lOS THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



destroyed all the weeds, aud allowed the air to penetrate to the 

 roots. The tliree-feet spaces were treated the same as fallows, and" 

 were thoroughly turned over every way, and exposed to the air, up- 

 to the time when the wheat met over tlie three-feet intervals. After 

 the crop was cut, the three-feet fallowed spaces were dibbled with 

 wheat, and the part which bore tlie wheat in its turn remained 

 fallow. The Kev. Mr. Smith, w^ho followed this method for some 

 years, reported that he gained a profit of £4 or £5 per acre every 

 year, taking his wheat crop from it without intermission, without 

 adding a particle of visible manure to the land ; and yet he has been 

 manuring all the time, for through the continual stirring about of 

 the soil, and exposure of every part to the action of the air, a 

 constant absorption of materials has been taking place from the air, 

 ■which has produced a similar result to that which would follow an 

 actual dressing with manure. This will show how necessary it is to 

 subject land to a proper working, and that when persons hear the 

 frequent admonition to drain, dig deep and often, and they neglect 

 the injunction, they incur a more serious loss than they may at 

 first imagine. 



One of the principal duties of the agriculturist is to preserve all 

 substances which will by their decomposition into manures repro- 

 duce vegetable life. The crops which are reared upon and exported 

 from the soil every year, make a constant drain upon it of those 

 substances of which vegetable matter is composed ; and in order to 

 cultivate well, it is necessary to add to the land those constituents 

 which are so continually being taken from it. But it is a great 

 mistake to suppose that because artificial manure is used, that 

 therefore it is not necessary to take care of refuse and litter. It 

 was never intended by the introduction of artificial manures to 

 supersede the use of the ordinary ones, but only to assist them ; for 

 it will be evident that only a part of that which is annually exported 

 from land in the shape of seeds, roots, fruits, meat, etc., is returned 

 to it in the shape of farmyard dung, and that, supposing every 

 particle of refuse could be returned to it with the greatest care, 

 there would still be an impoverishment going on, and therefore a 

 necessity of imported manure : but still the refuse is very valuable, 

 and great care should be taken of it, as its loss 'is ruinous waste. 

 Land is subject to another kind of loss besides that of exported 

 vegetable matter ; this occurs by the action of the rain. This water 

 has the property of dissolving all the most valuable substances 

 contained in the soil. If it had not this property, plants would be 

 unable to grow, and they avail themiseives of it by taking up by 

 means of their roots water containing soluble material. But during 

 the winter months a considerable quantity of soluble material is 

 carried away by the action of the water failing from above, and this 

 is a loss which it is impossible to avoid, for if the water did not dis- 

 solve, it would be impossible to grow plants upon the laud, although 

 it might contain every necessary ingredient. This kind of loss takes 

 place to a greater extent on hilly lands than on flat ones ; for in the 

 latter the water passes off" so slowly that it does not carry away a 

 great percentage of valuable matter, while in the former case, the 



