58 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



many others, — while those which depend upon seeds or tubers 

 for their profit sooner manifest to the cultivator the necessity of 

 a different system of cultivation. 



This fact has been recognized by the farmer for many years, 

 without, however, leading to the general understanding of its 

 true explanation, for all cultivators have seen very highly 

 manured potato fields giving but small results in tubers, because, 

 to adopt the language in common use, they have run too much 

 to stalk, while frequent complaint is made that turnips or carrots 

 have not kept well, because the ground in which they grew was 

 too rich. Rye, also, and oats, give a large yield of straw in 

 proportion to the grain, in soil made very rich by manures. 



The first question which comes up in the mind of the agri- 

 culturist, when disease invades his crop, is, how can it be cured? 

 We answer that by simple medication, cure is never to be looked 

 for. 



The only process by which such a result can be brought about, 

 is to remove the predisposing cause, the stimulating system of 

 cultivation, by which the vitality, or, in common language, the 

 constitution of the plant has been over worked. But as profit 

 is the object of the farmer, we cannot afford to go back to nature's 

 simple, and somewhat tedious process of cultivation, and at 

 present the loss by disease is not commonly so extensive, except 

 in the potato, as to make it to us a subject of great uneasiness. 



If, however, any plan can be devised by which we can secure 

 our seeds from more healthy parents, a great deal may be accom- 

 plished to save our successors in future generations from great 

 loss. If it were possible for each farmer to plant a field which 

 has been uncultivated for many years, in which nature has been 

 at work to restore the previously exhausted elements of vegetable 

 nutrition, and to apportion his various crops in such a field in 

 the quantities necessary to furnish his seeds, and this process 

 should be followed year after year, healthier seeds would be 

 obtained, and would bear for a time the debilitating effects of 

 high cultivation, without engendering deterioration ; but, on 

 the contrary, with improvement in the amount produced, avoid- 

 ing always to propagate from stimulated crops, and the time 

 must come when a proposition like this will force itself upon 

 thinking men, if continued profit would be obtained. 



