fertility of soil. 123 



Discussion. 



Mr. KiLBRETH of Kennebec County. It is an interesting 

 fact that while the farmers in the older portions of New 

 England are expending vast sums of money for the purpose 

 of restoring to their former fertility the lands that have 

 become exhausted, the farmers of this county are considering 

 the question how to preserve the virgin fertility of its soil. 



In discussing the question we may assume, I think, that 

 the soil will ordinarily retain its fertility when left untouched 

 by the hand of man. The Creator has made provision for 

 this, by the decay of vegetation, by the chemical processes 

 that are taking place beneath the surface, and by the elements 

 imparted to the soil, from the air, water and other sources. 

 It may also be assumed that when brought under cultivation, 

 the land need not lose any of its fertility. It certainly will 

 not, unless cultivation degenerates into devastation. But the 

 question is how? by what means and methods, &c. ? In the 

 remarks I shall make I have two suggestions of a general 

 nature to make : 



First, the land should be protected from all destroying and 

 exhausting agencies so far as possible. These are many. 

 Sometimes fire sweeping through the forests, burning the life 

 out of the soil, does irreparable injury ; in some tracts where, 

 working the hillsides, when improperly protected, heavy rains 

 carry the best of soil into bogs and ponds ; and weeds of all 

 descriptions are allowed to grow in such abundance tliat they 

 make heavier draughts upon the soil than the crop that is 

 cultivated. Now I only make the suggestion, that if you 

 would preserve the soil in its present state of fertility, you 

 must guard against all the agencies that exhaust and impover- 

 ish it. 



Second, to preserve the fertility of the soil, it is necessary 

 to put as much on to it, as you take from it. Now if we 

 admit that the resources of the soil are practicably inexliaus- 

 tible, that many of the elements that enter into the crops 

 grown, are derived from the atmosphere and water, and that 



