The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-06-28
farm aud 6araen.
Agricultural Admiration.

OF any piece VI SAO''hu w INC 0ulIlNdIIOn
Of any single crop, and what variety and
order of crops will best bring out the
CAPABILITIES of soil and climate in the
production of wealth, may seem a simple
thing, but it is not. 1t is so far from
being a simple thing that race Of men,
not barbarous, but, as we call them,
civilized, may inhabit region for an in
definite period and this thing not be done
at all. Such may be the lack of enter
prise, such the force of tradition, that
crops may be cultivated from generation
to generation, and from century to CEN
fury, while yet the question has never
been fairly determined whether the ag-
riculture of the district might not adj
vantageously be reinforced, and the soil
be relieved, by the introduction of new
crops, or even by throwing out the ira
dictionary crops altogether.
Gonzales, in his "Tour of England"
(1730) wrote: And my tutor told me
that a good author of their own made
this remark of Wiltshire, that an OK left
to himself would, of all England, choose
to live in the north of this country, a
sheep in the south part of it, and man
in the middle of both, as partaking of the
pleasures of the plain and the plenty of
the deep country"
The remark does not exaggerate the
nicely of those distinctions which deter
mine the range of the profitable cultiva-
ton whether of the animal or a vegetable
species. A certain rough convass of the
agricultural capabilities of any district
is easily made, and process of elimina-
vi FOL Nv
crops are discarded, for once and for
all, as hopeless. But among the great
variety of crops which may be cultivated
in any region, Justly to discriminate be-
tween the good and the very good, and
to reject those which, though within the
limit of tolerance, as the money writers
say, are yet, on the whole and in the
long run, not profitable, demands long,
careful, and elaborate experimentation.
Beyond this is the selection of varieties
within the retained species, in which
alone may reside the possibilities of sue
cess or failure; the fortunate choice of
varieties, among the almost indefinite
number, often making all the difference
between profit and no profit.
10 do this work satisfactorily requires
great mental enterprise and what we NAV
call curiosity, natural delight in expert
mentation, a ready apprehension com
blned with persistency, in due measure.
and with sound Judgment. To do this
work both well and quickly, being neither
slow in testing new and promising sub
Iects, nor easily discouraged by the &C
cIdents which beset initiation and expert
ment, nor yet reluctant in drawing the
proper Inference from failure, would task
the intellectual powers of any race oil
men.
In, Europe the knowledge of soils and
of climate, on which the cultivation of
large estates or personal properties is
based, Is the accumulation of hundreds
OF years of experience. In the United
States the course of settlement has called
upon our people to occupy virgin terri
tory as extensive as Switzerland, as Eng
land, as Italy, and latterly as France or
Germany, every ten years. And it has
been IN meeting the necessity of a rapid,
rough-anG-ceady reconnaissance of n W
soils under varying climatic condition
that the character of our cultivating
class, as indicated under the previous
title, has come most strikingly into play.
During the colonial period the work of
experiment had so far advanced that
every crop but one (sorghum) now re-
cognized in the official AGRICULTURAL
statistics Of the country was cultivated
within the region east of the Alleghanies.
In the long course of experiment which
had resulted In the naturalization of the
crops now so we'll known in New Eng
land, the following had, according to
Professor Brewer, been tried and rejected
from our agriculture, viz, hemp, indigo.
1i5e, cotton, madder, N Let, spelt, lentiis,
and lucern.
But while so much of the adaptations
OF our general climate to agriculture had
been thus early mastered, much in the
way OF studying the agricultural carabili-
ties OF the Infinite varieties of soil sub
ject to this climate remained to be done
within the region then occupied; while
with every successive extension of the
iFonuer OF settlement the same worl, bas
mad to be done for the new fields bronobt
under cultivation. To say with what
q1ick-wittedness and openness of vision
what intellectual audacity vet strong
conmon-sense, what variety of resource
and facility Of expedients, what persis-
tency yet pliancy, the American farmer
has met this demand Of the situation
would sound like extravagant penegvric.
NO other agricultural population Of the
ho Il