Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1859-03-12
MISCELLANY.
Our Greatest Waste.

No one who has read carefully any adj
Nanccd work on political economy, treating
OF the resources of our country, can doubt
for an instant that our soils are beino too
rapidly exhausted, and that the time has
come when Science and Industry must
join for a gigantic effort, for an economical
reform, and prevent the enormous waste of
fertility which is annually taking place.
we boast of our industry our agricultu
raj skill, of the endless resources of our
country, as though we were at the end of
progress But we are as yet only at the
beginning, or rather in one of those transi
'ion stages in which labor is actually slip
ping backward. We arc not through the
b of the art of making two blades of
grass grow where one grew before We see
whole districts yielding scanty crops where
science has proved that abundant crops may
be grown, and we find farmers pushing by
thousands to the virgin soils of the Far
West to exhaust them in turn, as the old
lands were exhausted before The history
OF worn out lands in Virginia, New York
and Ohio, if really known, would be one of
the most melancholy ever written. 1t
would be history of waste without parcl-
lei, OF a drawing of life and strength from
the land, and taking it to cities and throw
ing it into rivcrs; and the result is an in
crease of hungry mouths and decrease of
food for them
We have no faith in that most dismal
and false of all philosophers, Maltllus but
we think 1t high time that some great cen
cral movement were set afoat for the pur-
pose OF eftccting reform in this particular.
and OF returning to the country its fcrtil
lzlng principles. The following extract
from letter by the great chemist, Licbig,
fully explains what is wanted:
" am firmly of opinion, that if Eng
land wishes to remain an agricultural coun-
try, she must use as manure the soil, and
similar rcsidues produced in large citics.-
Ihls necessity would be increased in the
event OF war with America, when the sup
Plies OF guano would cease. The price of
corn depends upon that of guano, and it is
most unnatural that, in a country like Eng
land, the production of corn and meal
should be SO dependent ON the supplies of
foreign manure"
Al! over America and in England we see
this waste going on People settle natu-
rally on the borders of streams, and tile
richness of the soil is taken from every fer
tile spot in the country to be thrown into
themj to poison the rivers, injure the
health, and thus inaict harm in a double
manner.
An elaborate report on the drainage and
sewerage of Philadelphia, published some
two years ago. and on which we comment
cd at the time, presented masterly account
OF the present evils Of our wastcful system,
and the necessity of doing something to
remedy it. Those who have seen the pain
tul economy of many nations in Europe, or
who have read the curious and interesting
accounts of the saving practiccd in the
Fast, particularly in China and Japan, have
learned what may be done, and what, were
1T now done By resolutcly applying money
and labor, would be wonderfully advanta-
geous to the country. Asit is we annual
ly throw into every great river millions of
d1llIrs.-IIka1elphju Eccnin1 Bulletin.