end of our course we propose to leave it. Let the stubble ground be
well turned over in the fall, to the depth of, say, six inches. It
should not be turned over until a sward of white clover has covered
the ground, which is to be produced by giving it a top-dressing of
gypsum, in the spring. Under the subject of manures the reasons for
this will be explained, when treating of gypsum. In the spring give
the ground one or two ploughings more, as the nature of the soil
may require, and of the same depth, and let the last ploughing be
just before the proper time for planting Indian corn; for this crop,
with an intermixture of other plants, is what we propose to begin
with. Say, for instance, that the intermixture shall consist of the
potato, of the pumpkin, and of the common pumpkin, a third part of
each. We propose planting these crops in drills, in preference to
hills, from a well founded conviction that in the former method
considerably more may be obtained from the ground. Let furrows be
run, at a good depth, for the drills, at the distance of about every
three and a half feet. In these furrows lay off the shortest and
best of the fresh barn dung, at the rate of about 20 wagon loads
to the acre. For the drills intended for potatoes the longer sort
of barn dung is as good as any other. If the different sorts of
barn dung can be applied to the soils most suitable for each, as is
mentioned in speaking of manures; this should always be attended to;
that is, sheep and horse dung for the moister parts of the land, and
cow dung for the drier. As fast as the dung is laid, it should be
well covered, by a furrow, moderately deep, thrown over it from each
side; but where potatoes are to form the alternate drills, let the
seed for these be laid on the dung, previous to covering; and for
this purpose, let the potatoes be cut in halves, lengthways, so as
to give each about an equal number of eyes, and then wet them and
roll them in gypsum before laying them down, which should be at the
distances of about 15 inches. The potato drills being thus covered,
by the furrows thrown from each side, the same process serves to
cover the dung in the other furrows, and thus the beds are formed
for planting the other crops in the drill method. Indian corn may
be drilled in at one operation by a drill machine for the purpose;
the same may be observed of the turnip crop, and probably of the
pumpkin; but though attended with more labour, it may usually be
expected that they will be drilled in by manual operation. We should
advise that the seed in the turnip drills be liberally strewn, in
order that if part of the plants be destroyed by the flies, enough
may still be left. The corn and pumpkin seed may be dropped at the
distances of six inches, and thinned at the first hoeing, so as
to have the growing plants of the former about a foot apart, and
the latter about 16 inches. If any vacant places should happen in
any of these drills, such vacancies may readily be supplied by
transplanting sets, taken from parts where more plants are standing
than are necessary. Any young plants may be transplanted after they
have attained a suitable size, which is usually in from two to four
weeks growth. The vacancies may be quickly filled by transplanting,
and it is a matter well worthy of attention.
The practice, lately introduced, of laying barn dung at a good
depth, and then covering it with mould to the depth of about three
or four inches, and planting the seeds over the manure thus covered,
seems to answer the best purpose for every drilled crop except
potatoes, and we would therefore recommend this method of using barn
dung in preference to every other, as far as it may be wanted for
drilled crops. In this way this manure may be profitably applied
while fresh; but in many instances we consider it more efficacious
when applied after the process of rotting or fermentation has
commenced. Such is the theory of Sir Humphrey Davy, and we have full
confidence in its correctness. When thus buried in the earth, the
growing plants, placed above the manure, have the utmost means of
absorbing all its garious and soluble parts, while the process of
its decomposition is going on.
In preparing seeds we would, as a general rule, advise to their
being soaked about 12 hours in a strong solution of saltpetre, or
of common salt, and then rolled in gypsum before being committed to
the earth. The effect of this mode of preparing the seed seems to
be, that the young plants start with more vigour, and grow larger
than they do where this treatment of the seed is neglected; and the
solution of saltpetre has the further effect of bringing plants to
maturity from one to two weeks sooner than they otherwise would
ripen.
In selecting seed for the corn crop, take such stalks as bear two
ears, and select the best ear from each of such stalks, the grains
on each end to be rejected. In all cases where it is practicable,
the seeds should be taken from the largest and most perfect plants,
or roots, as the case may be. By attending to this mode of selecting
seed the product of the corn crop in particular will soon be found
greatly augmented; a discovery, the honour of which is due to Mr.
Cooper, of New Jersey. It is said that sprinkling a little gypsum
on the silk of the ears of corn, will make them fill to the ends.
Nipping off the blossoms of the potato crop, as fast as they appear,
is found, by accurate experiment, to increase the growth of the
roots about one sixth part. Salt and gypsum have each a powerful
effect on their growth, though by applying too much of the latter
it may cause them to run too much to vines. To the corn and pumpkin
crop apply some of this latter manure after the plants are up. What
effect it has on turnips we have never understood.
In ploughing between the drills let it be to a good depth, first
turning the furrows from the plants, running about four inches from
them, and then turning the furrows back, when the hoeing and hand
weeding are to follow. The second ploughing should be similar to
the first, but farther from the plants; and in general, we believe,
it will be found advantageous to plough and hoe the crops the third
time. We have seen it highly recommended to plough among Indian
corn as late as in August. Frequent deep ploughing is certainly
the best means of keeping the ground moist, and should never be
omitted in case of drought. Ground that has become quite dry will
be found moist after a thorough deep ploughing. At all events, the
ground should be so cultivated as to prevent any weeds from going to
seed in the fall, for if this be suffered, the ground will remain
constantly stocked with the seeds of weeds.
We advise to the cultivation of the common turnip, the potato, and
the pumpkin, in the manner we have mentioned, for the purpose of
affording the early supply of food for feeding and fatting cattle in
the fall and the forepart of the winter, before the ruta baga crop
should be used, of which we shall presently speak. We also advise to
this variety of crops, in order that the cattle may have a greater
variety of food, a matter of considerable importance in feeding and
fatting cattle. For this purpose also the culture of the cabbage is
worthy of attention. Horses, and all sorts of cattle, fatten well on
pumpkins, but for swine they should be steam boiled, and the seeds
taken out, as these prove injurious to those animals, by causing too
great a secretion of urine. The seeds afford an oil equal to that of
the olive, and are well worth preserving for this purpose.
As soon as the ears of the corn crop have somewhat hardened, the
crop may be cut up and set in shocks, with the tops tied closely
together to keep out the rains, in which way the grain will harden
as well as in any other, and a great addition of fodder may thus be
acquired.
During the next season we propose to take two crops from the ground,
to wit, a crop of ruta baga, preceded by such spring crop as ripens
sufficiently early to be harvested in time for preparing the ground
for a full growth of this root. In the meridian of New York, Mr.
Cobbett says that from the 26th of July until some of the first days
in August, is the proper time to transplant this crop, the plants
for the purpose being previously grown. The method of cultivating
the crop by transplanting, he insists, is the preferable way, and
from our own experience we are fully disposed to agree with him.
Advancing to the northward, from New York, the seasons are shorter,
and of course the crop should be transplanted earlier, while at
the same time the spring crops are later in ripening. At New York,
barley could be taken from the ground in time sufficient for
preparing for ruta baga; farther to the north this could not be the
case. In the more northerly parts of this state, it would, perhaps,
be difficult to find any crop, now raised in this country, with the
exception of flax, that would be sufficiently early. The fact is, we
want a particular crop for this purpose; and that would seem to be
the new sort of spring wheat lately introduced into France, which
is there called _le ble de Mai_, in English, the wheat of May. It
is said to be a very productive species of wheat, affording a grain
from which flour is made of about a medium whiteness between that
of rye and wheat, and in that country it is fit to harvest in the
latter end of May. In this state it would probably ripen no where
later than the first of July, which would be in time sufficient
for the crop of ruta baga. Until we can procure this wheat, we can
only recommend that the preceding crop be such only as will ripen
sufficiently early, and where none can be had for the purpose, to
be content with raising the crop of ruta baga only in the course of
the season. Where previous spring crops can however be obtained, let
them be taken from the ground as quick as possible, and the ground
deeply turned over, and mellowed by three deep ploughings, then
furrowed at the distances of about 30 inches, the manure laid in,
and covered by furrows thrown over it from each side, and the plants
of ruta baga immediately set on the ridges, by transplanting, at the
distance of about a foot from each other. From our own experience we
are fully convinced that the plan of transplanting is, in the end,
much the cheapest, and most advisable. We would, however, recommend
not to transplant before the appearance of a heavy shower, but at
any time afterwards; that the plants be of good size, say of five
or six weeks growth, and that in setting, special care be taken to
have the lower parts of the roots well enclosed with earth. For
further particulars in regard to the culture of this crop, the time
and manner of using it, and of saving it, we refer the reader to Mr.
Cobbett's book on the subject, from a conviction that it is the best
essay that has ever been published on the culture and use of this
valuable plant.
It will be seen, however, that we differ from Mr. C. in the
distances in which the plants are to be set, and in the manner of
forming the ridges. He forms his ridges by four gathering furrows,
by which the ridges are each about 4 feet in breadth. We propose to
form the ridges by two gathering furrows, and at the distances of 30
inches. In England, the plan we recommend is generally pursued, and
the ridges are usually but 27 inches wide.
(To be continued.)
FROM NILES' WEEKLY REGISTER.
_Cotton, Rice, Tobacco, Sugar, Wine._
The National Intelligencer informs us that in New York 133 bushels
of Indian corn have been gathered this year from _one acre_; and 714
bushels of potatoes from one acre. This has led to the following
statistical facts.
COTTON.--In 1817 the export of cotton from the United States was
(85,649,328_lbs._) more than eighty-five million. One acre yields,
at a moderate estimate, 250lbs. of clean cotton. The whole export,
therefore, is the product of only 535 square miles: this is less
than the 108th part of Georgia, and less than the 520th part of the
cotton regions of the U. States.
RICE.--The maximum export of rice was 73,329 tierces, (in 1790,)
or (43,997,400_lbs._) nearly forty-four million pounds. This, on
an average crop, is the produce of only sixty-five square miles,
which is less than the 440th part of South Carolina, and less than
two-thirds of the District of Columbia.
TOBACCO.--The maximum export of tobacco was 12,428 hogsheads, in
1791. A hogshead is about one thousand weight; and, on average,
one acre will yield one hogshead. The export, therefore, was the
product of about 176 square miles, which is less than the 363d part
of Virginia. Each of the 97 counties of that state contains, on an
average, more than 659 square miles, viz: more than three times the
quantity of land which furnished the above export.
SUGAR.--Such is, generally, the fertility of the equinoctial regions
of America, that all the sugar consumed in France, estimated at
twenty million kilogrammes, (about 54,000,000 pounds,) may be
produced on an extent of 7 square leagues, which is not equal to
one-thirtieth part of the smallest department of France.
WINE.--About 1,600,000 arpents, or 1,350,400 acres, are in France
employed in the culture of the vine. The value of the annual product
is about 100,800,000 dollars, at about twenty cents a gallon. In
1790 Bordeaux alone exported more than fifteen million gallons of
wine. The 1,600,000 arpents are less than one 80th part of France,
and less than one 20th part of Pennsylvania.
The value of the annual produce of these five interesting articles,
may be thus estimated:
Cotton, at 15 cents, $12,847,399
Rice, $20 a tierce, 1,466,580
Tobacco, $60 a hogshead, 6,745,680
Wine, 20 cents a gallon, 100,800,000
Sugar consumed in France,
at 10 cents a pound, 5,400,000
-------------
$127,259,659
For the product of these articles the following quantities of land
are cultivated, viz.
Square miles.
For cotton 555
rice 65
tobacco 176
sugar 63
wine 2110
----
2969
This is little less than three-fourths of the state of Connecticut.
The authority for cotton, rice, and tobacco, is Seybert's
Statistical Annals, and the personal information of gentlemen of
experience in the culture of those articles.
For sugar I have the authority of Humboldt's _Essai Politique_.
For wine I depend on Chaptal: his "Treatise, theoretical and
practical, on the culture of the vine, and the art of making wine,
brandy, spirits of wine, and vinegars, simple and compound," is a
truly classic work, in which he had the aid of Rozier, Parmentier,
and Dussieux. It contains all that the chemist, or botanist, or vine
cultivator, or enlightened statesman can reasonably ask or wish to
know. It is in two octavo volumes, of about 500 pages each, with 21
plates.
This admirable treatise should be translated for the use of our
fellow citizens who occupy our wine-yielding regions. For, in a
few years, the United States will produce wine for their domestic
consumption and exportation.
A revolution of our planet on its axis would present to the eye of
an observer, at the distance of a few thousand miles, a few spots or
specks (China or Holland) fully cultivated. The rest would be as a
desert. Pauperism in England, now so extensive and so dangerous, is
fulfilling the prophecies of Goldsmith's Deserted Village.
"Political economy (says Jean Baptiste Say,) is founded on
statistical knowledge, or (what is the same thing) history;" and
that "the American confederacy will have the glory of proving that
the loftiest policy is in accordance with moderation and humanity."
The most active mind has not yet conceived an adequate idea of the
vast resources of the United States.
_Washington City_.
NOTES AND REMARKS--BY THE EDITOR OF THE REGISTER.
The _general_ average value of the products of the United States
exported, may be estimated as amounting to 45,000,000 dollars, at
fair prices; the cotton, tobacco, and rice, included in which, may
be valued at 21,000,000--the balance is made up of bread stuffs and
meats, the product of the forest and of the sea, and 2,000,000 in
manufactures.
The chief things that we have for _export_ bear about the following
proportions to their respective quantities _consumed_ in the United
States--assuming 45 millions as the amount of value exported, and
taking our products at their average quantities.
_Val. or am't Val. or am't
exported. consumed_.
Bread stuffs, meats & drinks, D. 13,500,000 270,000,000
Provender for horses, &c. (say) 50,000 60,000,000
Manufactures, (in general) 2,000,000 220,000,000
Product of the fisheries 1,500,000 9,000,000
-------------- forest 6,000,000 60,000,000
Cotton, lbs. 85,000,000 40,000,000
Tobacco, hhds. 75,000 25,000
Rice, tierces 80,000 80,000
The value of the cotton, tobacco, and rice consumed in the United
States, being considered as included in the aggregate values of the
manufactures used, or other stuffs consumed, will give a value to
the consumption equal to 619, say 620 millions of dollars per annum;
and assuming our population at 9,500,000, the average for each
individual is 65 dollars a-year. This amount includes ALL sorts of
disbursements needful to the subsistence, convenience and comfort
of the people, except the product of the value of labour directly
applied to the _erection_ of buildings or other permanent works. The
amount, though it appears enormous, I am satisfied is less than the
actual value consumed. It brings out the general result, that our
exports stand to our consumption as 45 is to 620--or as _one_ is to
_fourteen_, at the present time. When the price of commodities was
higher, the rate was as _one_ to _seventeen_.
The ratio of each of the preceding items are about as follows:
_Exported. Consumed._
Bread stuffs, meats & drinks, as 1 is to 21
Provender, 1 -- 200
Manufactured articles, 1 -- 110
Product of the fisheries, 1 -- 6
---- forest, 1 -- 10
Cotton, 2 -- 1 (nearly.)
Tobacco, 3 -- 1
Rice, 1 -- 1
It would be excessively tedious to attempt to detail the multitude
of items that affect these general conclusions. Accuracy is not
pretended in either of them. Probabilities only are aimed at.
From these facts assumed as being pretty near the truth, we may
estimate the importance of the home trade, or internal commerce and
consumption of the people, and arrive at a multitude of highly
interesting considerations. Take the following for an example:
The sudden introduction of less than 500,000 persons, would leave us
no surplus of _present_ products of food for men. But it is a demand
for this surplus, no matter how created, that assesses the value of
the whole product. Such products, let the fact be recollected, were
at as high prices during the late war, when there was very little
export of them, as they are now, the difference in the value of
our circulating medium being also considered. This was caused by a
partial want of agricultural labourers; but more by the waste of
provisions that belong to a belligerent state.
Foreign commerce, nevertheless, has a powerful bearing on the
consideration of value in a state of peace, to the growers of grain,
meats, &c. The amount beyond their own _immediate_ consumption
and that of their families, may be about two fifths of the whole,
besides the foreign export, or nearly 110 millions,--the _price_
of which is fixed by the small amount of 13,500,000 dollars' worth
sent abroad! And, this little surplus remaining unconsumed, or
without being wasted, at home, would depreciate the general value
of the whole surplus at least 50 per cent. Hence, it would seem of
greater interest to the farmers even to _destroy_ a portion of their
products, than to cast them into a glutted market, according to the
principles acted upon by the Dutch in regard to spices. A policy not
to be recommended on the score of morality, but as according with
the spirit of trade. It cannot, therefore, be advantageous to the
agriculturist to depend upon a foreign market to assess the value of
his articles, for it is, and ever must be uncertain and unsteady. It
is his interest to have a market at home, for this may be depended
upon, and the product will be regulated by the demand, so as to
leave a fair profit.
A gentleman of observation, on a certain occasion, when I Was
speaking on this subject, related the following case in point.
At an interval of about 10 years, he had stopped for a short time
at a certain village in Connecticut--when first there, it contained
two first rate taverns, and one other respectable establishment of
the same kind. Two lines of stages made it their halting place every
night, and all seemed flourishing and lively. When there again, the
three taverns were shut up, or at least not occupied as such, and he
had to apply at a private house to be accommodated during his stay,
and every thing appeared dull and desolate. He asked the reason.--It
was the establishment of steam-boats which had destroyed the lines
of stages, and driven off the persons and horses that they had given
employment to, and of course the market they created, which hitherto
took off all the surplus products of the neighbourhood, had ceased
to be. A thousand instances of this sort might be noted to prove
that a _ready market_ is the prosperity of a neighbourhood, country,
state, or nation.
On the different items, especially those of _cotton_ and _sugar_,
as mentioned by the writer in the National Intelligencer, we intend
to speak particularly hereafter, in the essays we have promised to
write under the head of "Political Economics," the introduction to
which appeared in the Register of the 13th ult. page 162.
_Vine Dressing near Vevay._
VEVAY, (Indiana) Oct. 28.
The season for making wine is just over; and notwithstanding the
uncommon dry season, the vine dressers near Vevay have made four
thousand eight hundred and ninety-two gallons.
[We copy the following from Niles' Weekly Register, with an
intention, as his proposed essays appear, of giving them a place in
the _Rural Magazine_,--having no doubt, from our knowledge of the
editor, but they will be instructive as well as Interesting to our
readers.--_Ed._]
_Political Economics._
INTRODUCTORY.
Though so much has been said on political economy as applicable to
the national prosperity, by profits derived from national industry,
that we despair of offering any new thing on the subject, we have
so far yielded to the wishes of many friends as to resolve upon the
publication of a new series of essays, to elucidate some of the
facts that belong to this deeply interesting concern--a concern
that presses itself into every man's business, which invades our
fire-sides and accompanies us to our bed-chambers: yet, so beset
with it, and feeling it in all that we have to sell or want to buy,
and in whatsoever business we do that requires the aid of money or
use of credit--still we shrink from the trouble of ascertaining
its operation and extent. The mind, by repeated mortifications and
disappointments, loses its tone; and we seem rather disposed to
trust to the chapter of accidents for redress, than rouse ourselves
to an exertion to put an end to our wrongs, through the means
afforded; forgetting that effects flow from causes.
It has pleased Providence to bless us with a "goodly land," and we
are favoured with the best system of government ever devised--but
the seat of ancient Paradise is a howling waste, and Greece and Rome
are tenanted by slaves.
A nation's prosperity is the happiness of the individuals composing
it. The freeman cannot be a happy man unless private industry
secures private independence; and freedom itself must pass into
despotism. The power of a government rests in the moral and physical
force of the governed, and its wealth is constituted by personal
acquisitions of property. Governments were made for the good of
the people, not the people for governments; and their object fails
when private happiness ceases to be respected. Emancipation from
political tyranny, without the means of preserving personal liberty,
is a nullity. The gift of life without the means of living, is
destitute of value.