Arkansas State Gazette

THE AGRICULTURE OF ARKANSAS.

There is but little attention paid to this science in the State. Perhaps no State in the Union presents higher inducements to the farmer than Arkansas yet few seem to regard the offered bounty with approbation. The climate is decidedly good, being between the 33d and 36 1-2 degrees north. The soil is of the most favorable kind that is, a large portion of it. No State in the Union, except Louisiana, has so large an amount of rich alluvial. There is quite an amount of good second rate upland, with a fine clay sub-soil. The high sterile lands are very profitable for pasture, on which an immense amount of cattle, large and small, can be fed the whole year.

The privileges of navigation are very extensive. There is not a hut or cabin in the State one hundred miles from steam-boat navigation. I should have remarked, that the soil is adapted to the growth of every plant that is good for food or raiment, with very few exceptions relating to tropical plants. The Indian corn, cotton, tobacco, flax with all the farinaceous and leguminous plants, and excellent roots, grow here luxuriantly.

Stock of every kind succeeds admirably. The horse, the noble friend of man, is reared with ease in this State; also the mule. This species of stock can be reared without expense, except for a little salt. Cattle do as well as in any part of the United States, as also sheep and hogs.

With all these advantages, little attention is paid to agriculture, except upon the roughest scale. The causes leading to this state of indifference are numerous. It will be sufficient to specify two or three of them. The first, no doubt, is the want of example. If we come up to what our neighbors have done, or surpass them a fraction, we are satisfied. Nothing is more evident than this evil operating extensively. There are some pretty good farmers, and where you meet with one of these, you will find a gradual imitation around, until the influence is lost in distance. A large number of those who came to Arkansas at an early period, left the native State before there was much improvement in agriculture. This class plough and do every other kind of work just as their fathers did thirty years ago. Like the boy who put his corn in one end of the bag and a stone in the other to balance, because his daddy did so.

Another cause is the extensive wild pastures, affording nearly food for stock, without labor. Nothing, perhaps, is more paralyzing to agriculture than what is called range for stock.

A third, and equally fatal, evil, is the unsettled state of the population. Within thirty years, some neighborhoods have changed their inhabitants more than once, leaving scarcely a descendant of the former settlers. The evils of this are extensive and desolating. Roads are not improved. Few settlements ever think of erecting houses of worship, or even school houses. Education is neglected. Every species of improvement is temporary.

But the most disastrous effect of this unsettled state of population, is the mode of cultivating the soil. There is another auxiliary cause co-operating with the want of industry - the unusual abundance of land, and the low price at which it can be procured. Land is cultivated for the present without reference to the effect. The same crop is planted as long as the produce will pay for the tillage. It is then abandoned as commons, to be grazed on by stock. The soil being virgin soil is very durable, but under the present system, it must give way, leaving the next generation an inheritance of exhausted fields. If the present system (if system it can be called) is persisted in another quarter century the lands now deemed valueless will be the most productive in the State. And who would not regard a change so entire as ruinous? The present poor lands would not become more rich, but that now in use would be reduced to sterility.

It is useless to exhort and expostulate with men upon this subject. If you will not hear the voice of a fellow-citizen, hear the complaint from the older States - Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and even the Eden of America, Kentucky. Hear what they say upon this exhausting tillage, and learn a lesson. Leave something else for posterity than worn out fields.

The remedy for all this evil is in our own hands. The formation of a State Agricultural Society is the first step. In some enterprises it is best to form branches, and then let the branches form a centre. But in our case, the only mode that seems to present a prospect of success, is to form a parent first, and then look out for the progeny. The people want information, and in no way can they have this but by a small cheap paper. The mass of the people will never subscribe for a foreign paper. Many and forcible objections can be urged against this suggestion. With them all on its back, it is the only plan that will insure success. That is to form a State Society, and let the Society become the proprietor of the paper, and let each member exert himself for the good of the cause.

The next important necessary step is a geological survey of the State. This the Legislature must do.

Another object, not second to any, is an experimental farm. This, too, must be the work of the State. It is well known that many experiments are expensive, and slow in yielding profit, which, when properly developed, are useful to the farming interest. The want of independent capital deters individuals from engaging in them. But if the State would come forward as the representative of this whole population the expense would be a trifle compared with the advantage to be derived from it.

On this, there should be improved stock, a garden and orchard, all conducted upon the most scientific plan of introducing the most approved implements of husbandry, treating stock after the best modes known for their improvement making and applying the best manures, with many other improvements too expensive for individual enterprise. To this it will be replied that such an establishment will cost the State several thousand dollars while she is already in debt. This is true - but how soon would the whole expense be replaced more than a hundred fold, in the improved agriculture of the State? And suppose it should be several years before the full benefits could be realized, which, no doubt would be the case it is far better for the Legislature to undertake than individuals.

There is an almost universal apathy in legislative bodies respecting agriculture - Such bodies of men seem afraid to touch the subject and, when they do venture to approach it it is in a manner better calculated to injure than benefit. The Legislature should offer premiums for the encouragement of the farming interest.