152 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



was scarcely a pine-tree on the field. Therefore, if we observe 

 the handiwork of the all- wise Beneficence, it would seem to 

 strengthen the conviction to which you have arrived in refer- 

 ence to the succession of crops. Moreover, in those countries 

 where agriculture has been pursued for centuries, they have 

 found by experience that certain crops exhaust certain elements 

 in the soil, and therefore a different crop flourishes more advan- 

 tageously as the successor of the one by which those elements 

 of the soil were exhausted. There is such a thing as adaptation 

 of the soil to the plant that is grown upon it. I recollect that 

 in my boyhood a neighbor of ours, not more than half a mile 

 from our house, could raise balm in great abundance, but could 

 not succeed in raising sage, while my mother could raise sage 

 but had no success in raising balm. The result was an inter- 

 change of balm for sage, without duty. It was an illustration 

 of the reciprocity principle. Whether the production would 

 have been promoted if there had been a duty placed upon the 

 articles, I leave for others to determine ; but that was a matter 

 of mutual exchange — of free trade — and resulted advanta- 

 geously. The conclusion to which I arrived in relation to 

 it was this : that there were certain elements of adaptation in 

 the soil where the balm grew that were not adapted to sage, 

 and, vice versa, that there were certain elements in the soil 

 where the sage grew that were not adapted to balm. So that, 

 if we will devote our attention to observing the facts as they 

 arise, and endeavor to seize hold of, and profit by, those which 

 come under our observation, we shall, I believe, make progress 

 in relation to this matter of agriculture in all its departments. 

 Therefore, I regard that man as the most successful cultivator 

 who most closely and keenly observes, before entering into the 

 cultivation of the crop that he may wish to raise, the conditions 

 of the soil in which it is to grow ; and every attempt to force a 

 growth contrary to the existing conditions of climate and soil 

 must in the long run result in failure. Some peculiar condi- 

 tions of climate and season in a particular year may operate to 

 make the attempt successful, but in the long run, what is not 

 adapted to the soil will not be profitable to the farmer. 



Then, if we look at this matter further, we find that in cer- 

 tain sections of the country fruit is grown very successfully — 

 in some localities, apples ; in other localities, pears. So far as 



