New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-02-05
Exhaustion OF the Soil.

= emDOulcs truln5 Ol
his Working Farmer
the yer y srave't and most pressing impor-
lance. We are now annually exporting
and wasting n, produetip. cdpacity Of our
soil. and thus lawn . the foundation of fu-
ture poverty and famine II is all wrong
for nation to export W .'eat' Corn Cot
ton, Tobacco, &c. by whol, 'Ssic as tina
Country is now doing, importing IN return
very little that can add to the prod cuVe
capacities of the earth; but to pursue this.
suicidal course and at the same time neg
lect and waste those elements OF tertiliza-
ton which we do not export, as too many
of our farmers now do, is madness-destruc-
ton. We talk of the rapidly increasing
wealth and productiveness Of our Country,
rarely considering that every year is de-
priving the soil of properties essential to
thrift which millions of dollars would not
replace. One of the most careful, thorough
and extensive observers we know estimates
the Soil of this Country as now worth, In
the average, Five Hundred Millions Of Dol
lars less than it was when Plymouth was
first settled by Europeans; for although
few spots have been increased in fertility
since then, the great body of the cultivated
soil has been permitted to deteriorate until
immense tracts which would once bear
bountiful crops Of Wheat will not now re-
turn the seed, and whole States which
would once have averaged forty bushels OF
Corn to the acre would not now average
fifteen bushels And yet the ruinous pro-
cess goes on, unheeded by the great mass
and unresisted except by the few. Shall 1t
be left unchecked until whole States are
exhausted and gradually depopulated =
Hear Prof. Mapes's forcible appeal
EXHAUSTION OF THE SOIL
Whom will our statemen awake TO the neces
sity of viewing Agriculture as fundamental source
OF our national prosperity So long as we have
more land in the Far West to cultivate, the wear
ing ont of that in the older States seems TO Do
looked upon as a matter of little consequence.
The older States with ali their best lands la cuiti'
walton do not at this time raise hat'the quantity
of wheat they raised a few years ago; and the
consumers in the Atlantic States are paying near
w as much for transportation on large proportion
Of their breadstufs, as the farmers who grow It
receive for their grain. The wheatcrops OF
New.York are less than half per acre what
they were 80 years ago, and still no ell
ort is made TO disseminate the necessary IN
formation for arresting the evil. Stern neces'
sity has rendered such action as we shall soon
require in this country, imperative in Europe
Ohio no longer surprises the seaboard farmers by
large crops, and the same Course oil cropping ana
modes of tillage which have impoverished the
lands of the older States, are daily producing sim
liar results in the Far West. Many farmers are
still living and cartiDg manures upon their poor
farms who in the Mohawk and Genesee Valleys
threw their manures into the river when younger
this removal Of manures from the vicinity oil
their stables and throwing 1t into The river was
called Bee, and the Winter time was chosen Tor
this suicidal frolic. Whole neighborhoods would
get together with their teams and sleds Tor this
purpose, and the same practices are now followed
in the Wabash Valley; the tributaries oil
the Mississippi and other rivers are suffered
to drain the very essence OF our future
prosperity, and TO convey 1t to the ocean
Natures laws tell us that the decay Of the crops
of one year furnishes the raw materials for the
creation of those of the next year; but we must
retain the results of this decay and not suffer them
topartfrom us-present individual enterprise being
answered, must rot cause usto forget the debt we
owe to posterity-and that we have no moral rrgU
to permit the ultimate constituents OF plants, ire
agricultural capital Of our country TO find its way
to the ocean, or into the ocean OF atmosphere. by
sheer ignorance and negligence. 1t may be an
swered that Europe, when necessity demanded,
toundthe mesnG of restoring her worn out soils to
fertility-this is true but how will the same
means continue through all timei II il had not
been for the importation from our Continent sof
breadstufls, raw materials of all sorts, guano.
saltpeter cubca inter OF Peru, and other materials
the results Of which by decay and by direct appli
cation to their soils recovered their lost ultma ate
constituents of plants. they would long ere this
have suffered from famine. Every bushel OF corn,
bale of cotton barrel OF resin or other commodity
We now send to Europe, and which are con-
sumed there places Just so much OF the ultimate
constituents Of plants in their soil for continued
and repeated reproduction, and removes It
from ours If the importatons were at all equal
TO the expectations or if we took the same care
as they do Of what we have, or import, our ex-
haustion would be slower bat as it is we are
rapidly parting with our capital, never 20 return.
The ultimate constituents Of vegetables pay at
least one hundred per cent profit when reused
for producing new growths, and this may be re-
peated almost yearly; but part with them TO the
ocean through rivers and they are lost forever.
All this may appear very farcical 10 the casual
observer, but nevertheless it is true and the
falling off of our crops is only unobseryed from
our great area Of territory and consequent con-
tinuance Of supplies. Should we be contented TO
render it necessary each year 10 bring our sup
plies further from the seaboardl Or should we
adopt the proper means to produce an excess by
keeping our Eastern lands in their present or In
an improved condition? and thus, by cheaper
products, be able TO compete with Europe as
manufacturers, &c.
Individual farmers may continue to move West
as they wear out their lands; but as nation,
what effect must this have on our general pros
perity? .,.,
/. may, be answered tAat as our enterprsins
farmers look for better lands, the tide OF emigra.
ZION comnosed of European agriculturists, viii
take their places and thus restore the old lands
by European styles of farming. 1.-THE best farm
ers Of Europe were among those who come, this
might be true; bat those who understand their
-. in the laborara only