314 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



phosphates, have been largely exhausted ; and, in order to reani- 

 mate its now slumbering energies, and renew its fertility, these 

 must be restored. 



"We know that potash, soda, magnesia, lime, phosphoric and 

 sulphuric acids, enter largely into the composition of grass. 

 These, then, should in needed measure, be combined to form 

 some of the essential restoratives which we must endeavor to 

 supply to the soil when this important crop deteriorates. 



In the use of certain proportions of unleached ashes, common 

 salt, bone-dust and plaster, this object may be in a great degree 

 attained. I would not say that it is, in any case, absolutely 

 necessary to supply all the constituent principles of grass to the 

 soil at one and the same time ; for we know that the earth is a 

 great store-house and laboratory, in which important chemical 

 changes are constantly taking place, producing the various 

 combinations which enter into vegetable life ; and that she is 

 furnished more abundantly with some of these essentials than 

 with others ; and hence her need of an artificial supply of some 

 one or more of these will soon occur. But I would say, that in 

 so far as she becomes exhausted or weakened, in any consider- 

 able measure, in any of these materials, they must be promptly 

 and efficiently restored by the hand of art and science. 



When we remember that every blade of grass that grows takes 

 up a certain portion of these substances from the soil, and con- 

 sider the innumerable millions that have been nourished through 

 more than a century, and are now growing, it becomes obvious, 

 and needs no argument to show, that, if she is not proportion- 

 ately compensated, vegetation must necessarily famish, and man 

 and beast, so far as they depend upon this production, suffer 

 immeasurably. We should not forget that nature is never false 

 to us, nor stingy in her products ; but, with the necessary sup- 

 ply of food for her operations, she will abundantly satisfy every 

 reasonable demand. 



Another fruitful cause of this deterioration is found in allow- 

 ing brush-wood and brambles, foul grasses, and various noxious 

 herbs and weeds to mature and scatter their seed over the land, 

 which, taking root, have finally become the prevailing growths of 

 the field. These must be entirely exterminated, root and 

 branch, as they overpower and destroy all the finer, more deli- 



