122 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



understood even by the most scientific. The practice of 

 successful farmers has been greatly improved, and yet there 

 is still room for further improvement in t]ie methods of pro- 

 cedure, especially in the preservation of the fertility of the 

 soil. Shall these beautiful fields now so ready to respond to 

 the demands of 'the husbandmen, be exhausted by injudicious 

 treatment? Shall your sons in time to come abandon these 

 farms you have left them, because they have been worn out 

 and abused? Are you willing to repeat the practice of 

 exhaustive cropping that has wasted the older settled counties 

 of the State, and from which the farmers are slowly recover- 

 ing by means of costly artificial manures and careful tillage ? 

 Lands here that at the present time have such an abundance 

 of plant food that the vegetable increases its growth through 

 the whole season, and scarcely begins its process of reproduc- 

 tion, and your first yield of oats or wheat all runs to straw, 

 by successive cropj^ing will speedily be exhausted, as they 

 yield their life so freely at the demand made upon them. It 

 is the part of prudence to look beyond the present ; so to 

 cultivate that he who hereafter shall till the land may be 

 satisfied, and not have to complain that these fertile fields 

 have become a land which eateth up the inhabitants. A soil 

 once impoverished is with the greatest difficulty restored. 

 The best method to retain the fertility of the soil is to pre- 

 sent the subject in all its importance to the attention of intel- 

 ligent and thoughtful farmers, and they will devise means to 

 keep their farms from running out. 



The minds of the farmers need cultivation, as well as their 

 broad acres. The lessons of history, the facts gathered by 

 extensive observation, the principles discovered by patient 

 research, are rich treasures of wisdom. Education furnishes 

 the kev that unlocks these storehouses of thought to the 

 studious and intelligent agriculturist. Intelligence, industry 

 and economy must succeed in such a rich virgin soil, if the 

 earth is not cheated of her dues. Hire your fields to produce 

 and pay them well. Let not your "land cry against you, and 

 the furrows thereof complain," for then will "thistles grow 

 instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley." 



