Lynchburg Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1829-185?, 1851-05-19
AGRICULTURAL.
From the Patent Office Report.
&gric uIsHral Education.
By DR.. LEE.

By DIR. LEE.
Since 1928, whenJudgc Buelintroduced
ti,e first bill to establish an Agricultural
College IN the State Of New York by leg.
isla.igcail, constant efforts have been made
Ito render The study of rural economy as a
science, not less than its practice as an art
popular in this country. Twenty-scycr
years have now elapsed-a whole genera.
ton has passed of the stage-and New
York, with her fvehundred thousand cul
tivators ofthe soil. is still without the frs,
agricultural school worthy of the name
nor is any other State in better condition
Dark as this view Of agricultural education
really is, it is the darkness that precedes
the dawn of "a bright and happy day. Men
who have labourcd for the Improvement OF
Agriculture, and the elevation of Agricul
turists, for a quarter of century, with
little Of hope and less of pecuniary reward
now realize the beginning Of an suspicious
change in public sentiment. Thanks to
Agricultural journals and societies, the
people viii soon discover that labor and
capital, devoted to tillagc and husbandry,
are as worthy of legislative consideration
as labor and capital employed in mining,
commerce, and manufactures. So soon as
this truth shall be fairly co:nprehended,
the long struggle of the friends of improve
ment viii be crowned with success, and
the victory won over both ignorance and
its tradiiions
IL is indeed wonderful how long those
enlightened, reasoning farmers, who, like
Washington, cherish due respect for their
high calling, have had to beg and beg in
VAIN Of State Legislatures, and Of Con-
grcss, for little assistance to prevent the
universal impoverishment OF American
soils. Whatever has been done to arrest
the exhaustion Of aratcd lands has been ef-
iected not only without due aid from Gov
ernmcut, butin spite Of mistaken policy,
whichencourages the removal oil all the
clcmeats OF bread and meat from cultivated
fields, and their speedy transportation be-
You'd the possibility of restitution. Meth
er the earnest Recommendation of the Illus
trious iarmerof Mt. Vernon, nor the prayers
oftwo generations of agriculturists, nor
the painful fact that nearly all TILED lands
were becoming less and less productive,
could induce any Legislature to foster the
study Of agriculture as a science Hap
plly, this term, when used in connection
with rural affairs, is no longer the subject
OF ridicule. Some pains have been taken
in this REPORT, to prove that one thousand
millions Of dollars, iudiciously expended
Will hardly restore the one hundred million
acres Of partially exhausted lands III the
Union To that richness ofmould and strength,
OF fertility Tor permanent cropping, N&ich
they possessed in their primitive state.
The continued fruitfulness of the earth is
an interest far greater and more enduring
ihannny form ofgovernment.
1.-THE twenty-five millions Of people now
IN the United States may rehtfullv con.
sumo the Natural ferti'iy Of one-third of
the arabic lands Of the country, the forty
four millions who viii be here twenty-five
years bence may properly oxtingush the
produciIyeness of the remaining two-thirds
of.all American territory.
A great principle is involved in the
sc.ence of agriculture. which reaches
through theindefnite generations, and forms
the basis ofall possible Improvements, and
ofthe highest hopes ofour race. All adj
Nancement isimpracticablein a country that
closely approx'mafes the condition of de-
tert AS a nation OF ffrmers, is it not time
That Sse inquire by what means, and on
what ferpas, the fruitinlness of the earth,
and the heslth and vigor of its invaluable
products, may be forever maintained, if not
forever improved
These are questiosis ofuniversal concern
nent, 10 the careful and rigid investigation
OF which no man should refuse to lend
listening car. A governmental policy
which results IN impovcrishing the natural
fertility Of land, no matter by what popu-
lar name tits called, must have an end. 1t
Is only a question Of time when this truly
spendthriit course. this abuse of the good
nessot Providence shall meet its inevitable
punishment. To show the necessity of re-
form, plain estimate has been made,in the
chapter on agricultural Statistics to
prove that we annually waste enough Of
,he clements OF bread, without which not
tue nrst kernel OF corn can he formed, to
produce one thousand million bushels of
tins important staple.
The Board Of agriculture ofthe State Of
Cmo estimates the crop Of corn in 1910
within the limits ofthat State, at seventy
million bushels; and it will hardly be or.
iravagant TO say that the farmers of Ohio.
Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin
export million tons of breadstuffs and
provisions where they import one ton of
the atoms dawn from their virgin soils, to
form agricultural products. Can it be said,
IN truth, that million tons of bread and
msat are produced from sothingl Win it
be contended that the earth within the
reach Of good ploughing contains an un-
limited amount of the precise things con-
sumed to make the plants, whose organic
and inorganic elements arc taken from the
sod and never restored? II this be true,
then all fertilizers are not only necessary,
but absolutely worthless. This cannot be
50, for lands that, seventy years ago. pro-
sdnced from twenty-five to thirty -ive bush
els OF wheat in the State of New York now
yield only from six to nine bushels peracre;
and IN all the old planting States, the re
rulfscf exhaustion are still more extensive
and snH more disastrous.
\ lack Of mental culture and discipline
the mous serious impedin@, to the ditlu-