New Series. ALBANY, FEBRUARY, 1851. Vol. Till.—N o. 2. 
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How to Improve Worn-out Lands. 
Editors Cultivator —The subject of improving 
old lands, is one fraught with such interest to farm¬ 
ers occupying the eastern and part of the middle and 
southern States, that there is little danger of too 
much being said about it, provided what is said is of 
a practical nature. Before proceeding to the details 
of the subject, I wish to call attention to a fact which 
appears for the most part to have been too much 
overlooked in this country, it is, that a certain 
amount of capital is always required to conduct suc¬ 
cessfully a certain number of acres. Arthur 
Young, in his Farmer's Calendar , gives the amount 
of capital, laborers, utensils, &c. &c. necessary, or 
supposed to be necessary, to conduct successfully an 
English farm, but this data would perhaps be of lit¬ 
tle use in this country. There is no greater barrier 
within my knowledge, to the success of our farmers, 
than this same want of capital. So far from having 
means at their command, we find, on looking around 
us, in many sections of the country, our farmers 
heavily in debt, and paying a heavy interest. Their 
resources, therefore, are hampered in the start; and 
nothing but hard labor, and the most rigid econo¬ 
my, enables them to get hold of anything with which 
to improve. 
To what cause are we to attribute this want of 
means ? Is it because farmers are in very many in¬ 
stances poor ? I answer, no. No man is poor who 
owns 20 or 30 acres of land within a day’s journey 
of a good market, and who has a cash capital of 
$1000; but a man maybe poor, very poor indeed, 
to all intents and purposes, who owns 100 acres of 
land in such a situation, without a dollar of cash 
capital to improve it with. This then is equivalent 
to saying that I consider the passion for owning a 
great number of acres, one of the greatest misfor¬ 
tunes to our working farmers. How common is it, 
to hear a man who owns 30 or 40 acres of land, 
spoken of as one who has only a potato patch , and 
yet perhaps this very man on his potato patch, raises 
more than his neighbor who owns 100 acres. De¬ 
pend upon it, this is all wrong; the best farmer is 
not the man always who has the most land, but the 
man who raises the greatest amount from the least 
number of acres and with the least expenditure. It 
is far easier and better to get fifty bushels of corn 
from one acre than two. If I were called upon for 
advice by some one who owned 50 acres of land, and 
who was about to buy 20 more, I should certainly 
say,—rather sell 20 of what you possess, than buy 
20, unless your cash capital warrants it. With 
money in hand, stock can be bought on the most fa¬ 
vorable terms, and just at such times as it is wanted. 
With money in hand, labor can almost always be 
obtained, just when it is required. With money in 
hand there is no need of ‘‘store bills”—goods can 
be bought cheaper and better for cash. 
But I cannot pursue this matter here: my present 
purpose is to say something about the improvement 
of old lands. The subject should be considered un¬ 
der two heads. The improvement of sandy or light 
soils; and the improvement of clay or heavy soilsi 
I shall take the first for the present article, endeavor¬ 
ing to keep as near as possible to practical experience 
without favoring one theory or another. 
What is the first thing necessary for improving a 
worn-out sandy soil? I answer, to change its tex¬ 
ture, and bring it into, or approaching, that state 
called loam. How is this to be done? I answer, 
by a mixture of heavier soils, such as clay, and by 
the application of barn-yard and other manures, in 
a proper manner. Any man who has an accessible 
swamp upon his farm, containing good muck, has 
the means in his power of enriching his soil. If he 
has not one of his own, perhaps some neighbor, 
living at no great distance, may own one; and if it 
be large, he may have enough for his own use and be 
induced to sell a certain number of loads yearly for 
a small compensation. But as it is not always in 
our power to obtain clay or muck, we must mainly 
depend upon manures. The collection , preservation 
and application of manure, then, becomes a very im¬ 
portant matter to the farmer. 
The Collection of Manure. —About this, I be¬ 
lieve we are, most of us at least, very far out of the 
way. There is a waste of manure on most of our 
