471 



Infinite Wisdom has so created the earth, that it requii-es that which 

 it produces, or its equivalent, to feed it, that it may produce again. This 

 is a /aw of Nature. Hence, wherever this law is violated by withhold- 

 ing from the earth its equivaleht to what it produces, just in the same 

 proportion she is weakened and rendered less producti\'e. The most 

 stately and thrifty forests, are where tlie foliage falls upon the roots; 

 this decomposes and feeds them, that the parent tree may flourish and 

 produce again. Where the foliage is destroyed by fire or any other 

 cause, the soil becomes more and more sterile, in the proportion that veg- 

 etation is removed, till it is made a perfect barren. If man would let the 

 forests alone, God has so ordered, that it would forever sustain itself — 

 but in the changes, indispensable to agriculture, it is different. 



We cannot return the same weight in nourishment that we take 

 from the soil ; there must, in the very nature of the case, in all the va- 

 rious changes, which a crop, taken from the soil must undergo before 

 it is prepared to be returned, be a great loss. For this contingency, there 

 is, it is believed, ample provision made, by the wise Ruler of all things. 

 Wherever the climate, soil and water invite the husbandman to come, 

 there is, it is believed, placed within his reach, ample substitutes for all 

 the waste attending cultivation, which, if properly applied, will not on- 

 ly enable him to keep the earth as good as he found it, but if neces- 

 sary, greatly enrich it. This substitute, is not in all places the 

 same, or alike easily obtained. It consists, a.s furnished in a state of 

 Nature, principally of peal, lime and plaster, or gypsum, and where 

 these are not. He who feeds the young ravens when they cry, can cause 

 the birds of the air to flutter over, and drive the ocean to manufacture 

 guano, so as to leave man without excuse for not making the earth 

 richer and richer. 



In this County we have the three former in great abundance. We - 

 have no excuse for exhausting our lands; experience, tested well by 

 experiment in the old improved sections of our country, proves that 

 even plaster alone, properly applied to the grasses, has raised some of 

 the lightest soils, which had been abandoned for years, as barren, to 

 produce bountiful crops. In this County, then, where we have such an 

 abundance of plaster, we have no excuse for letting our lands run down, 

 but on the contrary, every encouragement to make them more and more 

 productive. If we exhaust oiu- land at this early history of our Coun- 



