Part 2

Fortune, however, while she laughed to scorn his dreams of princely splendour, has deigned to crown his days of anxiety with competence, and Philosophy bids him be content. He chooses a partner of his joys and sorrows, and sees a hopeful progeny around him. Once more Fancy spreads the glowing landscape of the future to his eye. Through those dear ones, whose infantine pleasures now amuse his paternal mind, he will attain the object of his hopes. His daughters shall wed with the first families that now tower above him; his sons--

"Visions of glory spare his aking sight;"--

he eagerly anticipates the moment of their matured existence, when he shall exultingly exclaim, in the fulness of his heart, after the detail of their unrivalled achievements, I AM THEIR FATHER. A few years roll away; the fiat of Omniscience is gone forth, and all, but one, of those that but now cheered his domestic board, are gathered into the garner of eternity. That one, the first--the last--remains his only comfort. On that loved one, he, and the beloved partner of his afflictions, bowed down with sorrow rather than with years, now place their only hopes. He will support their tottering footsteps; he sooth the sorrows and smooth the pillow of their waning age. Alas! the haunts of dissipation receive him; premature infirmities, racking pains, palsied limbs, hasten him, with rapid and unerring steps, to the grave--and all beyond it. It were in vain to ask of his agonized bosom,--agonized by the conviction of his fatal paternal indulgence,--_Is it peace!_

Is not the quiver of affliction exhausted? One shaft is left. That dear mourner, that has partaken so largely of the cup of his sorrows, cannot sustain the recollection

"That such things were, and were most dear to her."

Silent and uncomplaining, she bows before the storm. Her ashes rest with those of her children. Where is now that eager spirit, grasping at phantoms, and soaring into the regions of uncreated imagination. Hope is extinguished in his bosom; his soul is black with the very midnight of despair. Frail man! Didst thou ever ask, _Of whom did I receive these precious gifts?_ Bow before the throne of Omnipotence; bless that Power who gave and who took away; pray to him for resignation; and, when the spirit of vital religion pours its holy influence into thy heart, thou needest not ask of thyself or the world, _Is it peace?_

FOR THE RURAL MAGAZINE.

_Letters of a Citizen to his Friends in the Country._

No. III.

If the form of government with which we are blessed, is to be durable, it will depend upon the _virtue and intelligence of the people_. Ignorance and vice cannot sustain a republican system. It becomes, therefore, a duty of the highest order, to spread practical learning over every mind, and cultivate piety in every heart. To do this, the establishment of good schools, on the plan suggested in my last letter, is of great importance. But other means are also to be employed. Parents, guardians, and masters, should discharge their duty toward those who are entrusted to their care, by judicious advice and good example, for the conduct of life. The domestic circle ought to be regarded as a _moral garden_, under the especial care of the head of every family. Here he may plant good seed, and this he is bound to protect from all pernicious weeds. Let him therefore frequently examine the premises; he cannot be too assiduous, and vigilant. In this particular department, more is to be accomplished, than many are disposed to admit. And if ever our condition as a people is improved, in the degree to which it is susceptible, it will owe much to judicious _family discipline_. In the city, as well as in the country, we have been too relax in the performance of these manifest obligations. Private happiness and the public welfare are intimately connected with the minute government, and careful training, of the minds of youth.

Among other auxiliaries, I would take the liberty to recommend the establishment of libraries, to be composed of useful books. These might be located in the school-houses of each neighbourhood, and the teacher should be appointed to the care of the establishment. In the country, it is customary to assemble but once, in the day assigned, for social worship; in the afternoon of that day, the library might be opened for the delivery and reception of books. How much better would it be, to witness the people passing, in an orderly manner, to, and from the library of the vicinage, than assembling at taverns, or employed in idle and pernicious sports, on the evening of a day, set apart by Christian professors, for the worship, which is publicly due _to the Sovereign of the world_!

You may suppose, fellow citizens, that these suggestions are the offspring of a visionary brain; but the period is coming, with no tardy step, when sound morals and undefiled religion will be found to be the best estate. Men and governments prosper solely in proportion as they are regulated by principles which GOD approves. It is idle, in the last degree, to expect prosperity from any other source. All history, sacred and civil, teaches but one lesson; VICE AND IGNORANCE CONDUCT NATIONS TO THE TOMB!

This epistle is shorter than I had designed it to be; various avocations have claimed my attention. I have only to solicit your attention to the subjects submitted in it to your notice, and to assure you of my good will.

CIVIS.

Treatise on Agriculture.

SECT. II.

Of the actual state of Agriculture in Europe.

8. _Holland_, though essentially commercial has, from causes rarely occurring, become also highly agricultural. To the descendants of Dutchmen, the following description of her industry, in this respect, cannot but be acceptable. It is from the pen of an excellent judge and faithful narrator.[1]

[1] M. Yoarst, professor of agriculture at Elfort. See his introductory address to his class, in 1806.

"Their rotation of crops, always begins with the culture either of some leguminous plant or profitable root, and generally with the potato, as the best preparative of the ground. Whatever may be the grain which follows, whether wheat, rye, &c. &c. it is generally sown with _red clover_; and where it is not, the stubble is ploughed in immediately after harvest, and a crop of turnips taken and either consumed on the ground or housed for the winter. A single department (that of Zealand) obtains by the culture of madder alone, an annual profit of six millions of florins; while that of Brabant boasts its twenty thousand bee-hives; in a word, this commendable nation, upon an extent of surface not exceeding seventeen hundred square leagues, (the greater part of which has been redeemed from the ocean) counts two hundred and forty-three thousand horses, seven hundred and sixty thousand horn cattle, about a million of sheep, from ten to twelve thousand goats, four hundred and eighty-nine thousand hogs, and about three millions of poultry, of every species. Their stock of manure is necessarily great, and is both well understood and well managed."

9. The same causes, physical and moral, operate against the existence of a productive agriculture in _Denmark_ and _Sweden_--severity of climate, poverty of soil, and vassalage of tenants.[2]--Their resources are also alike, and exist principally in manufactures and commerce, and in mines, forests and fisheries. The former boasts fine pasturage and cattle, in Holstein.

[2] To give to despotism the air of freedom, the _serfs of the crown_ were liberated at the revolution--but the example was neither approved nor followed.

10. Under the common name of Germany, we include Prussia, Saxony, Austria, Wurtemburg, and Bavaria, and shall say a few words of each, calculated to give a general idea of their husbandry. It was not to be expected that the great Frederick of _Prussia_ (so devoted to national glory and strength) would disregard the interest of agriculture; and the less so, as in theory he considered it "_Les mamelles de l'elat_." We accordingly find him employed in draining marshes of great extent,[3] in filling them with industrious colonists, and in converting barren sands into fertile fields, by placing his capital in the midst of them. But amongst these good works, he forgot that the _hands of the labourer, to be efficient, must be free_; he found the peasants slaves, and left them such.

[3] In the _Dollart_ what was lost by the sea was regained, and the marshes on the _Netz_ and the _Warth_ at _Friedburg_ and in _Pomerania_ were drained, and the country rendered habitable.

The _Saxon_ peasant, on the other hand is _free_ and protected by the law; he holds his farm on lease, which he sells or transmits to his children at will: and _this_ is the principal cause of the flourishing state of Saxon agriculture. In Lusatia, a different legislation produces different effects; but for some years past, the government and great proprietors have concurred in changing the _vassalage_ of the peasants into a _mild_ and _salutary dependence_. Saxony is remarkable for its grain products, and Lusatia for its stock--the latter counts four hundred thousand head of sheep of the merino race.

Geographers give to _Austria_ and her dependencies 1965 leagues in circumference. In a surface like this, there is necessarily a great variety, as well of climate as of soil; but in general, both are favourable to agriculture. "In the districts of the Inn, of Lower Stira, of Istria, and of Carniola, the land is of good quality, well cultivated and very productive. In the last, they have two crops in the year; sowing buck-wheat on wheat or rye stubble, and millet on that of hemp and flax.--They every where cultivate Indian corn, and in Styria (as in Virginia) it forms the ordinary bread of the country." In Bohemia, Moravia, and Galitia,[4] the soil is uncommonly rich, and under proper management would be very productive. Austrian Silesia is less fitted for the production of grain, but excels in forage and cattle. Hungary, Transylvania and Croatia, abound in every species of agricultural produce. Their flocks and pasturage are not inferior to those of the Ukraine; and wheat, buck-wheat, Indian corn, millet, rice, hemp, flax and tobacco, yield immense harvests to very small degrees of labour. Yet is agriculture far from being in a flourishing condition!--Writers on political economy ascribe this fact principally to two causes--

[4] Geographic Math.

1st. The degradation and oppression of the labouring part of the community; and

2d. The want of convenient commercial outlets for the produce of the soil.

We shall find in Hungary a striking illustration of the correctness of this opinion. "The _Populus Hungaricus_," is divided into four estates, the magnates, the nobles, and the clergy, who possess all the lands, and the "_misera contribuens plebs_," who (besides tithes, rents and corvees) pay all the taxes. This wretched populace is composed of the burghers and the peasantry, of which there are three kinds--_slaves for life, temporary slaves_, and a third sort called _liberæ emigrationis_, who, as their name indicates, have loco motive powers and rights. Of the condition of this people, since the year 1764, (and before that period it was much worse) we may form an idea from the edict of Maria Theresa, called the _urbarium_, or law of contracts between landlord and tenant, by which it is declared, that corporal punishment (inflicted by the master for insolent words or conduct) shall not exceed twenty-four strokes with a cane for a man, and the same number with a switch for a woman. Nor is the _commercial_ condition of this people better than the _civil_; they are not only obliged to take from Austria many things which they could have had in other places of a better quality and at a lower price, but they are also compelled to carry to Vienna the products of their own soil and labour, where their sale is embarrassed and their value lessened by heavy and oppressive taxes. The same remark applies to Galitia, whose natural outlet is the Vistula, or the Nieper; but of these she is not permitted to avail herself, and, like her sister kingdoms, is compelled to seek the markets furnished by the Danube and Trieste. "The consequences are obvious--the tenant works only to satisfy hunger, and the landlord is satisfied with little more than '_victum et vestitum_.'"[5]

[5] Geog. Math. vol. 4. art. Hungary.

The amount of lands annually cultivated in _Bavaria_, is one million one hundred and sixty-five thousand acres, which produce about six millions of bushels of grain, of which two millions are surplus. The Palatinate, (one of the dependencies of Bavaria) is also very productive. The route between Heidelberg and D'Armstadt, called the _Bergstrass_, traverses one of the finest districts of Germany, and perhaps of Europe; where are seen extensive vineyards, vast meadows and fertile fields, producing wheat, barley, tobacco, madder, rhubarb, turnips, &c. &c. In the year 1799, all the electorial possessions within the circle of Bavaria, contained 199,000 horses, 160,000 oxen, 465,000 cows, 961,000 sheep, 320,000 hogs, and 378,000 goats. Yet are the Bavarians, compared with the inhabitants of the north of Germany, half a century in the rear. The people are, extremely ignorant and fantastical: like the people of Rome and Lisbon, they sacrifice much time to processions and fetes, and like them also are slaves of the vilest appetites. Debauchery is no where more flagrant than in Munich.[6]

[6] Geog. Math. &c. art. Bavaria. Compare the productiveness of Bavaria with England--the comparison is in favour of the former.

_Wurtemburg_ is ranked among the most fertile and well cultivated countries of Germany. The mountainous parts produce potatoes, oats, hemp and flax; the less hilly abound in wheat, spelts, rye, buck-wheat, Indian corn and barley; and in the vallies we find tobacco, madder and vineyards, in which the grapes of France, Cyprus, and Persia succeed perfectly. Apples, pears, &c. are of common product and excellent quality.[7]

[7] Idem.

11. It has been justly remarked, that to know the state of husbandry in any country, you have but to examine the _instruments_ employed, the _succession_ of _crops_, and the _condition_ of _labourers_.--Tried by these tests, the agriculture of _Russia_ will be found to be in a state of great degradation.--The plough (called _soka_) which is commonly used, is very light, of simple construction, and but calculated to enter the ground _one inch and a half_; the _harrow_ consists of one or more young pine trees (whose branches are cut off about eight inches from the stem) steeped in water to add to their weight, and tied together. With such miserable instruments, each drawn by a single horse, the farmer scratches the ground, and without always covering the seed, which is no doubt the reason that in dry seasons their harvests are very bad.[8] In the best soil their _succession_ of _crops_ is of _eight years_--two in barley, two in oats, two in winter rye, and two in spring rye. Lands of less fertility are sown _two_ years out of _three_, and mountainous tracts one year in three, when they are abandoned to weeds, until rest shall have reinstated them. "To manure them would, in the opinion of a Russian peasant, make them poorer;[9] and therefore he suffers his dunghill to accumulate into a nuisance, while he goes on to clear and exhaust new fields." "The grains raised are rye, spelts, barley, millet and oats, which, from want of sufficient roads and markets, are often low priced; as are horned cattle and horses: an ox selling for a ruble and a half, a cow for one ruble, and a horse for three rubles."[10] To this wretchedness we must add, (what perhaps occasions much of it) that throughout the _civilized_ part of Russia, the labours of agriculture are performed by _slaves_ confounded with the soil, and bought and sold with it. In a great portion of the northern section of this vast empire, agriculture is unknown; and the chase, the fisheries, cattle and rein-deer, furnish the only means of subsistence.

[8] Pallas, pages 3 and 4. vol. 1.

[9] Pallas, vol. 5. page 60.

[10] A ruble is equal to 5 livres, or 1 dollar Spanish.

(To be continued.)

Mr. Nicholson's Prize Essay.

_On a Rotation of Crops, and the most profitable mode of collecting, preserving and applying Manures._

(Communicated to the Albany County Agricultural Society.)

[CONCLUDED.]

Of manures which may be termed fossils we will mention the various kinds of calcareous substances, the stony matter called pyrites, coal, salt, peaty substances, silicious and aluminous earths. Limestone, gypsum, chalk and marle, are the calcareous substances we shall notice, and each in their order.

Limestone, (carbonate of lime,) has always more or less aluminous or silicious earth in its composition. Frequently also it contains magnesia. Limestone of this latter description, when calcined, makes what the English farmers call _hot_ lime, which is more powerful in its effects, and therefore less of it should be applied at once to the soil. That without any mixture of magnesia is considered more durable in its operation, but less powerful. Magnesian limestone is known by its effervescing but little when plunged in nitric or other acid, while limestone that is not magnesian, when thus immersed produces a strong effervescence. The magnesian, also, when immersed in diluted nitric acid, or aqua fortis, renders the liquid of a milky appearance. It is usually of a brownish or pale yellow colour. Being more caustic when calcined, than common limestone, it is more efficacious in decomposing peaty earths, and is best adapted for soils which have too much either of peaty or vegetable matter in them.----Where lands have been injured by too plentiful an application of this lime, peaty earth should be applied to them to correct the evil.

The trials of lime in this country have been quite limited, and confined mostly to the middle states, particularly Pennsylvania. It has usually been applied there at the rate of about forty bushels to the acre; but whether the lime used there is magnesian, we have never understood. Lime may be applied as a top dressing or mixed with the soil. Its application has been found most successful when the first succeeding crop was Indian corn; afterwards wheat is grown to advantage. Instances are mentioned in the memoirs of the agricultural society of Philadelphia, where gypsum had no effect on worn out lands till they were first manured with lime.

British writers say that lime may be applied with equal advantage either when newly slaked or afterwards, that its effects are not always the same particularly where soils are different, but that usually it is a very durable manure. A much larger quantity is, however, applied in Great Britain than has been usual here; but perhaps the coolness of the summers there renders more requisite. We pretend to advise to no particular rules in the application of lime in this country, farther than that about forty bushels to the acre be first tried; but less for sandy soils, and perhaps more for those which are stiff clays would be advisable. In clays of this description, lime is particularly useful in destroying the adhesive quality of such soils, and thereby rendering them a more friable loam. Such has been its effects on the clay lands which abound so much in England. Where the lime is magnesian, let trials be made of about twenty bushels to the acre.

That country abounds much in the calcareous matter denominated chalk, which is also converted into lime by calcination, and used as a manure. It forms a weaker sort of lime. As this substance, however, is hardly to be found in this country, it will be unnecessary further to speak of this manure.

Gypsum, (sulphate of lime) is a most powerful stimulant to the growth of many crops in all dry soils in this country, but with the following exceptions: it has no sensible effect on lands newly cleared, on those in the vicinity of the ocean, nor on those which have been completely exhausted by severe cropping. In soils of this latter description, some pabulous matter must be given them for the gypsum to digest or act upon; and this may be a previous manuring with lime, marl, bog-earth, barn dung, or perhaps any substance that is calculated to improve the condition of the soil. It should also be observed that the application of gypsum frequently fails entirely of producing its effects if followed by uncommon drought, or unusually wet weather. It is generally most powerful when applied to growths of leguminous plants, to those extending in vines, such as the various species of the gourd tribe, the strawberry, &c. and to several sorts of the green crops, particularly potatoes, clover-grasses, lucern, &c. On fibrous rooted grasses, and those grain plants most nearly related to them, such as wheat, rye, oats, barley, &c. it has no sensible effect when applied as a top dressing to the growing plants. On Buckwheat it is very powerful, and for Indian corn it is also valuable. Judge Peters, (of Penn.) whose experience of its uses has been long and extensive, says that although he has found this manure of little use to many sorts of plants, when applied to them as a top dressing, yet he has invariably found that all plants derive benefit from their seeds being rolled in gypsum, after being soaked in some liquid, before sowing or planting. As a manure, however, for wheat or grain crops of similar kinds, immense benefit may be derived from it by applying it to the sward, as a top dressing, a suitable length of time before the ground is broken up. In this way two bushels of gypsum may be made to give an additional increase of eight or ten bushels of wheat to the acre. Take, for instance, land which in its natural state, and with the usual culture, will only yield ten bushels of wheat to the acre; in the fall or early in the spring, give it a top dressing of two bushels of gypsum to the acre; by the middle of June following, the land will exhibit a fresh green sward, principally of white clover; and when land is thus clothed in verdure, it is a sure indication of a great addition to its fertility, and that a good crop may then be expected. When, therefore, the green sward is thus formed, turn it under, and then, with the usual culture, twenty bushels of wheat to the acre may be expected, where only ten would have been had without this previous enriching of the ground by the application of gypsum. Yet the same quantity of this manure, applied as a top dressing to the growing crop of wheat, would have had no sensible effect. It should therefore be understood, that for all growths which derive little or no benefit from gypsum, when applied as a top dressing to the growing plants, the ground should be previously enriched by applying this manure to the sward, a suitable length of time before it is to be broken up, which length of time will usually be from two to three months. At all events as soon as the sward fully exhibits the effects of the gypsum it may then be turned under. Wherever a sward is to be turned under, this practice should be invariably pursued in order that the ground be rendered more fruitful for the crop that is to follow.