New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-08
NATIONAL AGRICULTURE.

The total value OF the annual prouucts vi
the Soil of the United States is now about
One Thousand Millions of Dollars and no
one who knows what Science has done tor
Agriculture will doubt that the same
amount of Labor which is now employed
in producing this aggregate might be so
applied as to secure total product thirty
per cent. greater, or One Thousand Three
Hundred Millions. But scientific, skllltul,
thorough Agriculture always employs more
Labor than the shiftless, slouching sort too
generally prevalent +; and it is certainly
within bounds to estimate that our Agn-
culture might be so improved as, by the
help of additional labor now unemployed
and unproductive, to give an additional
product of fifty per cent. or Five hundred
Millions per annum-an achievement which
would double the wealth of the country
every eight or ten years. Whoever will
carefully review the Agriculture of single
State, or even an average County, IN any
part of the Union, and estimate how much
its product might be enhanced by lrriga-
ton, Manuring, Deep Flowing, Draining
&c., will perceive that our calculation is
far within the truth.
But suppose that only half of it, or an
addition of Two Hundred and Fifty Mill
ions per annum to our annual Agricultural
Product, is attainable, what an immense
addition to our National wealth would
thereby be insured Four-fifths OF this
would probably be permanently added to
the wealth of the country-that is, the
farmer whose annual product should be
swelled from $1,000 toS $50, or from 81
600 to $4,000, would not eat or drink up
the surplus, but would invest the greater
part of it in new buildings, fences, barns,
implements, furniture, &C., &C., giving
profitable employment to mechanics and
laborers and largely increasing the business
of merchants and the incomes of profess
sional men. Such an addition TO the annual
product of our Agriculture would increase
the consumption of Manufactures, domes-
tic and imported, in far greater ratio, since
from the annual product of every farm the
food of those making a living on it must
first be taken for home use, atfording no
business or profit to any one else' leaving
only the surplus to form the staple Of
Trade; and an addition of twenty-five per
cent. to the annual product of each farm
would probably double the annual ex-
changes and general trade of the country.
This addition may speedily be made
through the diffusion of science aid knowl-
edge. There is hardly township wherein
vast elements of fertility are not now ly-
ing useless or running to waste which
might profitably be secured and applied.
And, while individual and local effort
must mainly be relied on to forward this
as all other Improvements and reforms, it
seems but reasonable that the Federal Gov
eminent should do little-the very little
that is asked of it-toward the accom-
plishment of the good work. A National
Bureau of Agriculture, costing at the outside
100000 per annum in all, might procure
Seeds, Plants, Trees, &C., from India, Aus
tralia, the Pacific, &C., which would be
worth millions to the Country. The cost
of two voyages to China would naturalize
the Tea shrub or tree among US, determine
what American soil and climate are best
adapted to it, and supply us. after few
years, with home. grown article probably
cheaper and certainly more wholesome (be-
cause unadulterated) than the Chinese leaf.
Beet Sugar is rapidly suPplanting in Eu-
rope that produced from the Cane, though
the latter is sold far cheaper there than it
ever was till very recently our prairies and
intervales are naturally better adapted to
Beet culture than most of the lands de-
voted to it in Europe. In Fruit culture
we have done nothing as yet to what we
must and will do; there are scores of deli
cious Fruits well adapted to one or more
of our climates which are hardly known
among us even by name. Many farmer
now possesses treasures in Mari or Muck,
Plaster or Phosphate, of which he isutterly
ignorant, and likely to remain so. We all
need light; but Agriculture does not keep
pace with other departments of Produc-
tive Industry in improvement, primarily
because it has not received equal attention
from those capable of shedding the light of
Science upon its onward way.