Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-09-25
AMERICAN NORTHUMBERLAND 1T IS; AND
WHAT 1T OUGHT TO BE.
FOR THE NATIONAL IsrELLronscrR.

returns OF the agricultural statistics OF all the
States and Territories, as prepared at the Census
Office for the year 1850 These statistics present many
interesting and instructive facts and indicate remarka
BILE progress in the producveness Of the rural industry
of the country, The capital employed in agriculture,
including the value Of the slaves SO engaged exceeds
five thousand million dollars OF this large sum- the
returns show that 537 are invested in land
This consists of ls,435,178 Of "improved land,
and 1874 500 OPS acres Of unimproved land" Proba-
bly, something two-thrds OF the labor of the nation
is employed in tillage and husbandry
American agriculture is distinguished by two promi-
nent feauresits producveness Of crops and destruc
tveness of soil Crops large in the aggregate and
times abundant per acre. grown by thoughtessy
Stunning the elements of fertility which Nature has stored
up in the virgin lands of this continent Before any
have correct idea of what American agriculture is
he must carefully investigate the facts which show how
much of the atoms in the surface of the earth that form
six hundred million bushels of maize one hundred and
thirty million bushels of wheat over three thousand
million pounds of seed cotton, two hundred million
pounds Of tobacco sugar and other crops in proportion
is annually removed from the araed fields pastures and
meadows of the United States more than is restored to
them again The difference in what the soil loses by
tage and in crops, and what gains in manures ndi
Gates the true character of system of husbandry
Rural economy with is not science nor study but
empirical art. Hence no account is taken of the
matter consumed in the growth Of grain, grass roots,
cotton, tobacco, and other cultivated plants. Art and
physical labor every thing principles and natural
laws nothing in our farming operations Nor is this
glect of principles confined to agriculturists All that
subss the fruits of tlage and husbany in cities
and villages equally unmindul of their abiding duty
to feed the land that feeds them. Not to do this is to
mpoverish the soil millions of acres and to de-
gree that farmers cannot possibly remedy the aid of
imported or homemade manures. One hundred million
acres under cultivation continue to deteriorae
until all classes that compose twenty-five millions of
population who fed and clothed by the products of
the soil, cooperate in giving back to the land its nds-
pensabe elements of fertility So long as these are
wasted in cities and villages, the arted and depastured
fields and forests that yield the gram meat dairy pro-
ducts fruits vegetables, sugar, rice, cotton, tobacco,
flax hemp, wool wood lumber and timber consumed
suffer needless damage. To extract the few precious
atoms that form cotton, bread and meat out of the
face of virgin soil and send them market is of
the simplest of all mechanical peratons and therefore
is that the most stupid slaves and ignorant whites
so successfully employed in agriculture To the
natural fruitfuness Of land requires little thought and
knowledge to shoes hats, ploughs hoes and
axes. Skill in production, without making full and ade
quate restitution is simply advanced of the art
OF Transforming soils which naturally fertile into
sterile old fields and deserted plantations The art Of
killing land has several stages in its development and
have passed the first into the second such old States
as New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Mary
land The second stage differs from the first in this
that whereas in the first stage farmers apply manure
general rule new lands but draw on the bounty
of Nature for their crops they now old lands in
the second stage amendments such lime ashes
bonedust, gypsum, guano, and stable manure to form
part of their haryets Such elements of grain tobacco
and cotton not consumed at an earlier date
being removedby deeper ploughng and thorough
cultivation.
One predict the result Of this advanced practice
with much certainty any future eclipse Of the
or moon may he foretold;
To draw potash and bone earth from the soil as well
from the surface SOIL to be wasted in cities where
crops largely consumed is simply to inct deep in
stead of shallow serility on the land so treated The
available supply of the ingredients that mpart fruitful
ness to the earth being known and quite limited in GUAM
tity it would be difficult devise system Of agri-
cultural statistics showing from year to year whether the
improved lands Of State county lost gained in the
raw material for making human food and raiment Al
lowing q per cent per for the increased area
brought under cultivation since June 1850, and the
proved lands Of the country may be set down at
l25OOOO 900 acres. OF these, it is large allowance to
say that Oneffh 250O000O acres are holding their
in the elements Of crops leaving 900
subject to constant deterioration In the national work
Of exhaustng land the cutvators Of the soil alone
but all consumers and exporters Of agricultural staples
participate equally in the wrong done to common
mother earth Those that grow many million tons Of
grain cotton tobacco, hay, &C. forced send dis
ant markets the precious atoms that leave their farms in
cultivated plants The return Of these needfu atoms
recuperate the soil whence they taken depends
more the action Of those that dwell in cities and vii
lagos than on the action Of farmers The latter
use what the former have wasted and destroyed 1t is
in cities that both the study and the practice Of good
husbandry must begin before they possible in the
country, as society is formed. 1t is the supreme
folly Of the denzens Of American cities with their nay-
gable rivers and lakes their canals and their rreach
ing railroads that desoate the land which supports their
commerce their manufactures their trade their arts aud
their professions because they greedy grasp all that
tage and husbandry produce and give nothing back
renovate the impoverished fields Of the planter and farm
er The true condition Of American agriculture is not
understood Statesmen, innocent Of any knowledge Of
the science expect impossibes both Of the soil and its
cultvators Farmers required to give for indefinite
ages to inland and foreign unlimited quantities
Of human food and the material Of clothing taken
out Of the surface Of the ground and receive nothing
but dry goods, groceries, hardware farm implements
and household furniture in exchange Such is our IRE
sent system Of rural and political economy II makes
he land all and al