;[ 356.1 li^ Defects and Bemedies. 



as potash, soda, lime, magnesia, chlorine, phosphoric and sulphuric 

 acids, and ammonia, cannot be made short of this expense, amounting 

 annually to three millions of dollars. An incalculable sum, and all worse 

 than wasted by improvident culture. 



And yet for this amount, constantly accumulating in geometrical ratio, 

 posterity will hold us responsible. Shall we as stewards thus squander 

 our patrimony and beggar posterity ? This is the inevitable result of 

 our present system of tillage. 



Is it not time to seek out, and if possible, apply the remedy. Shall 

 it be delayed until the present millions shall be increased to myriads ; 

 and the power to recovei this waste shall become impossible, so that even 

 an iron necessity can neither invent nor apply a remedy ? 



This physical atrophy, which is now pervading our limbs, will soon 

 be upon our vitals, unless arrested. It has already made a desolation 

 of many of the fairest portions of our goodly heritage. Many of the 

 lands of our older States have been deserted by the inhabitants for the 

 rich virgin soils of the West and South. These are to undergo the same 

 wretched system of depletion, when they in turn will be abandoned. 

 And may we not pertinently ask, what agencies different from those 

 already in existence must be brought into requisition before any material 

 improvement can be realized? Certainly some more rational system 

 must supplant the present, or a fearful future is before us. And such 

 a system must be based on an exact acquaintance with the laws regula- 

 ting vegetable nutrition, and the action of chemical agents upon the 

 soil, in Ihort, upon patient and laborious scientific analysis and experi- 

 ment. Some may be ready to ask, " may we not look with confidence to 

 the numerous agricultural societies, farmers' clubs, and lyceums, now 

 formed and forming, for the rapid improvement and ultimate renovation 

 of our system of agriculture ?" These have had and doubtless will con- 

 tinue to have their beneficial effects. They lead to investigation and 

 awaken a spirit of inquiry. The fairs held by them bring together ex- 

 perienced and successful cultivators, to exhibit the results of their well- 

 directed efforts and skill, and a generous rivalry in the different depart- 

 ments of agriculture, horticulture, &c., is secured. Yet, after all, but 

 few important facts, and fewer general principles, are elicited or brought 

 into available and tangible form. 



There can be no extended classification of facts or analyses had, such 

 as are necessary to the discovery of general laws, in the hurried manner 

 in which our fairs are necessarily conducted. 



We are chiefly employed on such occasions in viewing a series of suc- 

 cessful results, without the time for inquiring into the modus operandi. 



