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culture. Likewise it must be borne in mind that whatever mechanical 

 appliances may be used — horse or steam power — for bringing the soil 

 into a proper tilth, it is necessary and essential to success that a 

 favourable and fitting time be chosen for theii" use, for on this the 

 benefit derivable from the various operations of tillage mainly depends. 

 The hope may be expressed that the physical properties of the soil, 

 as compared -with its chemical composition, are now more firmly fixed in 

 the minds of the cultivator, ever reminding him of their close alliance 

 and intimate connection. The soil must no longer be looked upon as 

 " mere dead matter," returning no more than which is put in or added 

 to it, but the agricultural mind must dwell upon and recognise the 

 various constituents of which it is composed, only requiring in a 

 majority of instances to be converted, by well-timed manipulation, into 

 active agents for the production of plant life. This would strongly 

 urge the necessity that the farmer should be to a certain degree 

 scientific, placing confidence in the teachings of those who, by life- 

 long study and experiments, have concluded certain problems as to the 

 relation the hitherto considered " dead matter," — the soil, the atmo- 

 sphere, and man's agents — the mechanical appliances, bear to one 

 another, in bringing about a more satisfactory result, in the agricul- 

 tural puzzle. The general and so to speak wide-spread operations of 

 the farm, the tillage of the land, breeding, rearing and fattening of 

 stock, the proper and well-timed harvesting of the products of the 

 soil, purchasing and sale of stock, the numerous other matters which 

 continually present themselves in the management of land, also a clear 

 and concise account, showing the result, must impress all but the 

 most superficial observer that the practical and progressive farmer 

 must be endowed with a mind of considerable ability and resources. 

 Such a man will not, if his heart is in his work, find any difficulty in 

 grasping, from the experience and writings of others, the useful sugges- 

 tions that may be culled therefrom, moulding and forming them, by his 

 own daily experience, on whatever soil he may have in hand, enabling 

 him to discriminate rightly between the appliances requisite to make 

 effective the nutritive elements already in his fields, and those which 

 keep up the lasting productiveness of his soil, which eventually will 

 tend to deserved success. It must be strongly impressed and clearly 

 understood that the mechanical operations of cultivation, however 

 well-timed and deeply performed, do not of themselves add anything 

 to the soil ; they, however, most certainly aid in bringing into activity 

 many constituents now dormant in the ground. The physical and 

 chemical condition of the field will, without doubt, be improved ; but 

 the chemical store has not been increased, only made more come-at- 

 able. ' The power of the soil or land to assimilate and convert to the 

 use of plants the elements of food supplied by the atmosphere is 



