PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE, MECHANICAL AND CHEMICAL — BETTER FARMING 



NECESSARY. 



The whole of agriculture consists of two classes of operations. 

 One is purely mechanical, and the other is purely chemical. 

 And inasmuch as the mechanical process is simply intended to 

 enable a chemical effect to be produced, agriculture may be said 

 to be the business of producing food by a chemical process. In 

 the new States, where artificial fertilization is never resorted to, 

 agricultural operations are merely mechanical. They plough and 

 sow, reap and thresh, and sell the product, and that is all of it ; 

 and this is continued until the virgin fertility of the soil fails, 

 that is to say, until the alkalies are exhausted, and then they 

 move to a new field. But this process must have an end. It 

 is rapidly approaching. 



Look at wheat culture. The seat of it is still travelling west. 

 It has been gradually removing from the Genesee Valley west- 

 ward, until it has reached Minnesota and Nebraska. In Illinois, 

 which has been called the Garden State of the West, the pro- 

 duction has already fallen to an average of thirteen bushels to 

 the acre. But in Illinois every other person has a horse, while 

 in Massachusetts there is only one horse for every twelve per- 

 sons. The prairie soils are rich in vegetable mould, but are 

 much lighter than the gravelly soils of New England; which 

 have more mineral elements, and are probably therefore more 

 durable and better resist drouth. There will be a reaction, and 

 high farming, requiring more knowledge and intelligence, must 

 become the order of the day, as a remedy for the wasted fertility 

 of the virgin soils of the country. What then ? Look at the 

 farmers of England, Scotland, Belgium and Holland ; see how 

 they make the average crop per acre, upon lands which have 

 been cropped for hundreds of years, double that of the lands of 

 the New World. We shall then say, perhaps, that what has 

 been, can and must be, again. We shall then look a little 

 deeper and more soberly into the mysteries of agriculture than 

 ever. It may become a question in a large part of the country, 

 as it has already in New England, How shall we grow food 

 enough to sustain the population ? We shall have to study and 

 reflect. We shall have to consider the physical condition of the 

 soil, and take it up and analyze it, and ascertain what are its 

 2* 



