 

 have done by designed fraud,) annually pay 

 out something of what ought to be its re- 

 served fund, or of its actual capital, to addl 

 so much to the dividends, would soon reach' 

 the point of being obliged to reduce tho 

 dividends below the original fair rate, and, 

 in enough time, all the capital would be sO' 

 absorbtd. Yet this unprofitable procedure,, 

 v/hich would be deemed the most m rvel- 

 lous folly in regard to any other kind of' 

 capital invested, is precisely that which is 

 still generally pursued by the cultivators of-" 

 the soil in all the cotton producing 'States, 

 and which prevailed as generally, and much- 

 longer in my own country, and which, even 

 now, is more usual there than the opposite^ 

 course of fertilizing culture. The I'ecupe-- 

 rative powers of nature are indeed con- 

 tinually operating, and to great effect, to 

 repair the waste of fertility caused by the- 

 destructive industry of man, and but for 

 this natural and imperfect remedy, all these 

 Southern States, and most of the Northeru- 

 likewise, would be already barren deserts, in 

 which agricultural labours would be hope- 

 less of reward^ and civilized men could not 

 exist. 



Let me not be understood as extending 

 censure to all southern agriculture, and 

 charging this great defect as being universal 



