530 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



properly ventilating the building. Again, as the 

 owner only visited the animals for about an hour 

 each day, and that in the afternoon, he was not 

 ])resent at the closing or opening of the cowhouse, 

 consequently he could not know the mode of ven- 

 tilation, or if any existed. 



Since his loss, the owner has had the cowhouse 

 thoroughly cleansed and purified, and its ventila- 

 tion improved by openings made through the walls. 



upon the surface of the floor, and by a funnel in- 

 troducing pure air from without through a large 

 grating in its centre, by which means pure air is 

 now diffused over the whole floor, the foul escaping 

 from a large ventilator through the roof, since 

 which all sickness has entirely disappeared. 



The whole number of cattle lost is twenty-seven. 

 — Veterinarian. 



SOIL: ITS EXHAUSTION. 



'I'he general exhaustion of the soil is often re- 

 ferred to by agricultural writers ; and while we 

 freely admit that districts may be exhausted for 

 current purposes, still it is perfectly evident, upon 

 a thorough examination of nature's laws, so 

 far as now understood, that the general fertility of 

 the world at large cannot be materially lessened as 

 a whole, and as the advancing education renders 

 practical operators more intimate with science (for 

 in their hands alone can science materially assist 

 agriculture), the amoimt of vegetable, and conse- 

 quently of animal product, will be materially in- 

 creased. 



As to sectional exhaustion, it may be thus 

 viewed : Take, as an example, the Atlantic slope 

 of the United States. The soil contains an inex- 

 haustible amount of the primaries which go to 

 make up the entire constituents of plants, by the 

 availing of atmospheric assistance ; but these pri- 

 maries exist in different conditions; that portion 

 which has occupied organic life, and has been re- 

 deposited in the soil by the decay of organisms, is 

 fitted for assimilation and the production of cur- 

 rent crops. This we shall denominate the pro- 

 gressed pabulufri. The other portion, or the unpro- 

 gressed, represented by 95 per cent, of the dry 

 weight of the surface-soil and a still greater portion 

 of tbe subsoil, is incompetent at this time to form 

 part of any organism, except the lichens, mosses, 

 &c., such as originally seized from the rocks, or 

 tlieir debris, what now constitutes the progressed 

 pabulum of the surface-soil. Thus it may be seen 

 that the whole soil may in time and in turn form 

 part of organic life; but that class of organisms 

 now developed, and the means adopted for its pro- 

 duction, will be in use over and over again, and 

 form the progressed pabulum already existent. 

 It will be borne in mind that no portion of this 

 first class ever passes out of existence, although it 

 may change locality by the removal of crops or of 

 animals fed upon those crops. Thus bones and 

 ])otash exported from the United States, or under- 

 going a change of locality within the United States, 

 must denude the portion of soil producing them 

 of phosphate of lime and potash, at least so far as 

 the extent of the progressed portion forming these 

 materials ; and it is this removal, in the form of 

 crops and otherwise, which has so denuded the 

 Atlantic slope, of phosphates, potash, &c. Indeed, 

 we find the same truths already applicable to some 

 of the Western States, and the reduction of the 

 agreable crop of wheat clearly demonstrates this 



fact. It is equally certain, however, as we shall 

 presently show, that other portions of the globe 

 must in turn be rendered more fertile by the re- 

 storation of these materials to the soil elsewhere, 

 and we claim that from natural causes they must 

 find their way back for re-appropriation. 



Thus it will be seen that the more industriously 

 cultivated portions of the globe may, under the 

 style of tillage which has been pursued in many 

 countries, lessen in their powers of production ; but 

 it is not so clearly established that other portions 

 are not progressed in consequence. 



As to the second class, or that portion of the 

 primaries forming a large per-centage of the 

 surface-soil, and a still larger of the subsoil, it has 

 been erroneously looked at by scientific men as 

 having no difference in value with the progressed 

 pabulum ; and the only admission which has been 

 freely made by all, as to its greater adaptability, 

 has referred exclusively to those portions in such 

 proximate conditions as are recognized by the 

 word organic. All the sixty-four primaries of 

 nature are to be found in this second or unpro- 

 gressed class; and as they find their way to the 

 surface, or as the atmosphere is admitted to per- 

 colate more deeply into the soil, they undergo 

 chemical changes which prepare them to commence 

 their routine of action in the second class, and 

 thus in turn they must eventually, i. e. in all time, 

 go to form organisms, first of lower classes, and 

 gradually, by decay of these, those of a higher order. 

 If this were not true, the continued disturbance and 

 fallow condition of soils, without the use of fer- 

 tilizing materials, could not render them fertile, as 

 we continually find to be the case. 



But what does become of the results of plants 

 and animals which go to form the food of man, and 

 which decay in the various ways which the wants 

 of man suggest ? All adroit that the organic por- 

 tions, or those which were originally received from 

 the atmosphere, are restored to it, whatever may 

 be the means of consuming the crops, while the 

 inorganic portions are either returned to the soil 

 from natural causes readily understood, and re- 

 produce themselves in new form, or find their way 

 through creeks, rivers, &c., to the ocean, which 

 becomes the receptacle of immense amounts of de- 

 cayed organism, until at this 'date every gallon of 

 ocean water has an excess of weight, as compared 

 with the water of our springs. This excess is 

 principally of progressed inorganic matter, capable, 

 under certain circumstances, of being restored to 



