458 State Board of Agriculture, &c. 



when carefully analyzed will be found to have lost some of 

 its essential elements, taken from it, ordinarily, by previous 

 cropping. It may prove that but one element is wanting, 

 and that one which may be easily and cheaply supplied, 

 while all the others may be present in abundance. It is for 

 us to learn the cause of failure, whatever it may be, and 

 apply the cheapest and most effective remedy. 



This implies, also, a thorough knowledge of the constitu- 

 ents of the manures which we apply, that we may not waste 

 our money by the application of such elements as the soil 

 already contains in sufficient quantities, or of those spurious 

 fertilizers which do not possess the virtues claimed for them 

 by their venders. Nature performs no miracles. She can 

 not produce a perfect work without proper materials with 

 which to build, any more than the mechanic or artisan ; but 

 with them and favoring circumstances, she performs won- 

 ders. 



EXHAUSTION OF SOILS. 



* 



We should know what crops are least, and what most 

 exhausting to our soils, that we may not rob nature of her 

 material with which to build, and that we may correctly com- 

 pute the profits derived from the production of each. The 

 cost of seed and labor, and the amount of our receipts for 

 the crop, are not the only items which make up the account 

 by which we determine our profits. We may receive twice 

 the income from a field of tobacco that we do from the same 

 field when in clover, and after allowing for the difierence in 

 the cost of seed and labor, and also for the exhaustion of 

 plant food from our soil, find the clover to be much the most 



