COUNTY EEPORTS. 48T 



merely theory, but the result of actual experience. I regret that 

 my time will not permit me more extended remark upon this 

 subject, being, as it is, one of the greatest importance to the 

 farmer. 



But do not understand me that deep plowing is to be an in- 

 falliable panacea for light crops. The inorganic elements which 

 crop after crop takes from the soil must be replaced in some way, 

 or else the soil will ultimately lose its fertility. This is usually 

 effected by carefully collecting the waste vegetable matter of the 

 farm and returning it to the land in the form of manure. With- 

 out the addition of mineral manures this will fail ultimately in 

 a country like ours, where the consumer has his home so far 

 from the point of production. 



The effect of a commercial policy like ours, unconnected with 

 manufactures, has its ultimate tendency in waste and desolation. 



But in countries which consume more of the productions of 

 the soil than they produce, and where a judicious course of crop- 

 ping is pursued, there will be an increase in fertility. This 

 brings me to speak of the course of cropping which has proved 

 very effective in some parts of the country. 



No farmer should cultivate more land than he can manui'e 

 hountifully every four or five years. If a crop of corn, potatoes, 

 turnips, &c., follow the application of the manure, the hoe and 

 cultivator will destroy the weeds which generally follow its ap- 

 plication. Corn is the principal of these which we should cul- 

 tivate. It more than supplies the place of the root crops to the 

 English farmer, and must be the crop which follows the applica- 

 tion of manure ; for although nearly 50 per cent, of its inor- 

 ganic matter is phosphoric acid, which, according to chemists, is 

 more than any other cereal extracts, yet owing to the manner of 

 its cultivation, laying the ground bare to the sun's rays, and loos- 

 ening the soil, thus giving the atmosphere a chance to penetrate 

 and its gasses to unite with and disintegrate the inorganic ele- 

 ments, its action is found quite the reverse. A similar advan- 

 tage would result from letting our land lie in fallow once in 

 three or four years, I do not doubt in the least but that we 

 would, by so doing, reap more in three crops than we now do 



