Lynchburg Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1829-185?, 1852-02-16
AGRICULTURAL.
Exhau,stiOu OF Soil.

The process of exhaustion that is car
ried on with the soil of this country we
may not realize until there ceases to be any
new land to occupy. 1t is conceded that
in New ork, where few years ago the
= average product was thirty bushels Of
wheat per acre, it is now reduced to fifteen.
1t is said by some philosophers that there
is nothing lost in nature-that the burning
wood ascending to the heavens in smoke,
returns to earth in rain, aud the carbon
difused in the atmosphere is absorbed by
growing plants. But what shall return to
our over taxed soil the wheat and the cot
ton which they yield. when they, the es-
sence OF the soil. have been carried beyond
the seal This suggests the strongest
argument in favor of diversifying our labor
SO us to tax the soil less. and against that
dclusive theory which would encourage
the export of the truest wealth Of the land,
to bring back that which yields us no
return in kind, but only barrenness.
Let us observe the contrast on this point
between this country and England. She
exports iron and it manufactures, tin, cop
per. coal and salt-all raised from under
the surface Of the earth, and manufactures
Of cotton and wool. She imports vast
quantities of food from her less wise neigh
bors. all Of which is consumed by her
workers in metals, cotton and wool, and
part Of which is returned to the soil. ena-
bling it to produce ,enfold more per acre
than it otherwise would do. We on the
contrary import metals and manufactures
that never can minglc with the soil, while
we export in actual vegetable, fertilizing
matter. the bulk Of hundreds of thousands
Of acres annually. England not only re-
tains all the elements of fertilization exist
ing in the refuse Of her own crops, but in
that Of her imported food. The maxims of
theorists however instead of encouraging
the creation of consumers in part in the
place Of producers alone, compel Ameri-
can Farmers to export large portion of
the fertilizing elements of each crop to
nourish foreign production.
The agriculturist will see the force Of
this contrast and the importance of this
consideration, when Informed that the
value Of the manure annually used in the
British Islands is sel03,369, l39, or FIVE
hundred millions of dollars. Thisis more
than the entire value ofthe exports OF Bri-
fish produce and manufacture.
Tho South annually exports of Cotton
alone one thousand millions of pounds,
which is so much taken from the soil, Of
matter compounded of the elements of fer.
tility, never to be returned. The North
snd West annually export us many pounds
OF breadstuffs and provisions likewise new
er to be returned-exccpt when the deficit
is felt and realized, by the expensive i'm
portatIon'of guano or artificial manurcs,
without which the exhausted, worn. out soil
would have to he abandoned because it
had ceased to support its owner. Much
Of the older settled part Of Georgia has,
mistakingly we think. been called worn
out We confess that the sterile appear.
ancc Of many of its red hills and old fields
3 would convey the impression, still there is
much innate value there yet, and we trus,
that our people will guard themselves
against this system Of depletion and ex-
haustion before it is too late. Let us hus-
band the remaining powers of the land,
that out plains and hill sides may be ever
green to us, and that we need not abandon
them to more thrifty succeeding race
Sac. Rep.
. .