The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1869-03-05
FRIDAY. MARCH 5. 1869.

with our land divided up among th
: whole people, say that our soil is on
} State that the agricultural and minin
{ interests underlie all others, and const
tute, literally, the ground work on whic
our prosperity rests.
And first, of the advantages to agFi
culture, An accurate survey woul
put it in the power of every man G
common intelligence to determine th
true value of bis land, a benefit of whicl
no State sincerely jealous of the interest
of its people, should fail to confer. Obi
lands are now, to large extent, eve
iu the mineral regions, rated at thei
J mere surface value, while beneath then
} may lie mineral treasures which, proper
lily developed, would increase thei
Ivaluation q hundred fold. Many o
our broken and thin lands, poorI1
adapted for agriculture, doubtless hav
subterranean wealth, which, if accred
tied, would place them among the mos
desirable in the State. Others of th,
same character may contain bsneatI
Their surface, or lie near to, beds 0
mineral manures, which, if applied
would greatly improve their fertility.
The evil which annually results from
the want ofthis accurate knowledge ofth,
Underground resources of our lands, i
far more than is usually imagined. It'll
notsaying too much to assert that enough
money is every year wasted by oul
lpeople, in the prosecution of scheme,
which every geologist would pro
nounee necessarily abortive, and which
a geological survey would prevent tc
pay for such a survey many times over,
In some counties of the State there has
been expended in boring for coal, below
the base of the coal series, and where
its discovery was, of course, impossible,
money enough to have paid for a sur
vey of those counties. It is not i'm
probable that the fruitless search for pc
treleum, saltwater and coal in Ohio,
has cost sum equivalent to the entire
public debt of the State.
On the other hand, the advantage to
farmers, by reason of the increased val
uation of their land arising from authen-
tic knowledge of mineral deposits, must
be very great A Tennessee paper re-
marked, incidental to the survey of that
State, that the Development of minerals
in some portions of East Tennessee
caused the lands to advance almost in
credibly in value. missouri Report p.
81. An account Of the results of the
North Carolina Survey states that dur
ing the first year it developed the exis-
tence Of copper and gold ores, drew to
them the attention Of capitalists, and
Increased the revenues Of tbs State to
five times the cost of the whole survey.
The second year brought to light i'm
mense seams of bituminous coal of a
most valuable quality. In Kentucky,
lands which were rated at so many
cents per acre, we're advanced, by the
discoveries of the survey, to a valuation
of as many dollars per acre. Your
committee are informed that the results
of surveys in. Pennsylvania, Missouri,
Michigan, and other States, have been
equally satisfactory.
Other advantages to agriculture
more direct and no less important, may
be expected from an examination Of the
capacities and adaptations of the soils Of
different districts, and of the distribu-
ton and application of our mineral fer
tilizefs, Of which there is great increas-
ing need. In spite of all that has been
gained by experience, and Of all the i'm
pFovements given to agriculture by me-
chanieal skill, our annual product has
not been increased, either per acre or in
the aggregate, but, during the last two
decades, has exhibited a steady aud
startling decline. This, too, in the face
of a rapidly increasing population, re-
quiTing every year an additional amount
for consumption, and by SO much d.
minishing our surplus for export. The
losses in the wheat crop during the five
years Immediately preceding 1857 were
nearly twenty million bushels. In 1850
the yield was seventeen bushels to the
acre. In 1856 the yield was less than
fifteen bushels per acre, and $50, 600
acres less we're sown than in 1850.
From 1850 to 1858, both inclusive, the
crops averaged lac bushels per acre,
and the average of 1854 should, at the
same rate, have produced q, ,54s, 65l
bushels; instead Of which the crop was
but j, ,8IO,11O bushels, being a de-
crease from the average aggregate of
0, ,729,5 bushels. The crop of 1856
was less than the average from 1850 to |
1853, by 6,247,357 bushels. The
Losses from 1853 to 1856, both inclusive, |
we're l9,6I7,246 bushels, or about IA
per cent Of the entire amount produced
from 1855 to 1856. (See Ag. Rep. for |
1852 Between 1852 and 1862 no
single crop yielded IA bushels per acre,
and the average yield during the years
lS6475-8 was but 7.57 bushels per acre.
Il is estimated that during those years
there was an actual deficit of three mil
lion bushels annually below the amount
required for bread within the State.
During the present decade the maxi
mum acreage Of wheat was grown in
1882, and the minimum in 1857, the
Inference being almost million aores.
fet it does not appear that in 1851 (
,ther human food crops were grown to
IN extent corresponding with the dimi-
lution since 1852, the total acreage of
hose crops in 1861 being nearly half a
million less than in 1852. (See AZ.
Rep. 1879
This decrease in the agricultural pro
luct Of Ohio may possibly be attributed, /
n part to other causes; but there can
,e no reasonable doubt that it is largely
lue to an actual decline in the produc- II
i've power of the soil, Other States
md countries, some Of them among the K
ichest in the world, have experienced K
he same decline, and it may be obsery-
d wherever the appliances of nature
nd of science have not been seduloqsly &
10 repair the waste Of cultiYa- !
ion. Many provinces ofthe Old World, d
nee noted for their fertility, are now t
sterile, and to this exhaus- /
ion of the soil, according to Baron !
iebig, may be attributed the gradual a
population Of the countries bordering t
n the Mediterranean. Spain, for ex- t
mple, was once one of the richest g
in Europe; but now the land p
! some of her provinces only yields a e
rop once in two years, and IN Andalu- a
ia, only once in three years. A ike d
hnnnr,,nnnr h. hnnr- hrn-..,I =. 49,. II