SECRETARY'S REPORT. gj 



To illustrate this principle farther, let us suppose the capital of a 

 merchant commencing business to consist of coin lying in a bank of 

 deposit, and to be composed of eagles, sovereigns, napoleons, roubles 

 and doubloons, which he could draw thence to be employed only for 

 specific purposes, and by no manner of brokerage could he use 

 thcra interchangably, to wit : with the eagles he nn'ght purchase 

 cotton and flour, with the sovereigns cloths and steel, with the napo- 

 leons silks and wines, with the roubles hemp and duck, and with 

 the doubloons sugar and molasses. It surely needs no argument 

 to show that if he employs only a portion of his capital, he is not 

 a farthing the richer for the possession of the rest. So with the 

 farmer — he has deposited in his banks various elements of fertility^ 

 and existing in various proportions. These are of no value to him 

 until drawn oiit, and if it be wise for him to draw at all, it is wise 

 so to adapt his drafts as to obt.ain the greatest amount possible. The 

 cases are unlike in this respect, that while the merchant might draw 

 for only one at a time, the farmer in any crop would draw not for 

 one, but for several, perhaps, for most, but the fact that different 

 crops draw in so different proportions, still leaves a substantial simi- 

 larity between them. 



If we suppose, farther, that the merchant be ignorant of the exact 

 amount of capital thus subject to his drafts,, and of the relative pro- 

 portion of each sort of coin, and has no means of ascertaining but 

 by drawing for it; that he could draw only once a year, in April 

 or jMay, and his drafts be honored or protested in October, we have 

 a case still more nearly parallel to that of the farmer who has an 

 unknown amount of the elements of hay, grain, roots, &c., and 

 existing in unknown proportions ; and it behooves both alike to draw 

 for all they can. The universally acknowledged importance of 

 manure to the farmer is based upon what? Just this: that by its 

 application he restores to the land the needful elements which were 

 removed from the soil in the crops taken off. Now, if by modifying 

 our modes of operation, Ave can more economically employ the ele- 

 ments of fertility which are in the soil, or draw for them in such 

 proportions that we should realize a greater amount of products, it 

 would be an actual gain, equivalent to the addition of as much manure 

 as would suffice to produce the difference; and if we thus effect a 

 gain, we may hold on to it, for it is certain that the greater the 

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