The organ of the temperance reform. (Cincinnati, O. [Ohio]) 1852-1853, 1852-11-12
From the National Intelligencer.
AMERICAN AGRICULTURE-wHAT IT
Is AND WHAT IT OUGHT TO BE.

Few know what American agriculture is,
and fewer what it ought to be. The journal
Of the United States Agricultural Society con.
tains full returns Of the agricultural statistics
of all the States and Territories as prepared
at the Census Office, for the year l $50. These
statistics present many interesting and in
structive facts, and indicate remarkable pro-
gTess in the productiVeness of the rural in
dustry ct the country. The capital employed
in the agriculture, including the value of the
slaves so engaged, exceeds five thousand mil
lion dollars. OF this large sum, the returns
show that 1926, 925 ,537 are invested in
land. This consists of llS, ,435, ,l7S acres of
improved land" and lS4, ,596,025 acres of
"unimproved land" Probably something
over thirds of the labor Of the nation is
employed in tillage and husbandry.
American agriculture is distinguished by
two prominent features-its productyeness Of
crops and destrUctiveness Of soil. Crops large
in the aggregate and sometimes abundant per
acre, are grown by thOughtlessly consuming
the elements of fertility which Nature has
stored up in the virgin lands of this continent
Before any one can have a 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
VI Nubdby UVCE LuItb buUubduu ullllOu DOuuub
of tobacco, sugar and other crops in proportion
is annually removed from the arated fields,
pastures, and meadows of the United States,
more than is restored to them again.
The difference in what the soil loses by TIL |
lage and in crops, and what 1t gains IN ma |
nures, indicates the true character Of our sys-
TEN of husbandry. Rural economy with us is
not a science, nor a study, but an empirical
art. Hence no account is taken of the matter
Il -, bna arrotvfh nf rrraiu
cotton, tobacco, and other cultivated plaRts.
Art and physical labor are every thing; prin.
ciples and natural laws nothing in our farm
ing operations. Nor is this neglect Of prin-
ciDles confined to agriculturists. All that
subsist on the fruits Of tillage and husbandry
in cities and villages are equally unmindful Of
their abiding duty to feed the land that feeds
them. Not to do this is TO lmpoverish the soil
over millions of acres, and to degree that far
mers cannot possibly remedy by the aid Of i'm
ported or homemade manures. One hundred
million acres now under cultivation must con-
tinue to deteriorate until the classes that COM
pose our twenty five millions OF population,
who are fed and clothed by the products Of the
soil, co operate in giving back to the land its
indispensable elements Of fertility. So long
as these are wasted in cities and villages, the |
arated and depastured fields and forest that |
yields the grain, meat, dairy products, fruits
vegetables, sugar, rice, cotton, tobacco, 1lax,
hemp, wool, wood, lumber, and timber con-
sumed, must suffer needless damage.
To extract the few precious atoms that form
cotton. bread and meat, out of the surface OF
virgin soil and send them to market, IS one OF
the simDlest of all mechanical operations and
therefore it is that the most stupid slaves and
ignorant whites are SO successfully employed
in agriculture. To wear out the natural fruit
fulness of land requires as little thought and
1rroa aet n Out ehOps hats niOuuhs
hoes, and axes. Skill in production, without
making full and adequate restitution, is sim
plV an advanced state of the act of transform
ing soils which are naturally fertile into ster-
lie old and deserted plantations. The art Of
killing land has several stages in its develop
ment; and we have passed the first into the
second in such old States as New York Mas
sacbusttts, Pennsylvania, and Maryland
The second stage differs from the first in this;
that, whereas in the first stage farmers apply
no manure, as general rule, to new lands,
but draw on the bounty of Nature for their
crops, they now use on old lands in the sec
ond stage some amendments, such as lime,
ashes, bone dust, gypsum, guanO, and stable
manure to form part of their harvests. Such
elements of grain, tobacco, and cotton as were
not consumed at an earlier date are now being
removed by deeper ploughnig and more
thorough cultivation.
practice with as much certainty as any future
eclipse of the sun or moon may be foretOld.
To draw potash and bone earth from the
subsoil as well as from the surface soil, to be
wasted in cities where crops are so largely
consumed, is simply to inflict deep instead Of
shallow sterility on the land so treated. The
available supply Of the ingredients that lmpart
frutfulness to earth being known and quite
limited in quantity, it would not be difficult
nf ofrripp lfurol atafiefina
showing from year to year whether the i'm
proved lands of State or county lost or Orga-
nized in the raw material for making human
food and raiment. Allowing % per cent. per
annnm for the increased area brought under
cultivation since June, 1850, and the improv-
ed lands of the country may now be set down
at 1876 900 900 acres. Of these, it is large
allowance to say that one fifth or 25,OOO.OOO
acres are holding their own in the elements OF
crops; leaving lOO,000,O0O acres subject to
constant deterioration. In the national work
Of ofeyhausting land, not cultivators Of the soil
alone, but all consumers and exporters Of ag-
rlcultural staples participate equally in the
wrong done to our common mother earth.-
Those that grow so many million tons Of grain,
cotton, tobacco hay &c., are forced to send to
distant markets the precious atoms that leave
tnelr tarms IN cultivated plants. The return
OF these needful atoms to recuperate the soil
whence they were takOn depends more .on the
action OF those that dwell in cities aud villages
than on the action Of farmers, The latter can
not use what the former have wasted and des.
troyed.
Its in cities that both the study and thu
practice Of good husbandry must begin before
they are possible in the country, as society is
now formed. 1t is the supreme folly Of the
denizens Of American cities, with their navi
gable rivers and lakes, their canals, and their
fsr-stretching railroad that desolate the land
which supports their commerce, their manu-.