The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1852-02-11


May your rich soil.
Exubennf. natures better blessings psor
Der every land" l tf D.
WILL GOOD FARMING Payi
We are sometimes provoked by the
receipt Of letters from farmers who
coolly undertake to set Us right with
regard to what we may term high and
low farning-they considering our no.
tions. occasionally indicated in the
Tribune. entirely erroneous, or at least
unsuitcd to the present condition Of
agriculture in this country. Land is
so cheap and labor so DEAR" say they.
I" that we can't afford to farm so high
as the English and Belgians do" Now
half the men who talk In this way have
no clear idea of what superior farming
really is. but, il pressed for dehni-
tion of it, will dilaIe ON the unproduc-
tive expense of white-washing trees,
planning boards for fences, or something
Of the sort. which has nothing to do
with farming at all. A farmer, good
or bad, may expend SO much capital in
mere fancy work as to render his farm
unproductive and even an expense to
him /; but that does not invalidate the
sound general rule, that anything can
practically be WELL done, that can be pro-
ffabiy done at all. To this rule we
know no exceptions. One mans land
may be unsuited to corn, or wheat, or
barley, SO that he ought not to attempt
the growing Of that particular grain !;
but II it will pay for growing any crop
of it at all, It will pay for growing a
good one. II it will not pay for such
a crop. it will not pay for any; and
should be turned over to something Of
which il piA yield generous return !;
and, in default Of that, given up to pas
turage and got into wood as soon as
possible. To raise twenty. bushel
crop Of Indian corn ought to be indict-
able as perversion and waste Of the
bounties Of Providence.
The farmer who ploughs (once) five
or six inches, and manures feebly, and
gets in his crop late, and about hall
cnltiyates it through the summer, and
gets meagre half crop in the fall, (un-
less cattle happen to break over his
shiftless fences and eat it up mean
time,) not only dooms himself to fence
and watch and pay taxes to twice or
thrice the extent he ought, but he is
committing a Aagrant crime against
Nature BY exhausting the soil of its vir-
tues. An official survey Of our nation
al agriculture, estimates the deteriora-
tion Of the soil Of this country since its
settlement by white men, as detracting
at least FIVE hundred millions Of dol
lars from its value! All observing
men are familiar with facts which sus-
tain this estimate. There are whole
counties, and almost whole States,
which would once have yielded an ave.
rage of twenty bushels of wheat or for
ty Of Indian corn to the acre, yet would
now (unmanured) average not more
than twenty OF corn, and not more than
five Of wheat. "The virtue has gone
out of Them" They have been gradu.
ally robbed Of their fertility bv false.
miserable, wasteful culture. The ele.
ments essential to the production Of
the cereal grains have been gradually
, distracted, and not returned nor re.
placed. They have been sent off tt
the cities, to Europe, and have Ions
since served to fertilize British fields
or have been thrown from the docks
or crept through the sewers of our sea
board cities into the ocean. Every dol
lar of the diminished value of the sol
is so much robbed by Incidence and ig
norance in the past from the patrimo
! ny Of future generations.
i Every acre Of land under cultivation
9 ought to be worth more after eacl
!. years tillage than it was before. |
+ may not, indeed, be in condition to pro
! duce larger amount Of that same crop
! !, if SO, that is ample reason for changin,
to something else. To say that far
h mer can't afford the fertilization ant
Is culture needed to obtain fifty bushel
y of corn from an acre, but can afford t
! !, own, fence, till, and pay taxes on it 70
twenty bushels, is an amazing. absur
dity. Star cfthe West.
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Corn SowED FOR FoDDER.-Who ha
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