The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1840-03-10
THE FARNa HIR.
From the Farmers Companion.
SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF TIE
NEW HUSBANDRY.


NEW HUSBANDRY.
The new system of husbantlry is based upon
the belief that our lands will NOT wear out, or
become exhausted OF their fertility if they are
judicously managed; but, on the contrary, that
they may be made progressively to increase in
producr,-iu towards. 10 the husbandmnn, a nd
an benefits to society, at least for some time to
fcome.-It regards the soil ms gift of the benef
cent Creator, in which we hold but life estate,
and which, like our free institutions, we are
bound to transmit UNMPAIRED, to posterity
The principles ofthe husbandry teach
that the soil is the great abratory for converting
dead into living matter-the useless into the
nsefu-manure into plants-pants into animal
food: That plants, like animals, are organized
beings; that is, they live, grow, and require food
for their sustenance-have organs to take in
food, TO elaborate it, to transmit it through their
systems-organs of sexual intercourse, of repro.
'duction, &c. ell acting together to one end:
That plants cannot live upon mere air, or earthly
matters, as clay, sand, and lime, but that they
require, for their growth and perfection, animal
and vegetable matters: That the effect of grow.
ing and carrying off the ground successive crops
vs. to exhaust the vegetable food i'm The soil, and
that continued cropping will ultimately render
it barren and unproductive, unless we return to
it some equivalent for what we carry off.
The principles of the new husbandry also
teach, that by careful saving, and suitably aR-
plying, all the fertalizing matters afforded by
the farm; byan alienation or change!of crops, g.
by artificially accelerating reiarding the agen
cy of heat moisture, air and light, in the process
of vegetable growth, by draining, manuriHg :,
ploughing, narrowing, hoeing, &C., we may pre-.
serve, unimpared, the natural fertility OF our
sois;-and thar, with the aid of improved i'm.
piiments of husbandry, and good system of
management, we may also greatly increase the
profits OF It's culture.
These principles do nof rest upon mere ,heo
ry They have been long reduced practice,
tested, and their correctness amply verified.
They have, in their practical application. vir
tuol ly' converted Flanders into n garden and
rendered it so fertile in human food, that each
acre is said to he capable disappearing its man.
The system which these principles inculcate
las changed Scotland, in little more than half
century, from comparative steriity and unpro'
ductveness, into one of the richest and most
profitable agricultural districts in Europe.
1t has increased the products of
'ahe corn harvest, in Great B ritain, in 60 years,
from 40 to $40 millions OF bushels. IL has
doubled, trebled, and quadruped the agrscu ltu.
raj products OF many districts in our own coun-
try. It augmented the value Of farms in
some of those districts, two, three, and four
hundred per cent-from twenty and thirty dol
lars, TO one hundred dollars and more per acre.
1t has made every acre of arabic land, upon
which it has peen practised ten years, and lying
contiguous to navigable waters, or q good mar.
ke worth at least one hundred dollars, for agri-
cultural purposes