North of Ireland. In Clonakitty, in the county of Cork, £1200 a week was expended on the purchase of coarse linen webs, so late as 1825. In Mayo, £111,000 were expended in purchasing the same species of web. In 1825, the sum of two millions and a half sterling were expended in Ireland, in the purchase of coarse unbleached home-made webs. I am obliged for these specimens of the ruin of Irish industry to Mr. Butt, Q. C. at the Irish bar, who informs me that they could be very much extended.

Before the Union, there were under protection Irish woolen manufactures, Irish carpet manufactures, Irish blanket manufactures, Irish silk manufactures, Irish calico manufac tures, Irish flannel manufactures, and Irish stocking manufactures. These manufactures are now smothered and extinct.

But what ought they to have been, with increased population and power of consump tion, with the application of steam, with improved mechanical and chemical agencies? What would and must they have been, but for the blight of English competition, withering at once both the power of producing and the means of purchasing? What might they be made EVEN NOW, should England, instead of blindly chasing the phantom of cheapness, no matter of what sort, at once and seriously address herself to developing the unexplored but prodigious productive power of Ireland?-Sophisms of Free Trade.

Having first destroyed the manufactures of that country, England has lately done the same by her agriculture; and the consequences are seen in the fact, that the whole people of Ireland now flee from the land, and the land-owners are ruined.

THOROUGH OR HIGH FARMING.

BY PROF. J. J. MAPES, IN THE JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE.

THIS term has been generally adopted by the best European writers to express such a system of farming as would embrace the use of capital liberally, and at a maximum profit, in contradistinction to low farming, or the procuring of minimum crops, with no investments beyond the purchase of land and cheap workings.

Those who pursue high farming argue that it is both safe and profitable, and that they use their capital liberally to put the land in the best possible condition by under-draining, sub-soil ploughing, convenient arrangement of cisterns, pumps, manure-houses, &c., &c., so as to have light expenses by laborsaving arrangements, at the cost, perhaps, of heavier original outlays.

The high farmer has analysis of his soils, and uses upon them all the manure they are capable of converting into plants; or, in other words, all that can be used with profit, instead of only so much as will only produce a crop. For such crops as are found to pay a profit for the labor, the soil is ploughed two, three, or more times before planting; and where a thorough admixture of the manure through the soil is found to be more advantageous than simply to plough or harrow it in, a large cultivator or stirrer is liberally used for this purpose. For crops which are advanced materially by continued irrigation, even steam-engines are kept in motion to insure the necessary supply.

Cattle on such farms are never pastured, but always fed in buildings supplied with every convenience to save manual labor. The supply of water is always at hand, and readily led by gutters to the front of the animals. The arrangements for warming and ventilating are such as to insure a steady and healthy temperature and supply of atmosphere. The manures are rapidly removed as voided, and composted with as much inert vegetable matter as can be converted by its fermentation into useful amendments. The fluid excretiæ is led by gutters to masses of matter, which receive it and retain the volatile portions from evaporation.

If the soil is short of potash, soda, or any other constituents of the required crops, these are added; not directly to the soil, but to the compost-heap, so as to advantage by their decomposing or chemical effects before going to the

roots of plants. Manures are never left immersed in water, parting with gases without undergoing proper decomposition; but the drainage of manureheaps is daily returned to them, to supply the necessary amount of moisture to insure decomposition without burning or fire-fanging.

If ammonia is lost by steaming or overheating of manures, the drainagecistern of the heap is immediately supplied with dilute sulphuric acid, or some soluble sulphate required by the compost, which changes the volatile carbonate of ammonia to the fixed sulphate of ammonia, and thus all the excretiæ of animals is saved in its best and most efficient form.

Some old-style farmer may say, "This is all very well; but where is the money to come from, and when can you get it back?" We answer, as to the latter inquiry, that many men in England and elsewhere, as tenant farmers, have made large fortunes by high farming, while but few have done so by any other style of culture. Now, while free trade is paralyzing the efforts of the farmer, those who pursue high farming alone are able to succeed. We do not assert that all who spend much money succeed as a consequence of such expenditure; but those who use their capital freely and judiciously do succeed, and find it more to their interest than to invest on bond and mortgage at the ordinary rates of interest. Hundreds of tenant farmers in England are borrowers of capital on interest, extending the amount of their operations as their increased capital may permit.

How many farmers do we know in this country, who have heired fortunes, or become rich by the rise of property, and whose farms are of less value than their more industrious neighbors', from the want of capital properly applied to them! They loan out their surplus incomes at six per cent. per annum, when a part at least could be used on their own farms at twelve per cent. with profit.

Let no man, however, attempt high farming, who thinks a fact becomes a falsehood by having been printed. He must have brains enough not to rail out indiscriminately at book farmers. He must even read books, until he knows how to answer the following questions, at least, and as many others appertaining to his calling as these may suggest:

Do plants receive the whole of their nourishment from the soil, or part from the atmosphere? and what from each?

Do those received from the atmosphere enter the plants above or below the surface of the soil? and, if in part below, what conditions of the soil are necessary for their reception?

By what means are these conditions of the soil to be attained?

How does moisture affect the vegetable economy ?

To what depth will the roots of plants enter the soil if properly prepared? To what depth do the solutions of manures penetrate the soil? and if not to an indefinite depth, why?

In what manner, and from what causes, do plants receive the constituents of manures below the surface of the soil?

Of those solutions of manures which filter downwards, what portions are lost to plants? or of those which rise as gases, what portions escape into the atmosphere without being absorbed by plants? and why? What modes may be adopted to arrest them until plants can make use of them?

Let those who would censure high farming find the farmer who can answer these questions, and they will find a successful votary of our art, and one, too, who can enjoy nature as his God intended he should. Such a farmer can find delight in observing nature's laws, and "look through nature up to nature's God."

All these questions may be answered; and our readers will find them

CONSUMPTION OF IRON-AFFECTED BY PROTECTION.

539

answered if they will read the Journal with the same care they would examine a mortgage when buying it. Some may say farmers have not time to become chemists and natural philosophers; nor is it necessary that they should; but they should, for their own happiness and profit, know so much of the sciences as to be able to read them understandingly and to apply them readily.

It is not necessary that a farmer should be capable of analyzing his own soil, but only to understand the analysis when made. Because a farmer may occasionally have a lawsuit, he need not necessarily study law, and become a lawyer; and if an analysis will cost but five dollars, he is a lucky fellow if he does not pay more money to lawyers than to chemists.

But some say, they are too old even to study so much as to understand an analysis, or to learn how to apply manures in accordance with it. If so, employ a consulting agriculturist to inform you, and pay him less for enabling you to double your crops than you now lose by wasting manures from bad management; and if you cannot find a more competent one, apply to us.

HOW PROTECTION INCREASES AND BRITISH FREE TRADE DECREASES THE CONSUMPTION OF IRON.

THE history of the iron manufacture for the last few years furnishes an instructive lesson to the statesmen of this country. This article enters into such general use in every occupation of life in all countries advanced beyond the first step of civilization, that it may well take rank among the necessaries of life among ourselves.

The importations of bar and pig iron for the year ending 30th
September, 1842, were

The estimated production in the United States for that period,

100,055 tons.

Or 863 pounds per head.

In 1851, the importations were

The production,

Consumption,

Or 69 pounds per head.

Thus we perceive that the actual consumption of iron, which, under the

540

CULTIVATION OF FRUIT AND FERTILITY OF SOILS.

high duties and prices, was steadily augmenting in quantity, is, under the present reduced rates, both in duties and prices, gradually falling off, notwithstanding the increase of population and the great extension of our farming interests.

CULTIVATION OF FRUIT AND FERTILITY OF SOILS.

MESSKS. EDITORS:-In perusing your valuable journal, I noticed an article on the management of apple orchards, in which the writer says, many people complain about the unproductiveness of their orchards, and their unsuccessfulness in propagating and cultivating fruit trees. He says, "there must be some cause for this failure in raising and producing fruits." I believe it to be highly beneficial for farmers, in different sections of the country, to discuss, through the columns of agricultural journals, the best modes of culture, not only of fruit trees, but of different kinds of crops, giving the quality of the soil, the kind of manure applied, and the exact product of the same. I am willing to admit there must be some cause for this failure in raising and producing fruits, and, in a great many instances, it may be beyond our control.

On my farm, I have one hundred apple trees, of the same kind of fruit; five of those trees were transplanted fifty years ago. They have been great bearers, producing uncommonly fine fruit, until within five years past, since which they have totally failed. The product of those trees was so great, that I have sold the fruit, on an average, for $150 a year. It induced me to transplant one hundred trees of the same kind of fruit, adjoining the old trees, about fifteen years ago. They too have proved a failure. Although the trees blossom and set very full with apples every year, they fail to produce fair fruit. When the apples get about the size of a hickory-nut, they become very rusty, crack open, and commence falling off, and continue to do so until all are gone. I do not believe this failure is the want of proper management, nor do I believe in the management of the writer above referred to; although I believe, under such treatment, trees may sometimes bear well; but, one thing is certain, the fruit will not be so large nor so fair. All kinds of fruit trees need manure and culture as much as corn and potatoes, to bring the fruit to perfection. Orchards ought to be thoroughly ploughed, but not too deep, especially among old trees, as it injures the roots. The writer says the idea of ploughing orchards, when the trees have become large, is not a consistent one. I would ask him, if trees, at an advanced age, do not require as much, if not more, cultivation than young trees? They certainly absorb more substance and more moisture; and no person will deny that the soil, thoroughly worked, will not retain the moisture longer than when not worked, which is very important on a light soil in a dry season. I have known very old orchards, in my own neighborhood, that have ceased to bear, because they had not been cultivated in ten years, and, by passing into other hands, they have been renovated by constant cultivation and manuring.

As regards my own experience in the cultivation of fruit trees, I have, on that part of my orchard above referred to, taken great pains in applying manure of different kinds, having used marl, lime, ashes, &c., and ploughed in green crops, to supply the soil with vegetable matter. I have also removed the old bark, by the use of a scraper; but all to no purpose, as far as bearing is concerned. My trees, however, are in a very thrifty condition, but I do not expect to get a crop of apples until I understand better the nature of the soil, and what ingredients it requires to bring the fruit to perfection. Now, whatever earthy ingredients are found in the wood or bark of trees, are drawn

from the soil; and if the soil is deficient in any one of these, we cannot expect our fruit trees to bear well, or bring their fruit to perfection. In ascertaining what the deficiency is in soils, for the productiveness of an orchard, it is highly necessary for farmers to understand chemistry, so far as to enable them to analyze their soils. I believe a man may be a farmer all his lifetime, and, unless he understands the nature of his soil, and what it is composed of, he may apply different kinds of manure, at a great expense, and not add to its productiveness or fertility. He may, for instance, apply lime, and for the growth of certain kinds of crops there may be lime enough already in the soil, and the application of more may injure the crop. Also, with regard to marl, I have known farmers in my vicinity to apply marl year after year, believing they could, with that alone, bring their soil under a high state of cultivation, not sowing any grass seed, or supplying any green crops to furnish the soil with vegetable matter for the marl or lime to act upon; consequently, it becomes so full of that ingredient, that it burns up and destroys the crops. J. L. CONOVER.

Middletown, New-Jersey.

WHO PAYS THE DUTY?

THE annexed account of an interview between the writer and Mr. Silas Wright, which we take from a contemporary journal, will have interest for those who still doubt if the English producer of cotton goods is not in the same condition as the American producer of food and cotton-both being compelled to overcome the obstacles which stand between them and their market, whether in the form of freight, insurance, or duty. If they are, then is it the foreign producer and not the domestic consumer that pays the duty; and then must the producer of food and cotton gain on all hands by every measure tending to make a market on the land for the products of the land.

"A Committee from New-York, of which I was a member, called on the late Hon. Silas Wright, of the Senate, and endeavored to engage him in a conversation on the tariff. He objected mildly, for at that time his party had not fairly declared on which side of that question they would array themselves.

"Mr. Wright said that his great objection to a protective tariff was, that 'the consumer paid a direct tax to sustain the manufacturer. We then asked him if he did not think that the competition arising from protection soon caused the protected article to be furnished at a reduced price. He said he had heard that argument before, but was not ready to admit its truth; that such had not, in his opinion, been the result with articles formerly protected.

"Well, Mr. Wright, if it could be clearly shown that every article which has ever received five years' consecutive protection by tariff, has been furnished at the end of that time at a less cost to the consumer than the foreign cost at the time the protective duty was imposed, would you then agree to vote for a protective tariff?' 'Yes, certainly,' said Mr. Wright; and I will undertake to name many articles to which your rule will not apply? Well, sir,' said our committee-man, 'we hold you to your promise either to find the exception or to vote for the tariff.'

"Are you really serious, sir,' said Mr. W., 'in supposing that I cannot find the exception? Certainly, sir; we defy you from the many hundred articles which have been protected from time to time to find one which is not within our rule. The very moment capitalists find that a manufacture is protected, they immediately invest their capital; and others doing the same, causes competition and consequent improvement in machinery, and thus the price is reduced, and further protection, at the same foreign cost, rendered unnecessary.' Why,' says Mr. W., 'look at the article of nails; their cost is in the material; why have they not been reduced by your rule? 'So they have; and if you will recollect, a few years ago nails now worth 4 cents per pound were then sold at 124 cents; and were it not for the use of American machinery, invented in consequence of the competition arising out of protection, the same nails could not now be imported from