IIQ BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ing strata, with other circumstances that hinder or promote 

 the action. This capacity for continued supply, measures 

 the natural fertility of the soil, and if this equals the crops 

 removed, the soil retains its power of continued production. 



In the economy of the Jews, provision was made for letting 

 the land lie fallow. That the soil might not be exhausted, it 

 was ordered that every seventh year should be a Sabbath of 

 rest to the land ; there was then to be no sowing or reaping, 

 no pruning of vines or gathering of fruits, while what the 

 land produced of itself was to be left to the poor and to the 

 beasts of the field. 



The system of fallow tillage handed down from remote 

 antiquity is invariably pursued in the agriculture of Turkey. 

 It is not as some travellers suppose, on account of the 

 oppression of the government, or of the poverty of the land- 

 owners, that extensive fields, even in the vicinity of the 

 cities, are left to grow up to weeds and thorns. The wealth 

 of the proprietor is measured by the number of acres he can 

 afford to leave untilled. The custom of the more extensive 

 agriculturists is to leave the land tallow six j^ears out of nine. 

 The owner cultivates one-third of his farm for three years, 

 then leaves that portion to lie fallow and takes another third 

 for tillage for three years, and so on in succession. Other 

 proprietors of less extensive possessions cultivate and leave 

 fallow one-half of their fields in the alternate periods of three 

 years. 



Another method of keeping up the fertility of the soil is a 

 judicious rotation of crops. Vegetables differ greatly in 

 their chemical composition and in the method of procuring 

 their food. Successive crops of any one kind continued for 

 a few years, will exhaust the soil of the element most essen- 

 tial to the growth of that particular plant, while other plants 

 might thrive in the same soil. We might call certain j^lants 

 potash plants, since they require a large proportion of this 

 element, such as potatoes and beets. Others would be called 

 lime plants, as wheat, and other nitrogenous plants, from the 

 amount of this food required for their growth. Nature has 



