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tops of mouutains. Thoy also discovered, that it was necessary to keep 

 up the fertility of the soil by restoring to it those fertilizing ingredients, 

 which had teen taken away by the crops. They are exceedingly care- 

 ful in collecting manure of every description, They place great value 

 on animal and vegetable manures, and are particularly careful of night 

 soil. They do not allow a particle of it to go to waste. They have in- 

 vented many methods of collecting and preserving it. 



In new countries such as Canada, and the United States, where land 

 can be easily procured, manuring has not been much practiced, because 

 the soil is rich and able to produce crops for many years without any 

 application, but it is now seen that a repetition of crops will exhaust 

 even the fertile soils of these countries. If we look to the valley of the 

 St. Lawrence, where the French settlers and their posterity have dwelt 

 for more than 1 50 years, we find the baneful practice of cropping with- 

 out manuring exhibited in full force; there the soil is completely worn 

 out, and almost perfectly useless. Similar effects are to be seen in the 

 Southern and Eastern States. If we look to those valuable collections 

 of Agricultural statistics, the Patent OfEce Reports, we will see many 

 a woeful picture of Southern agriculture, drawn by Southern men. 

 Let us be warned by example. The system that has ruined the soil in 

 Canada, and exhausted the fertility of the Southern and Eastern States, 

 will also destroy Michigan if not checked in time. 



The great secret of manuring, is the returning to the soil a compen- 

 sation for those substances which have been absorbed by the crops. 



Agricultural chemistry is of great service to the modern farmer. It 

 analyzes soils and explains their composition ; describes the composition 

 of plants, and the food on which they exist ; ascertains the value of 

 different manures, and shows how they can be applied. 



An agricultural chemist takes up a plant and weighs it carefully, and 

 sets down its weight, he burns the plant, and finds that a certain por- 

 tion of its weight has been lost ; the organic parts have been consumed 

 or driven away by fire ; they consisted of oxygen, hydrogen, carbonic 

 acid and sometimes nitrogen gases. Ashes alone remain; they are 

 found to contain certain earths and salts, these are the inorganic 2>o,rts; 

 they cannot be discovered in a living plant, yet it is plain they must 

 have existed in some form or other, and they must have been derived 

 either from the atmosphere or the soil. Chemists have discovered that 



