204 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
the estate, and instead ol impoverishing it, by bad tillage 
and worse cropping, it will be steadily increasing in pro- 
ductivenesss to meet thefwants of an increasing population. 
It is our duty to remind the reader that the true prin- 
ciples of agriculture never have been, and probably never 
will be adopted in a community blinded by the false doc- 
trine of unlimited expansion, and unlimited destruction to 
the soil of this continent. The true doctrine is first to im- 
prove all the old planting States, whose land slavery is 
reputed to have injured ; and then expand as the pressuie 
of an excess of laborers shall demand. But for Virginia, 
the Carolinas and Georgia to export their most enterpris- 
ing citizens with their cash capital and farm operatives, 
leaving bdiind them boundless wastes of old fields to build 
schoorhouses, churches and railroads, and support such 
as are already built, is simply the “expansion’' of over- 
v,torked steam — the precinsor of a terrible explosion. ^ Let 
the civilized world see slave labor in a more agreeable as- 
pect-engaged in rendering the cotton and corn lands of 
the Southern States more reliable for an enduring supply 
of these two most important staples ; anti then the good 
works of the Institution will praise it. _ 
A tree is known by its fruit; while the axe of public 
opinion lies at the root of every tree in this republic. 
Home associations, home attachments, home duties and 
beauties of every kind, are what we should cultivate, what 
we should study. With these, the relation of master and 
servant is in perfect harmony, and gives industrious citi- 
zens peculiar facilities for making rural embellishments. 
Eefinement and pure tastes would flourish still more did 
not a morbid passion for money command so many poor 
souls, and sometimes make masters slaves, if not servants 
brutes. An over desire to get wealth has much to do with 
the exhaustion of the soil in all parts of the United States. 
Hard cash is wanted in quantities, and the plow is driven 
deep and long to obtain gold by exchanging fertility. 
Stimulated in a thousand ways, this robbing oi the soil is 
the mania of our time. 
In this general struggle, slave labor is in no respect a 
cause, but simply acts the part of a passive agent. The 
people of the North who hold no slaves, are none the less 
greedy for dollars, and none the less willing to grasp a'n 
indefinite quantity of rich lands at the West or South, from 
which to extract wealth. 
With the largest cities on the continent at their doors, 
with the immense influx of foreigners, there are, neverthe- 
less, whole counties in the State of New York whose rural 
population has diminished in the last five and ten years 
with the diminished fruitfulness ofthe land that supported 
farm laborers. The principle of exhaustion is not so much 
a Southern, as an American principle. YvBiercver it is 
reduced to practice, it invariably lessens population and 
wealth, retard.s the progress of civilization, and inflicts a 
deep injury upon society. Man needs many things more 
than coined gold and silver. He requires fertile land on 
which to raise his daily bread far more than he needs a 
metalic circulating medium or money in any form. A 
farmer may be rich and happy with his family and ser- 
vants without gold or silver. Sound husbandry will ren- 
der all his property productive capital. His land will in- 
crease in value as fast as his servants multiply and grow 
uo to imirrove—noi impoverish it. In this way the intrin- 
sic value of slaves and their labor may soon be doubled. 
The idea of an overstock in the old States is preposterous. 
They have unimproved land enough for thirty million 
laborers moi’e than they now have. L. 
ly’He who is passionate and hasty is generally honest. 
It is your cool,dissembling hypocrite, of whom you should 
beware. “There is no deception in a bull-dog.” It is only 
the cur that sneaks up and bites you when your back is 
turned. 
AGKICULTUKAL KEFORM-SHALLOW PLOWING, &C. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — Having to take charge 
of and make a living upon a partially worn out farm, in- 
terspersed here and there with red galled spots and beauti- 
fully winding gullies of various sizes, it is with a keen 
sense of its importance that I fully and cordially appreci- 
ate your efforts to redeem Southern agriculture from its 
low estate and to elevate it as a science to its proper and 
legitimate standard. In furtherance of this object, I pro- 
pose to submit to the consideration of your readers a few 
thoughts upon the subject of agricultural reform. Al- 
though this is a theme about which much has been writ- 
ten, and may, therefore, be styled a threadbare subject. 
The vast interest intimately connected with it will ever be 
an excuse to any writer who, prompted by a dueregard 
ofits importance, may see proper to cal! the attention of 
agriculturists to it. 
In the first place, is there any reform necessary 1 To 
answer this question properly, it must be done by a refer- 
ence to what effect tlie present system of shallow plowing 
and the planting of a large number of acres to the hand 
has had upon our lands. 
Have they retained their original fertility? We as- 
sume llie negative of this question, and if we are right, 
reform is necessary. 
What are the indications that sustain us in our position ? 
Are there any facts aside from reason itself that go to 
prove the exhausting effects of this policy? The indica- 
tions are “plain, palpable and easily to be seen.” In 
travelling over the country one is painfully and constant- 
1}^ reminded of the defects of this system. The large budies 
of land turned out to grow broomsedge; the red, barren 
hill sides and the deep gullies running along them are 
striking and convincing examples that something is wrong 
in the present mode of cultivating our lands. 
Why are these lands not now producing the large crops 
they once did ? Y/hy are these broomsedge fields not in 
cultivation and remunerating the farmer for his labor by 
their increased productions? Why are not these barren 
hill sides teeming with luxuriant crops of grain ? The 
reason is plain to the most careless observer. The poli- 
cy of shallow plowing and the wretched practice of taking 
crop after crop from the soil without returning an equiva- 
lent, either in the shape of barn-yard manures or the 
turning under of green crops, has exhausted its fertility 
and produced a barren waste, unfit to be seen where re- 
sponsible and intelligent beings exist. The diminished 
production of land tliat has been in cultivation but a few 
years indicate that the same destructive system is being 
pursued upon lands now under tillage, and proves clearly 
that in a few years thousands of acres now producing 
fine crop.s will have acquired a just right to be called 
“worn out,” and, therefore, entitled to all the privileges 
and immunities of the phrase. 
These are the facts and proof positive that our soil has 
lost and is still 'osing its original fertility. Will any intel- 
ligent fanner, then, in the face of this evidence deny the 
necessity of reform? We apprehend there are none who 
have come within the happy and refining influence of 
agricultural life so blind and reckless ofthe lessons of ex- 
perience and observation as to be insensible to the teach- 
ings of these facts. We ask you, then, fellow tillers of 
the soil, vrliy not reform ? Why continue thus to im- 
poverish your richest inheritance ? Do not these red gul- 
lied spots upon your hill sides repudiate the course you 
are now pursuing ? Do not these gullies, running along 
your fields from one side to the other, condemn your pre- 
sent policy ? Does not your own conscience reprove you 
for thus treating one of heaven’s kindest gifts to man ? 
I Why force the young farmers of the country to leave 
their native State? Why compel them to break the ten- 
der ties of a beloved home, that they may find, in the tar 
