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enable him for years to come, to receive the richest reward from the 

 soil, while at the same time that soil should be continually impro- 

 ving. 



Any system which proceeds on any other basis than this, will run 

 out the very best of land. It is a truth which will always remain, that 

 the soil, though a bountiful paymaster, will cease its dividends, unless 

 its capital be sacredly supplied. I have often thought of the amount 

 of meaning contained in a remark of John Randolph, to the tobacco 

 planters of Virginia. 



They complained that their crops were becoming less and less. " Why," 

 said Randolph, " you are in the habit of annually barreling up your 

 soil, and sending it to Europe." How many of us are barreling up our 

 soils and sending them to New York in the form of flour ! The sub- 

 ject of manuring is one of deep interest to every farmer. On its judi- 

 cious and continued application, with economy in the expenditure of 

 labor, so as to render the farm profitable, depends the success of the 

 farmer. Any system which is so expensive as to overbalance the in- 

 come of the farmer will not answer. But that system which leads to 

 improvement, and at the same time adds to the wealth of the farmer, 

 is the system we need. 



We have in this county a great variety of soils. In some localities 

 lands are very rich, and would seem to those who cultivate them, to be 

 inexhaustible in their natural resources. I well remember when a boy, 

 to have heard stories of the Genesee country in New York, (as it was 

 then called,) that its richness was beyond a parallel. It was said that 

 farmers there could make no use of manure, and when it crowded too 

 hard upon their bams, they would cart it off and dump it in the river. 

 If the river was too far off, they had no alternative left but to more 

 their barns to some other place, and thus be rid of it. 



I will not vouch for the truth of the above report, but one thing I 

 do know for certainty, i. e., it is not so now in the Genesee country* 

 One of the very first objects of the farmer in that section, is to make 

 the most manure possible on his premises, and then purchase large 

 quantities of plaster, lime, leached ashes, &c., and carefully spread them 

 upon his lands. Our County is new and very productive, but every 

 crop we take from our farms, exhausts their natural resources, and as a 

 consequence will, sooner or later, diminish the abundant returns they 

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