Friends of Historic Glasgow (Delaware)

Larding the Lean Earth: Soil and Society in 19th C. America

by Steven Stoll of Yale University

Dr. Samuel Henry Black was one of the individuals who revolutionized American agriculture. You can read about his many agricultural accomplishments in the book "Larding the Lean Earth: Soil and Society in Nineteenth-Century America" (Hardcover) by Steven Stoll of Yale University.

Product Details

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Hill and Wang; 1st edition (July 20, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN: 0809064316
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches

Historian Stoll deepens the increasingly urgent discussion of the more alarming aspects of agribusiness in a study of soil, the substance that unifies "the gases of the atmosphere, the minerals of the lithosphere, and the organisms of the biosphere." Although it takes centuries to form, soil can be lost in mere decades, a scary reality European settlers discovered by 1820, when the soil of the original colonies was so depleted that farmers either headed west to use up yet more land or stayed put and learned how to "improve" their homesteads by working in harmony with natural processes. With great felicity of language and a firm grasp of forces biological and social, Stoll explicates the methods and ethic of "improvement" as practiced by an enlightened coterie of highly successful northern farmers, then contrasts their ecologically wise approach (manure was a key factor) to the brutal and unsustainable operations of southern planters. Grounded in rarely referenced farming literature, farmers' and planters' diaries, and political records, Stoll's eye-opening and rousing chronicle of American agriculture and its industrialization explores an overlooked yet crucial facet of our past, and points the way to a more bountiful future. --- Donna Seaman

1.
on Page 46:

"... calculated the number of acres offered in 1818 at close to 500,000.' Northerners feared the depression no less. Samuel H. Black, speaking before the Agricultural Society of New Castle County, Delaware, described destruction, denial, and emigration: Whatever diversity of opinion may prevail on the subject of farming and on the value ..."

2.
on Page 47:

"... may have supposed, the cause of his misfortune . "46 Robinson Crusoe used up all the wood on his island, Black argued, but no one blames the wood or the fire or the sultry air for his loss of comfort. Crusoe's ..."

3.
on Page 64:

"... been the case in this country, it is now discovered that they may be made to grow richer."" Samuel H. Black of Delaware insisted that most farmers sleepwalked for decades "over a mine of wealth, and yet die leaving posterity heirs only to ..."

4.
on Page 76:

"... soil, from improper modes of tillage continue annually to diminish, these emigrations must and will increase. Nearby, in New Castle, Delaware, Samuel H. Black also spoke worriedly against the trend and urged his fellow farmers to discover "the intrinsic value of arable land": ..."

5.
from Back Matter:

"... 1818), iii. 45. Garnett, "Defects in Agriculture," 55-57; Garnett, "Address", Warden, Statistical , Political, and Historical Account, vol. 2. 46. Black, "Essay on the Intrinsic Value of Arable Land." 47. Memoirs of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, 1818, 1826. 48. ..."

6.
from Back Matter:

"... history, civil engineering, manufactures, and agriculture. The only older institution, The Military Academy at West Point, manly taught engineering. 86. Black, "Essay on the Intrinsic Value of Arable Land"; Memoirs of the Society of Virginia for Promoting Agriculture. 87. See Thomas ..."

7.
from Back Matter:

"... Promoting Agriculture, Address to the Citizens of Pennsylvania on the Importance of a more Liberal Encouragement of Agriculture , 7; Black, "Essay on the Intrinsic Value of Arable Land." William Tilghman , chief justice of Pennsylvania and a vice president of ..."

8.
from Back Matter:

"... States, 1620-1860. Washington, D.C. Carnegie Institution of Washington , 1925. Birkbeck, Morris. Letters from Illinois. London Taylor and Hessey, 1818. Black, S. H. "An Essay on the Intrinsic Value of Arable Land " American Farmer 2 (April 7, 1820). Blake, John ..."

9.
from Index:

"... Hammond, 136, 18-1, 247)718-1 Benton, Thomas Hart, 69, 93-95, 237)7-19 Berry, Wendell, 184, 219 Biddle, Nicholas, 46 Bareback, Morris, 99-102 Black, Samuel H , 46-47, 64, 76-77 Bordley, John Beale, 26, 33 Boyd, David, 207 Brady, Nyle, 14, 51 Brewer, William, ..."

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Larding the Lean Earth: Soil and Society in 19th C. America