The Democratic sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1852-1853, 1853-11-30
VOLUME 20, NO. 81.

have driven the greater share OF them Z
the West Here, on your deep, virgin soils
they renew their round Of exercises in falls
husbandry, wasting their manures beeaus
, 'this land is rich enough, and exhaastinl
their soils by one yraiH-crop after another
until they run down their capacity fron
thirty bushels per acre of Wheat TO ten Q
Corn or five Of Rye, when they will be Of
again for Iowa, Missouri or Oregon. Whel
they shall have got so far West as to fine
land that doesn't need nor reward fertilizine
and will not be worn out by their mode o
farming, trust they will come to full stoI
and send for all their relations. .... sH1
Let me be rightly understood: l do no
condemn a man for olUning more land, in {
new country, where land is cheap, than he
is now able or willing TO cultivate. / know
perfectly well that the system of thorough
culture that succeeds so admirably in Bel
gum isnot yet adapted to Indiana. Where
good fenced pasture may be bought for eigh
or ten dollars PEI are, you cannot afford tt
keep up your cattle and cut all their food
though that is excellent policy in its place
1t ensures the keeping of much larger
stock on a given area, beside enrlchlng the
land far more rapidly. But it requires vast
ly more labor, and where a.week'S work is
worth an acre of arabic land, it won't pay.
What | insist OH is simply this: Land wortd
cultiOating AT ALL Il is wortb cuttiVatiag
WELL. Almost half the soil in my section
never ought to feel the touch Of plow-mon,
unless for the purpose of striking fire o@ some
of its abpnJant rocks. Such land should
be kept covered from too particular observa-
ton by growth of wood giving variety and
freshness to the landscape, and persistence,
ifnot stability to the streams. But wher-
ever an acre is broken up, it should be with
n fixed resolve to extract good crop from
it, and to use all the means reqisite to that
end. A field of spindIing yellow corn, or
stunted, struggling cats, or blosSoming buck
wheat that seems to have been compassion
ately soUn for the accommodation Of broken
winged bumbe-bces, is apalpahle impeach-
mcnt of the capacity of its owner to manage
land at all. If it can do no better than this.
he ought never to have broken it up. If he
wW DO such stuoid thing he ought at least
to keep his folly out of sight from the pub
lie highway. .. .H ~
presume careful investigation would dis
cover the existence Of a pretty general Law
| of Proportion between the market value of a
farm and the amount of labor that should
be annually devoted to its cultivation, apart
from enduring Improvements. Let us sup
pose a farm of one hundred acres to be
worth this yeal $40 per acre, or $1,000 in
all; then we will say one mans laboror three
hundred days work per year, worth $500
in all, might be as much as could be profit
ably bestowed on its mere cultivation. But
roads ana markets improve, until this land
is worth $50 an acr', or the fam $4,000;
and now much more of it may be taken aRt
of forest or pasture and devoted to grain and
Vegetables, involving an increase of the Ia.
Dor expended on it to three mems steady
work, or 5000 per year. So, as the value
increased to $40, $40, and at length $10C
per acre, the labor employed thereon sholud
be correspondingly increased, whether by
Il division Of the farm or otherwise. | dc
not profess to indicate the precise proportion
Of present labor to Valuation of fixed Capt.
tai, but only that there is such a proportion,
and that Economic Science will yet ascer-
Jafn and dc clare it. "'
Itis not necessary that land should be
cultivate in order TO be productive. The
young growing wood is earning money foI
it's owner, as well as the corn field, He
who has land that he does not need, vet
wishes to keep for his children, can hardly
serve them better than by inclosing it etfec-
tually, planting it with locust. hickory, an!
ls.her clsoice timber, and leaving it undis.
turbed I'll his sons may require it. But
even left in open, naked common land, gen
orally tends to improve from the renovatina
reclaimed "old-felds" of the South beal
witness, L. i5only poorly farmed land tina
is blight to its posSessor and dScredi
to the country Ii all the labor now deyo
ted to farming throughout the Union were
wisely, concen rated on ore half the land
our annual product would be much larger
our lands would appear far more productive
and valuable, while the timber that we are
now wasting and destroying, as though
/ Prophet Miliei speedy conaagration Of the
world we're a demonstrated variety, woult
be gradually Ee,investng the earth will
beauty and graceful majesty which Cabo
or john Smith may have realized, but o
which our children seem destined to have
none but hearsay evidence, .t,..... ..
4 hold that Farmers may also learn 0
Mechanics and Artifcers to estimate NOR
+ highly and Justly than most of them now d.
the Importance and necessity Of SCIENCE, 0