Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1855-11-09

90
rich deposits Of iron ore, and Goals, one may con-
hdently ask is there any other country which con.
tains or produces more greater diversity OF
things to usrain life 10 bring money! And then
let me enquire OF you, North Carollnlans what better
country do uou want than your own! hold it is
good enough-too good, am tempted to say, for sim
full man. ii requires only to be dressed and titled to
give nearly all we want on EARTH and much for our
fellow man less happy situated There may at some
time be stint below usual abundance but we
mood never fear a famine here while we work In
deed that calamity hardly hefall country where
maize-which we call Indian contiguous to pertec-
ton There is no record of dearth, approaching
famine where The principal crop was maize, as 1T is
here. Our climate and soil are so congenlal 10 the
other cereals that failure of that crop from an un-
propitious season is necessarily perceived in time to
provide the others, some OF tbem as substitute
Such is North Carolina! Here she is, and let any
man say, who can, whether she be not In every
thing as she has now been held up to him. Then,
why should any leave her? | trust the period of
her peoples DESERVING her and seeking-what they
never found-a better place, is near its end, and that
they will cleave TO her and exat her by uniting IN
an effort to render her, by increased fertility yet
more teeming in her productions, and to embellIsh
her with durable and tasteful habitations, gardens
and lawns, with substantial farm houses, with Or
chards and every other thing that make her
beautiful in eye and fasen our affections on her,
True the soil is not what it once was and our task
is not merely to preserve fertility, but in great de-
gree 10 restore that which has been less ex-
hausted. We must not blame our ancestors too has
tily or too severely for the system under which the
rich vegetable loan they found here used up
The labors and hardshipS of settling wild country
leave but little opportunity for more than preparing
for cultivation and cropping such parts of the land
as are absolutely necessary for manta ming the colo
| n.y. Land was in plenty-timber incumbrance,
and labor and costly SO that, in reality, it
was CHEAPER and the sounder economy in them 10
bring new fields with their exceeding superficial fer
| ri ino cu1tn her man VIII
they had reduced by imperfect tillage and scourg-
| ing cropping Throughout America the land suffer-
ed by the exhaustng operations of the settlers and
their descendants for several generations but that
Can only 60 on to certain extent, and then 1t must
stop. When getting TO be so reduced to pay
for cultivation necessity forbids further reduction
of the soil, and then the process of regeneration be-
gins. At first ii proceeds slowly but every degree
of impE ovement furnishes for still greater, and
accordingly it increases its pace, and by improved
culture, manures, rotation of crops, and the like it
ends in productveness beyond lis original capa-
city.
If not to the lowest certainly to very low condi-
ton much of the land in the State had been brought;
and the time came, when, if improvement ever
| to be made, ii would be commenced. | use the ex-
preston, 81 the time came instead of g has come -
because it is joyful fact, that some persons in vari
parts Of the State, many in some parts, have i'm
proved and continue to improve their lands and in
crease their crops-profting much thererom in their
fortunes and setting the of examples by which
we ought also to profit. We have all heard for
years past, that the era of improvement had begun
in the great and wealthy county of Edgeeombe; and
learn from unquestionable sources that the ntell.
gent and enlerprisng planters Of that county have
been rewarded by signal success. | do not propose
to enter into detail of their system, further than to
say that it consists chiefly in draining by bitches
and entertainments, making and applying cOmposts,
the of guano and plaster OF Paris, and the field
pea ameliorating crop, as well as food for
stock advise every one, however, who has the
opportunity, by minute enquiries to obtain from those
who have put this system into detailed lntorma
ton respecting il; and feel no hesitation in pre-
ferring request to the planters of Edgecombe, as
pubc-sprited gentlemen, to communicate through
our agricultural periodicals, the history of their i'm
provements, and their experimens-as well those III
which they failed as those in which they succeeded
with all other matters which may he useful to THEN
brethren in other sections
E In other parts of the country, with which | am
: more intimately acquainted, much improvement has
been made 10 my own knowledge. Of the counties
ranging along our northern border from Warren to
Stokes, inclusive, have had for about fifty years
considerable knowledge. That the principal
region of the tobacco culture. According TO the
course of that culture, wherever it prevailed in oul
early annals, the country was cut down rapidly
cropped mercilessly with view to quantity rather
than quality then put into corn and exhausted quick
! ly and almost entirely. When first knew it, and fol-
long time afterwards, there Astounding eviden
ces of former fertility and existing and sorrowtul Ste
rility. Corn and tobacco and oats were almost the
only crops. But little wheat and cultivated grasses
! were TO be seen in the country. Warren and Gran
vile bought the little flour they used from Orange
wagons. Large tracts were disfgured by gals and
frighful gullies turned out g old-felds,' with
broomstraw and old field pines for their yes
ture instead of their stately primitive forests or rich
crops for the use of man. This is sad picture. But
it is true one: and there more fact than figure
, in the saying by many whose work of destruction
rendered that region desolate and who then absn
!, doned it, that it was L" old and worn out: Happily
some thought its condition not hopeless, and cher
shng that attachment for the spots of their nativity
within these few years-since the time of river
igation and railroads began-set about repairing the
ravages of former days. Do you suppose they were
content with less crops and therefore that they cul
tvated less land than before, leaving large area to
natural recovery by rest? That was not their
course. They did not give up the culture of tobacco
but greatly increased it, and also; and they
added to their rotation, wheat, when so much more
easily and cheaply carried to market But they
greatly increased the collection and application OF
manures obtained from abroad and protected the
land from washing by judcious hillside trenching
and more thorough blowing The result has been,
that many old fields have been reclaimed and brought
into cultivation, the lands generally much Increased
IN fertility, and of course in actual, and market val
le in the like proportion while the production has,
probably doubled in quantity and value ia all the
range of counties mentioned Such examples are
, honorable to those who set Them and useful to
others, who desire TO improve. For that reason
have thought it proper thus to signalize them, as
, would gladly do Others which may, and hope do
exist, were as well aware of them contenting my.
self with adding only, that think see the dawn of
better day in the county of my own residence aud
those contiguous. For our present purpose, it is
sufficient that we can hence learn that the effects of
the most in udicous and destructive may be repaired
by good husbandrY in the of fertilizers saved on