148 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



acid, potasli, aud lime of her crops in the sewers of her great cities, to be 

 washed out and lost forever in the ocean, they would have been forgotten 

 a thousand years ago. 



Great Britain and the other states of ^Northwestern Europe have felt 

 the pressure of this inexorable law for the last two or three centuries ; 

 but instead of resorting to conquest, as Kome did, to jiut off the evil 

 day, these nations have sought a remedy in commerce and manufactur- 

 ing, by which to draw from foreign lands the elements of their fertility, 

 to bury these in the sewers of their own cities. How well they have 

 succeecled in this the diminished crops and failing fertility of our fields 

 bear abundant evidence. This Atlantic plain which once produced lux- 

 uriant crops of wheat, corn, and tobacco, but now much of it given up 

 to old-field pines, is a melancholy witness of their sagacity and our folly. 



After the researches of Sir Humphry Davy had unfolded the impor- 

 tance of this subject. Great Britain adopted a new policy and began the 

 importation of fertilizers to supply her fields with that which her cities 

 are wasting ; and shortly the other nations of Western Europe followed 

 the example thus set. Krepp, in his work on sewage, says: 



The fertilizers imported [into England] consist chiefly of bones and guano. For the 

 lirst-named article large depots have heeu established all over the continent of Europe, 

 to receive whatever scavengers and bone-pickers can possibly collect in streets, courts, 

 butchers' stalls, &c. ; and ship-loads of bones are thus annually sent to England, 

 amounting from Bavaria alone to some 6,000 tons. Besides this, nearly all the old pub- 

 lic cemeteries have been ransacked, among others the catacombs of Sicily, which are 

 now completely exhausted. Nay, even the solemn repose of the warriors fallen on the 

 glorious fields of Leipsic, Waterloo, and the Crimea have been disturbed. 



In 1841 England began to import guano from the Chincha Islands, 

 and from that date to 1860 the average importation was 20,000 tons, but 

 in 1865 it rose to 170,945 tons, valued at $8,425,000. It is, however, 

 estimated that the city of London alone transmits through her sewers 

 into the Thames ammonia, phosphoric acid, and potash equal to all that 

 is contained in the eight millions of dollars' worth of guano imported. 

 In other European countries, though using less guano than England, yet 

 this importation is sufficient to constitute a serious drain on their re- 

 sources. In 1862 Belgium imported 50,270 tons of guano ; France, 

 44,300 ; Germany, 27,644, aud the United States 12,470 tons. Since 

 that time the importation has rather diminished than increased, owing 

 to the advanced price from the failing supply. But even a superficial 

 observer will see that no importation of the elements of fertility from 

 abroad can long atone for the violation of this law of compensation, in 

 its spirit, however we may conform to its letter. The penalty, though 

 long deferred, must finally be paid. Nature is very exacting. In her 

 economy she wastes nothing. A vegetable grows at the expense of the 

 air and the earth, but when its life is ended, it in time returns to each 

 of these every atom which each has furnished, distributing its returns 

 with even-handed justice. Through the vegetable world animals de- 

 rive the materials for their growth, and for the repair of their tissues 

 from the same source of supply, the air above and the earth beneath. 

 While an animal is growing it returns to these sources daily less than 

 it takes by the amount of its increase in weight, but after it has attained 

 its full growth, the equal balance of giving and receiving is adjusted. 

 After this, if the animal is gaining in flesh or fat, it takes more than it . 

 returns ; on the other hand, if it is losing, it gives more than it takes ; 

 and finally when it dies, it returns to the earth and air the original 

 capital which it borrowed in its growth, and, when the two sides of the 

 ledger of life are compared, not an atom of matter is lost. The system 



