The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1853-01-11
ion sII)G1 mn M. 1sSS. and the improved lan'

-rT-rnc cOuUtE}Slhuys uc oe15do" = Wv
900 acres. OF these, it is a large allowance
10 say that one fifth or 25,000 900 acres are.
holding their own in the elements OF crops,
leaving loo, ,O00, 600 ac:es subject to constant
deterioration. In the national work of ex-
.hansting land, not the cultivators of the soil
alone but all consumers and exporters OF aggrl. ag!
cultural staples participate equally j, tte
wrong done to our common others earth.s
Those that grows so many million tons OF
grain, cotton, tobacco, hay, SSc.i arc forced to,
send to distaut markets the precious atoms
that leave their farms in cultivated plants.
The return for these needful atoms TO reeu-
.perate the soil whence they were taken, de
penas more on the action of those that lived IN
cities and villages, than on the action OF ia far
mers. The latter cnnnot use what the fornaer
have wasted and destroyed. 1t is in cities
that both the study and the 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 Ameri
can cities, with their navigable rivers and lakes,
their canals, and their far.reaching railroads
that desolate the land which support their
commerce, their manufactures, their trade,
their arts, and their professions, because they
greedily grasp all that tilage and husbandry
produce, and give nothing back to renovate the
impoverished fields of the planter and farmer.
The true condition of American agriculture is
not understood. Statesmen, innocent of any
knowledge Of the science, except impossibities
both of the soil and IT'S cuIrTvators. FARMERS
are required to give for indefinite ages to IN
land and foreign commerce unlimited quaint.
ties of human food and the raw material of
clothing taken out of the surface of the ground,
and receive nothing but dry goods, groceries,
hardware, farm implements, and household
furniture in exchange Such is our present
system of rural and political economy. 1t
makes the land support all classes and all ill.,
terests, while it does nothing whatever to main.
tain the enduring fruitfulness OF arated and de.
pastured fields.
Improvements in agricultural machinery, in
plough cultiyators, and reapers, in roads and
other facilities, for transporting crops to mar.
ket, are helps to hasten the depletion of all
the farming lands in the Republic. Has the
planting of cotton and corn impoverished mil
lions Of acres al the South2 When was this
operation SO extensively practiced as in the
year. 1852? How can heapplication oftwelve
pounds of cotton to an acre planted in tobacco
or wheat in Virginia or Maryland, and forming
part of two hundred pounds of Peruvian
guano, make good the loss of thirty-six pounds
OF potash, ammonia, or chlorine into the earth,
and take three pounds out by deeper and bet.
ter tillage, is surely not the way to increase
the earthly elements of crops in the soil. At
best, it is but the consumption of ones capital
in premature dividends on his Investment.
Large Immediate profits, whether in agricul-
;tnre, manufactures, banks, or railroads, are al
most always deceptive, and frequently lead 10
nnwise action from misplaced confidence.