Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-08-20

Rural economy with is not science, nor study bu
an empirical art. Hence account is taken Of thu
matter consumed in the growth Of grain, grass roots
physical labor every thing; principles and natura
laws nothing in farming operations Nor Is this ne
elect of principles confined to agrcuturists All tina
subsist the fruits Of tage and husbandry in cite
and villages equally unmindful Of their abiding dut
to feed the land that feeds them Not to do this is
impoverish the soil millions of acres and TO de
gree that farmers cannotpossbly remedy by the aid
imported homemade manures. One hundred million
under cultivation continue deteriorat
until all classes that compose twenty FIVE millions
population who fed and clothed by the products
the SOIL cooperate in giving back to the land its nds
pensabe elements Of fertility So long these are
wasted in cities and villages the arated and depasurec
fields and forests that yield the grain meat dairy pro-
ducts, fruits vegetables sugar. rice, cotton tobacco
max, 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 to market is Of
simplest Of all mechanical operations and therefore il
is that the most stupid slaves and ignorant whites
successfully employed in agriculture. Towear out the
natural frtfuness of land requires little thought and
knowledge as TO wear out shoes hats poughs hoes and
Skill in production without making full and ade-
quate restitution is simply an advanced state Of the art
Of transforming soils which naturally fertile into
sterile old fields and deserted plantations ert of
killing land has several stages in its development
we nave PASSED the first into the second in such old States
as New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Mary
land The second stage differs from the frst in this
that whereas in the first stage farmers apply manure
rs general rule to lands, but draw the bounty
of Nature for their crops they old lands in
the second stage some amendments such lime ashes,
oone-dust gypsum, guano, and stable manure 10 form
part OF their harvest Such elements Of grain tobacco
and cotton as were not consumed at earlier date
now being removed by deeper ploughing and more tho
rough cultivation h
One predict the result Of this advanced practice
with much certainty any future eclipse of the
or moon may be foretod.
To draw potash and bone-earh from the subso as we'll
as from the surface soil, to be wasted in cities where
crops are so largely consumed is simply to inct deep
instead OF shallow serility the land 80 treated The
available supply of the ingredients that impart fruitful
to the earth being known and quite mited in guam
tty II would not be difficult to 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 - per cent per annum for the increased area
brought under cultivation since June, 1850, and the i'm
proved lands of the country may new be set down at
l25 600 acres OF these it is large allowance to
say that onefth % 600 acres holding their
own IN the elements Of crops leaving acres
subject to constant deterioration In the national work
OF exhausng land not the cultyators OF the soil alone
but all consumers and exporters of agricultural 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 dis
ant markets the precious atoms that leave their farms In
cultivated plants The return of these needful atoms 70
recuperate the soil whence they taken depends
more the action Of those that dwell III cities and vii
lagos than the action Of farmers Tie latter cannot
use what the former have wasted and destroyed Iris
IN cities that both the study and the practice of good
husbandry must begin before they are possible in the
country, society is formed. 1t is the supreme
folly OF the denizens Of American cities with their nay
gable rivers and lakes their canals and their arreach
ing railroads. that desoaes the land which supports their
commerce. their manufactures their trade their arts and
their professions because they greedy grasp all that
age and husbandry produce, and give nothing back to
renoyae the impoverished fields of the planter and farm
err. 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
cultivaors 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 10 exchange Such is pre-
sent system of rural and political economy. 1t makes
he land support all classes and all interests while it
ioes nothing whatever to maintain the enduring fruitful
less of arated and depastured fields.
improvements in agricultural machinery in poughs,
utivators and reapers in roads and other facilities for
crops TO market helps to hasten the de-
,etion Of al the farming lands in the Republic. Has
he planting of cotton and corn impoverished millions of
acres at the South When this operation extern
'iyey practised in the year 1852? How the APP
pheaon OF twelve pounds Of potash TO planted
IN tobacco or wheat in Virginia Maryland, and form
Ing part of two hundred pounds Of Peruvian guano
make good the loss of thrysx pounds of potash
ed from the acre in the CROP To put pound Of bone
earth, magnesia, potash, ammonia, chlorine into the
EARTH and take three pounds out by deeper and better
mens OF crops in the SOIL At best, it is but the con-
sumption Of ones capital in premature dividends his
Large immediate profits, whether in agri
culture manufactures banks railroads, almost
always deceptive, and frequently lead to unwise action
from misplaced confidence. L.