VoL. L 
AUGUSTA, Ga., APRIL 5, 1843. 
No. 5. 
EXTRACTS FROM THE ADDRESS OF H. COLMAN- 
DEUVEKED BEFORE THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OP 
MONROE COUNTY, NEW YORK. 
The improvement oi agriculture may be said 
to comprise two objects; first, the improvement 
oi the art of cultivation, and second, the im- 
provement of the condition and character of the 
cultivators. The improvement of the former 
is a small matter compared with that of the lat- 
ter; the improvement of the latter, understood 
in its best sense, must essentially aid the im- 
provement of the fonuer. * * * 
1. If we apply this test to our present hus- 
bandry, we shall be compelled to acknowledge 
that it is far from having reached the perfection 
of the art. If we look first at the amount of 
products, even in this favored region of western 
New York, the average yield falls far below the 
possible yield; and by the possible )deld, I mean 
not a mere theoretical or speculative p roduction, 
but that which has actually been accomplished. 
Of wheat, some of the most intelligent farmers 
state that the average yield does not exceed, and 
this in the most favored districts, twenty bu.shels 
to the acre. Now, I have known thirty bashels 
to be taken on large fields, forty bushels, fifty 
bushels, and upon one large tract sixty-four 
bushels per acre. I speak now of home pro- 
duction, and not of foreign countries. In this 
matter, likewise, there is little reason to ques- 
tion these statements, as the wheat crop is easi- 
ly, and almost always measured with exactness, 
in the half-bushel or by weight; but reports of 
very large crops of Indian corn, are always dis- 
trusted by the sceptical, on the ground that the 
corn may have been measured in the ear, or 
only a portion of the field may have been mea- 
sured, and the rest made matter of inference; or 
no allowance has been made for shrinkage. In 
respect, however, to Indian corn, making all the 
abatements for error that the incredulous may 
require, it will appear that such yields have 
been obtained as should make the farmers, who 
are satisfied with the meager crops usually ob- 
tained, at least open their eyes, if in truth such 
men have any eyes to open. I have been ex- 
ceedingly surprised, when informed by farmers 
in western New York, whose good judgment 
and intelligence cannot be distrusted, that the av- 
erage yield of Indian corn does not exceed 25 
bushels to the acre. Now fifty bushels are not 
an extraordinary crop. I havm known seventy- 
five bushels per acre to be the ordinary yield of 
one farmer, whose cultivation was extensive. 
I have had authentic information of the crops 
of Indian corn of one farmer, having for years 
exceeded one hundred bushels per acre, shelled 
and measured accurately in the half-bushel, in 
the spring. I have known, upon the most un- 
doubted testimony, one hundred and twenty- 
eight and one hundred and thirty-two bushels 
per acre, produced in localities which seemed 
most inauspicious. 
In respect to grass, the crop of hay does not 
probably average more than one and a half ton 
per acre. Now I have known many crops of 
three tons per acre on extensive fields; and in 
one case I knew more than twenty -nine tons to 
be taken in the same year in two cuttings, upon 
six acres ol land. In respect to potatoes, the 
yield is probably not more than two hundred 
bushels per acre. I have produced crops of 
more than four hundred and eighty bushels, and 
have known repeatedly seven hundred bushels 
per acre, and in one instance, at the rate of more 
than twelve hundred bushels per acre. 
I might instance other crops; but it is suffi- 
cient to have refen-ed to these, to show that our 
husbandry in general, in respect to its produc- 
tiveness, is far inferior to what it may be. In 
many cases our soil is not inferior to any which 
the sun shines upon. There is in our climate 
no hindrance to the highest measure of produc- 
tion. The large crops to which I refer, are the 
result of skilful and superior cultivation. They 
do not come by chance. They show what skill 
and labor can efiect. It will be said that they 
involve an expensive cultivation, but in every 
case within my knowledge, they' have rendered 
an ample return for all the labor and expense 
incurred. An observing farmer willpeiceive 
that in most cases a few extra bushels in the 
yield constitute all the profit of a crop. Thirty 
bushels to the acre, may barely pay the expen- 
■ses of cultivation; but fifty bushels, without any 
increase of land, or labor in planting, cultivat- 
ing or harvesting, may leave a clear profit of 
twenty'- bu.shels per acre. It will be said that 
such cultivation exhausts the soil. It does not 
exhaust the soil any' more than poor cultivation 
exhausts the soil; and it is followed with this 
remarkable difference, that it affords the means 
of enriching the soil and restoring its exhausted 
energies, which poor cultivaticn does not. Who 
ever heard tliat a farm became exhausted bv 
good cultivation! Whose farms are in the best 
condition; the farms of those who grow the 
poorest, or those who raise the largest crops! 
Farms may be exhausted by' growing the same 
crop too often, in immediate succession on the 
same land; by carrying off the products from, 
instead of consuming them on the farm, and 
thus returning nothing to replenish the soil in 
the form of manure; but under a wise and skil- 
ful and liberal husbandly, it would be difficult 
to find a country exhausted of its fertility by 
production. Look at our immense forests, and 
calculate what an enormous amount of vege- 
table matter is contained in the timber upon an 
acre of ground. But is the soil impoverished 
or enriched by it! Is not the vegetable pabulum, 
the food of plants, constantly increased by the 
growth of this heavy timber! Would land be- 
come more rich by leaving it uncovered and 
without plants! Does a naked fallow enrich 
the soil! A fallow may' benefit the farmer by 
the destruction of noxious weeds. The land is 
benefited by' being stirred, and exposed to the in- 
fluence of the air, and dew, and frost, and rain. 
But would a fallow kept constantly clean, and 
extended even through a series of years, do any 
thing to increase the fertility of the soil! Un- 
doubtedly, a large proportion of the carbon of 
which plants are composed, of the food of plants 
is derived from the atmosphere, of that which is 
abov^ the ground, and that which is within the 
ground; but as undoubtedly this is received only 
through the organization of the plant, through 
its leaves and stem. The living plant itself de- 
composes the atmosphere, and appropriates to 
its own growth and nourishment' that which it 
requires. So, likewise, it decomposes the vege- 
table matter already existing in the soil, in a 
state of decay, and recovers the food, which, in 
the dissolution of a previous vegetable growth, 
has there been stored up for it, and is held ready 
for its use. With the exception of the salts or 
the mineral substances, which are found in 
plants, and which in any case constitute com- 
paratively a very small proportion of their sub- 
stance, they derive all their food and nourish- 
ment from the air, either directly' or indirectly; 
directly through the leaves and stems, by a pro- 
cess of absorption well understood, in which the 
elements of the air are decomposed, and its car- 
bon appropriated; and indirectly through the de- 
cayed vegetable matter or humus of the soil, it- 
self the product of former vegetable growth. — 
So far then from vegetable production serving 
to impoverish the soil, it is the means of in- 
crea.sing its fertility. In proportion as yve culti- 
vate and enrich our lands from their own re- 
sources, under a judicious arrangement and 
management, they become constantly' more and 
more fertile. By the beneficent constitution of 
Divine Providence, the earth, Avhile it contrib- 
utes to the support of man and beast, is design- 
ed to become more productive, or to keep up its 
richness, from its own activity. It is like the 
fountain of true charity, and beautifully' emble- 
matical of the Divine beneficence; the more it 
expends the more its abundance increases. It 
is like the human mind; the more active it is 
rendered, the more its powers are invigorated; 
the more it does the more it can do; and the 
more its treasures are poured out, the more its 
fullness is enlarged. The great object ol the 
art of agriculture is therefore y'et to be achieved. 
AVhat has been done once, can be done again. 
There is no monopoly' of power in this ca^e. — 
Nature is uniform in her laws and operations. 
It is an old saying, that “fortune favois the 
brave;” that is, men find their powers increased 
with their activity; according to the Latin pro- 
verb, “they are able because they' believe them- 
selves able.” In many' respects they' command 
fortune. Taking advantage of the simple.st of 
nature’s law.s, and using her forces as she de- 
signed they should be used, she is never want- 
ing on her part, but seconds every effort for im- 
provement; and the more readily and cheerfully' 
as these efcirts are the more spirited, energetic 
and determined. If any' man has raised one 
hundred bushels of corn, or sixty' bushels of 
wheat to an acre, who w'ill pretend that it cannot 
be done again! No farmer, who deserves to be 
called a farmer in the highest sense, and to take 
rank among the noblest of this nature’s nobility', 
the lords of the soil, ought to remain content un- 
til he has done it. When he has accomplished 
this, then he should not be satisfied until he has 
done even much more than this. There is un- 
doubtedly a limit bey'ond which w'e cannot ad- 
vance. All human attainments are necessarily' 
finite. But who know's where this limit is! — 
Who ever Avent so far as to be certain that he 
could go no farther! The difference betw'een 
that which cultivation has produced already' in 
some hands, and that which is ordinarily produ- 
ced, is very great, and sufficient to occupy the 
enterprise and ambition of most farmers, for a 
long time to come. But let them make the at- 
tempt to do all they can do, or rather all that 
can be done. They may' not succeed at once. 
Few men succeed at once in any great enterprise. 
But let them try again, and again, and again. — 
If, after doing their best, they fall short of the 
goal of their hopes and expectations, y'et there is 
a great pleasure in trydng. There is a great sa- 
tisfaction to a genei ous mind, in the mere pur- 
suit of a good and useful object. An immense 
benefit comes to the community' from an exam- 
