THE CULTIVATOR. 
25 
lar application of manures. The manner was, to crop it as long as 
a particular kind of grain could be made to grow, in a given field, 
and when every particle of fertility was at length extracted from the 
soil, that lot was thrown away as worthless. A new clearing was 
made, and then the same bad practice was continued. In the south, 
they complain of the barrenness of their land ; that it yields scarce¬ 
ly a tenth of the produce it did when it first came under culture ; 
that they can now raise but a moiety of the quantity of cotton, to¬ 
bacco, wheat or corn, per acre, they did formerly ; that the farming 
population are in consequence impoverished, and they are now obliged 
to sell their farms for a trifle ; and to improve their circumstances, 
many are ready to move off to the west, in quest of a more produc¬ 
tive soil. But suppose these persons effect their object—sell their 
exhausted farms, and go to the most fertile regions of the world— 
let me ask, how long will it be before these same people must again 
move from the same cause that made a first removal necessary, viz. 
that they have once more worn out their lands 1 No matter how 
fertile land is, you may, by raising crop after crop from it, if you do 
not in some way manure it, make it in time utterly worthless. In 
that respect it is like your ox,—no matter how vigorous, well-con¬ 
ditioned and fit for labor he may be, if you work him to excess, and 
give him scanty fare, he becomes at lengih broken down and value¬ 
less. But it is not in the south alone where this species of bad ma¬ 
nagement has prevailed : The north comes in for her full share ; and, 
strange as it may appear, for all intelligent farmers now acknow¬ 
ledge the necessity for occasional manuring, and a judicious rotation 
of crops, this suicidal practice still obtains upon some of what is 
the finest land in New-York. 
The western pari of this state is noted lor raising large crops of 
wheat, and we often hear farmers from that portion of it boast of 
the wheat crops they have successively taken from particular fields. 
This for a time may do very well, but according to every principle 
of correct farming, it is miserable management; and although the 
occupant now is rich, he will leave a legacy of an exhausted farm 
to his son or successor. There is no such thing as an inexhaustible 
soil. It is contrary to every principle of reason and experience. 
The valley of Egypt, from the time of Moses, has been celebrated 
for its fertility, but remember even in his time it already required 
the overflowing waters of the Nile to make it produce its usual 
crops. If a dry season intervened, and the waters, the cause in 
part of its fertility, did not rise to their usual height, that season was 
one of suffering for want of bread. The farming history of western 
New-York, as to the fertility of the soil, has been the history of 
every portion of the state, as it was successively cleared of its tim¬ 
ber, and put to the purposes of cultivation. What is now called 
the old settled part of the state was formerly thought the best of 
land; for a succession of years wheat crops were raised from it un¬ 
til it became exhausted, and wheat could be raised no more. This 
it took years to accomplish; but no matter how rich the virgin soil, 
it was ultmately effected, and what was cnce thought the finest 
land in the world, was at last, by this miserable management, made 
almost worthless. 
Emigration to our western country owes much to this circumstance, 
and many of its present possessors must follow the example of our 
predecessors and former neighbors, and remove, or adopt some other 
mode of farming, by which the errors of former years can be remedied. 
We have now found out, that it requires all of the intelligence, 
judgment and skill that we can command, to bring back in part, our 
farms to the state of fertility which nature gave them; and to ac¬ 
complish this, we feel the necessity of the most judicious and syste¬ 
matic management. To begin, we find ourselves deficient in all the 
requisite information upon which a correct judgment can alone be 
formed; we find that we ought to know the nature of the soil 
we cultivate, what plants grow the most vigorously in it, and what 
artificial aid we can give to make it the most productive. But are 
we competent to this ? Can we analyze the different soils without 
a due course of education 1 Can we know what plants do best up¬ 
on particular locations without we understand their nature 1 Can 
we provide the best and cheapest food for them, until we learn what 
enters into their combination, what they take up and what they 
leave behind 1 The sciences unquestionably throw great light upon 
these as yet to us hidden laws of nature, and until farmers derive 
collateral aid from them we can only follow in the footsteps of our 
fathers. They, however, had advantages which we do not possess ; 
they had a virgin soil to repay them for their agricultural labor. 
We have the exhausted fields which we are endeavoring to re- 
Vol. L P 
store to fertility, and at the same time provide bread for our fami¬ 
lies. 
Thus far we have met with some little success, for we see indica¬ 
tions that our efforts have not gone entirely unrewarded ; that our 
land begins to yield more bountifully, and that it can be made capa¬ 
ble to do much more. It is not long since it was a general observa¬ 
tion, that land did not yield over three per cent interest; and if we 
could not believe the veracity of those who made the assertion, we 
had at least numbers to endorse it. It was unquestionably true, 
land at that time was not as productive a source of revenue as mo¬ 
ney at interest. Could the price of land at that time be otherwise 
than low, when it did not yield a sufficient return for the investment 1 
No man bought it unless he was by occupation a farmer, or compel¬ 
led to take it in payment of a debt. But, since a better, and of 
course a more productive system of farming partially obtained, land 
has risen in price. It is more sought after, and it is becoming more 
fashionable for gentlemen to cultivate small farms. Formerly grain 
was almost the only source of revenue derived from a farm, and, as 
the most of these had become impoverished by bad husbandry, the 
quantity raised was of course small, and the per centage profit bore 
no proportion to its first cost. This management was in time found 
very unprofitable. A different system has been introduced, and the 
good effects from it are already decisive. To stock your farm, feed 
up your hay, straw and offal, and thus realize two profits—the first 
upon the increased value of your stock, the second from the sale of 
your grain. By this practice you are enabled to make a much larger 
quantity of manure ; and from this, again, not only raise an increas¬ 
ed quantity of grain, but enrich your fields, and thus extend the 
number of your stock. Our best farmers adopt this practice, and 
the success that has attended it in the county of Dutchess is the 
strongest proof of its correctness. 
It may be inquired, however, what kind of stock is the most pro¬ 
fitable. That must depend in a great measure upon the adaptation 
of the soil to raise natural or artificial grasses, and the nearness of 
the larm to a good market. On some, a dairy may do best; on 
some the fattening of cattle ; on others, the raising of sheep : but 
the last is attended with the least trouble. The market for the car¬ 
cass or the wool is almost always at hand, and upon the whole, par¬ 
ticularly in the interior, generally the most profitable. A farm cost¬ 
ing $30 per acre, and adapted to the raising of grass as well as 
grain, will support sheep enough to pay the interest on the invest¬ 
ment, and all expenses, besides raising about as much grain as if 
there were no sheep upon it. This is not idle assertion. We have 
abundant evidence of the fact, and can cite chapter and verse to 
substantiate it. It is this practice that makes the Dutchess county 
land sell for $70 per acre, while other land, equally as good, but not 
so well cultivated, and whose capabilities have not been so well 
ascertained, will not sell for half the price. A farm cultivat¬ 
ed in this way is constantly improving. The hay raised on it is not 
sold, but it is fed to the sheep, who in return give a large quantity 
of manure, so that as much grain as was formerly raised upon the 
whole, is, by this course of tillage, grown upon half or one-third of 
the ground. Of this method of farming, we have had some experi¬ 
ence, and every ton of hay ted out upon a farm to this kind of stock, 
is worth to the farmer at least $20—how unprofitable then for them, 
for want of this stock, to sell their hay for $5 per ton, for in this 
way they meet with a double loss : they do not get the full value of 
their hay, and the manure it would produce from their not feeding 
it, is an entire loss. The growing of wool in this country cannot 
in many years be overdone. There are large quantities annually 
imported, and must be for some time to come. We have over thir¬ 
teen millions of inhabitants, and raise but about fifty millions of 
pounds of wool, which is not four pounds to each inhabitant. A 
much larger quantity than this is required for our present popula¬ 
tion, and with all our facilities for keeping sheep, the low price of 
our lands, and a climate that seems to suit their constitution, we 
ought to make it an article of exportation, and not of importa¬ 
tion. 
Salt to Farm Stock .—That salt is beneficial to domestic animals, 
seems to be universally admitted, by the general practice of giving 
it to them at shorter or longer intervals. We have abundant evi¬ 
dence that it tends to preserve health, and even to restore it in ma¬ 
ny cases, when it has been impaired. Its effects upon the animal 
system are believed to be pretty uniform upon man and beast. 
What then is the form in which we prefer it 1 With our daily food. 
