New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-04-02

what we may term High and Low Far.-
ing-they considering cur notions OCCASION
ally indicated in The Tribune entirely ar
roneous, or at least unsuited to the present.
condition of Agriculture in this Country.
"Lsnd is so cheap and Labor so desr,"
say they" that we can't afford to fam 50
high as the English and Belgians do."--
Now half the men who talk in this way
have no clear idea of what superio fa-m-
ing really is, but. if pressed for denn ga
of it, will dilste on the unproductive =
pense of white washing trees, planlss
boards for fences, or something of the sort.
which has nothing to do with Farming at
all. A farmer, good or bad, may expcnd
so much capital in mere fancy-work as to
render his farm unproductive and even an
expense to him but that does not iEvsh-
date the sound general rule that dry assss
can pro6tably be WE'LL done Iohieh can pref
itably be done at all. To this rule we know
no exceptions. One mans land may DO
unsuited to Corn, or Wheat, or Barley, 80
that he ought not to attempt the growing
Of that particular grain. but II IL ,csu Pay
for grotcing ANY crop Of IL at all, y 'csu
pau for grolcing a GOOD one. If 1t will NOS
pay for such crop, it will not for any;
and should be turned over 10 something of
which it ,riH yield generous return; and.
in default of that, given up to pasturage
and got into wood as soon as possible. To
raise a twenty. bushel crop of Indian Corn
ought to be indictable as a pervcrsion aud
waste of the bounties Of Providence.
The farmer who plows (once) FIVE or six
inches, and manures feebly, and gets in his
crop late, and about half cultivates it
through the Summer, and gets a meager
half-crop in the Fall, unless cattle happen
to break over his shiftless fences and eat it
up meantime) not only dooms himself to
fence, and watch, and pay taxes to twice
or thrice the extent be ought but be is
committing fragrant crime against Nature
by erlausting he Soil Of its virtues. An
official survey of our National Agriculture
estimates the deterioration of the soil OF this
country since its settlement by white men
as detracting at least Five Hundred Mil
lions of Dollars from its value All OBJ
serving men are familiar with facts which
sustain this estimate. There are whole
Counties, and almost whole States, which
would once have yielded an average of
twenty bushels of Wheat or forty Of In
dian Corn to the acre, yet would now (un-
manured) average not more than twenty Oh
Corn and not fiva az Wheat The virtue
has gone ont of them They have been
gradually robbed of their fertility by false
miserable, wasteful culture. The elements
essential TO the production of the cereal
grains have been gradually distracted, and
not returned nor replaced. They have been
sent of to the cities, to Europe, and have
long since served to fertilize British fields
or have been thrown from the docks, or
crept through the sewers of our seaboard
cities into the ocean. Every dollar of the
diminished value Of the Soil is so much
robbed by Incidence and ignorance in the
past from the patrimony of future genera
tons.
Every acre of land under cultivation
ought to be worth more after each years
tillage than it was before. IL may not, in
deed, be in condition to produce a larger
amount of that same crop; if 80, that Is
ample reason for changing to something
else. To say that farmer can't afford tho
fertilization and culture needed to obtsin
| fifty bushels of corn from an acre but can
afford to own, fence, till and pay taxes ON
it for twenty bushels, is an amazing alb
surdity.
Prof MAPEs of New-Jersey, in his
Working Farmer for April, thus bears
testimony to the effects of science in i'm
proving the Agriculture ofthst State
within the last three years we have visited
many farms Ia New Jersey, and some OF the own
ers Of these farms sent certificates OF results 70
| Trenton. One represented that under our adj
| vice he had added the missing constituents 10 his
soil, at an expense Of only o. l2i per ecre. with
proper tilsge, and produced, in consequence, the
| following crops Corn 1873 bushels Of ears per
acre where formerly, with much larger expendi-
ture for manures, but 30 bushels OF shelied corn
/ had been produced. Potatoes 3l0 bushels per
acre Mangold wurtzel is tuns per acre, and 9TH
1 err crops in proportion. Another 10 member OF tho
Rouse OF Assembly represented that on piece OF
ground In Passaic County which had been consid-
cred Of very inferior quality and unworthy cult
walton for corn he had rsised, by adding the miss
ing constituents ofhis soil, under our adysement,
l3s bushels Of of corn per acre, and that his
crop Of long orange carrots averaged 600 bushels
per acre, and that the expenses for fertilization
were less than for the ordinary method BY barn
I