WEST OXFORD SOCIETY. 195 



'aot for exactness, but as indications to you of what you may investi- 

 gate. A knowledge of these things will lead you better to under- 

 stand the rotation of crops, a subject, I think, pretty well understood 

 by farmers in this county in practice, if not in tbeory. It would 

 not be an unprofitable question to ascertain what per cent, of our 

 manures might be saved from waste, and to learn also what elements 

 are lost by rain and what by fermentation. 



Every intelligent farmer among you is aware that soil taken from 

 beneath a building contains a large amount of nitre. It is an inter- 

 esting question what application may be made of this fact to the 

 management of soils. You may ask the question, how it is that a 

 beet seed scarcely weighing a grain, can be able to produce in a 

 fiingle season twenty-eight pounds of vegetable matter. It would 

 be well to ask yourselves the question, why a well pulverized soil is 

 so beneficial to the growth of plants, whether it is not for the pur- 

 pose of admitting air into the soil in addition to other reasons. You 

 might inquire whether the ruta baga and other turnips would not be 

 the cheapest, and, on the whole, the best food for your hogs in their 

 growing state. 



Judging from what I have seen and heard in different parts of 

 the State, many of you might find it as convenient and as profitable 

 to have a cranberry patch as it is to have a garden. Why should 

 ■not every orchard have attached to it at least a dozen trees of sweet 

 apples'? Every farmer in good circumstances should make arrange- 

 ments to have something from his garden each day in the year, if 

 necessary. These little things that come from the garden enrich 

 one's table wonderfully. From experience I find that I can com- 

 mence cutting from mj garden a supply for the table on the first 

 week in May. Let us see the order. First, from a row of cives, 

 second, from asparagus, third, from rhubarb and onions, fourth, from 

 currants, after which an abundant supply may be obtained from 

 various sources. 



Another index of progress in the right direction is an improved 

 pasturage. Plowing up and improving old pastures where it can be 

 done, will do much to improve the condition of stock, and especially 

 the dairy. 



There is a certain limit to all vegetable and animal products, but 

 ^ou are to aim at the greatest degree of development in every 



