Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1836-08-26

where lands are cheap and cultivation
imperfect, but as a country Progresse
in age, and lands advance IN price
it is discovered that the product an
profit of the farm depends more upoI
its cultivation than the number OF acre
it contains. At the first settlement o
this country by civilized men, it wa
a wilderness, and lands were purchases
Of the natives, for articles Of clothing
and ornaments of triA ng value. Thi
induced our ancestors to make them
selves proprietors of large tract
Of wild land without reference
10 their ability to cultivate them
The consequence was low standard
Of husbandry But as these EXTENSIVE
tracts were afterwards divided and
subdivided, as the increase of popula'
ton and the exisencies Of families re-
quired, it began 10 raise and has been
slowly progressing until it has arrived
to its present state, bot which is very
far from what it was in the old world
long before the chrlstian era.
1t is supposed that agriculture has
never been in a more A Iurising condl
tion and cultivation carried on near
er perfection than it was in ancient
Rome five hundred years before
Christ. The principal assignabIe rea
son for the agricultural prosperity OF
Rome was the size of farms which
were circumscrbed within very mar
row limits. The farm of MaItuS
GURUS Dentalus, one Of the greatest
Roman farmers, consisted Of but four
and half English acres, he was three
times chosen consul, the highest Ordi'
nary Office in the state, aud for a time
commander in chief of the Roman
army and yet he derived all bis chief
substances from his farm. For his
sPleudid victory over PyrrhHs he was
offered more land by the government,
but he declined IL; assigning as a rea'
son, that should he even aspire to
more wealth and possession than he
already had he should become Ombi'
tious and consequently a dangerous
man 10 the liberties Of his countrymen.
That celebrated Roman farmer Gin,
cinuatus about whom so much is said
Of his being called from the plough to
the command of the Roman army, had
only two aud a'quarter acres of land.
His original farm contained seven
judgera about four and half acres, one
half Of which he had been compelled
to dispose Of tOraise money to pay the
debts Of an improvident sou.
But nothing will better illustrate the
importance Of perfect cultivation, and
The astonishing productive power of
land under it, than the slery Of Paridus
the Roman vine dresser. He had a
vineyard and two daughters. At the
of the eldest he allotted her
One third Of the vineyard as her por.
lion, and astonishing as it may seem,
succeeded in making the same crop
Oftwo thirds, which he had formerly |
made from the whole. At the mar.
rage Of the other daughter, he appor.
Toned to her the one half Of the re.
and yet his crop was undi'
ninished.
We are not among the number who
believe ii necessary for our young az |
'icuIturists, TO penetrate the western
for the purpose Of obtaining
subsistence or accumulating wealth
We are not Of the opinion Of The FAR.
ner who removed one hundred miles
rom all of his neighborS to avoid be-
ng annoyed by them, and when one
If them located himself within fifty
niles Of him considered il an insult,
md said he did not thank him for
down right under his nose.
Neither do we believe that war, pesti-
ence, famine and crime, are necessa.
y, as checks upon the population. and
of redundancy which the
products of the earth would not su3
ain.
But we DO evan believe that in ;ne
present. state Of the arts, rural economy
nay be carried to such an extent, that
even New England might sustain, in
CON parative comfort and OtHuence
more than fifty times its present pop |
That we nave not overrated the pro
ductive power Of land, perfectly cult
vated, is evident from the fact that
large provinces in India, with a popu
lation Of from four to six hundred in
habitants 10 the square mile, are sup.
ported by agriculture.
There is also an island on the eas
tern coast Of China, containing one
l.