64 
The above remarks indicate a satisfactory reason for the long con- 
tinuance of the exhaustive process of culture upon the rich lands of the 
Northwest. Economic considerations of immediate weight and bearing 
are now pleading for a recuperative system, and it is scarcely possible 
that such should plead in vain. The use of barn-yard manure has be- 
come quite general. The burning of straw and other residual organic 
matter is less frequent than formerly. Clovering, green-soiling, trench- 
plowing, subsoiling, and other improvements have been extensively 
introduced. 
The rich soils of the new counties of Wisconsin have, as yet, given 
but little uneasiness to farmers in regard to an ultimate but inevitable 
exhaustion, but in the older portions of the State this question has 
assumed a practical aspect. Some intelligent and successful efforts 
have been made to maintain the productiveness of lands by a careful 
saving of domestic fertilizers, by stock-feeding, and by improved pro- 
cesses of culture. Many aggravated cases of a contrary character, 
however, are reported. 
West of the Mississippi the farming of a very large number of coun- 
ties is thus graphically described by our correspondent in Linn County 
lowa: . 
No efforts are made toward the improvement of the soil, but on the contrary the 
most strenuous eitorts to impoverish it by getting from it all that can be got and 
giving nothing in return. Barn-yard manure, if it can so be called, only is used. 
Systematic soil-improvement is merely nominal in from one-half to 
three-fourths of the counties reported, yet there are isolated cases of 
the most advanced and intelligent effort. Between these extremes 
there is a wide range of effort, which on the whole gives promise 
of improvement. The exhaustion of some of the richest lands in the 
older portions of these States has challenged attention to a grow- 
ing necessity for recuperative culture, and hence domestic fertilizers 
are coming into more general use. Commercial fertilizers are occasion- 
ally tried, but with no remarkable results. Clovering is inereasing, 
while subsoiling and other improved processes are becoming more 
frequent. Our correspondence abounds in severe strictures upon the 
general status of farming in these States. In the Territories farming is 
too new and unsettled, and the virgin soil too recently brought under 
cultivation to secure any attention to this matter. 
On the Pacific coast sammer-fallowing and irrigation are the leading 
methods of soil recuperation. The dry summers render it difficult to 
rot manure sufficiently to render it serviceable in fertilization. What 
little is made is in many cases absorbed by the garden or truck-pateh, 
leaving but little for field crops. In Placer County, California, it is 
estimated that summer-fallowing increases the subsequent wheat-yield 
at least 20 per cent. In Linn County, Oregon, grain is cut with “* head- 
ers” which leave most of the straw on the ground. This is plowed un- 
der and forms a very good fertilizer. The large area of land owned by 
individual farmers admits of frequent and continued resting from 
cropping. 
THE PROFITABLE AND RESTORATIVE IN OUR AGRICUL- 
TURE. ; 
The questions in our March circular, numbered four, five and six, 
were designed to elicit facts showing the comparative prevalence of 
“restorative” farming, (any system by which the farm annually be- 
comes more productive by the return of an equivalent for that which 
