494 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



lu {\u essay on t.be producing power of tbe soil, read by jNIr. Levi 

 Stockbridge, the following passage occurs : 



Now Eti<::;l;iucl, -with all its skill, intelligence, thrift, aaci wcaltli, vroukl bo hauutcd 

 by starvation and famine if the people were compelled to rclj' entirely on the prodiiets 

 of their own vsoil. Whatever latent susceptibility this soil may i>os8ess, certain it i« 

 it does not yield snfficient to nourish our people, and but for our peculiar circum- 

 stances we sliould in this respect bo in the straitened condition of the population of 

 China, or else be dependent on the whim or caprice of ,a foreign power for our needed 

 supply. In France, prior to her late disastrous war, wo have a good illustration of 

 what a soil is capable of producing when its cultivators are driven, by foi'coof oircuui- 

 stances, to pursue a wise and judicious system of tillage. Its eutiro territory is less in 

 extent than the State of Texas, yet in ItiGS it produced more bushels of all the cereals 

 except Indian corn thau the whole United States. Thatyearaiiopulation larger by sev- 

 eral millions than our own, and more domestic animals than we possess, were sup- 

 ported, and agricultural products to the value of firiS 1,000,000 were sent abroad, while 

 our agricultural exports that year amounted to but $441,000,000. This Frauco has 

 doae, and v.ill do again when her industry returns to its accustomed channels. 



He then alludes to the impression prevaleiit among the people of 

 New England, that the soil is worn out antl exhausted, and says that the 

 race of man will not be continued on this earth long enough to exhaust 

 its soil of the elements of fertility if it pursues the system of culture 

 which nature's teachings indicate. If in some localities sterility is ap- 

 parent and the soil fails to yield its increase, it is because the tiller has 

 been a transgressor of natural law, and a persistent transgressor, for 

 nature does not succumb to ill usage until it has been long persisted in. 

 Soil productions, plants, and animals are simply soil changed in form, and 

 not the result of anew exercise of the creative power, or, alone, a mysteri- 

 ous recombination of any materials we may place iu it. As the material is 

 of exhaustless abundance, the celerity of the change and the profusion 

 of the products will depend entirely on the combined action of all the 

 great causes of change, and the perfect harmony with which they work. 

 If we would iiicrease the producing power of the soil, we must strive to 

 prevent the action of all causes which interfere injuriously with its pro- 

 ducing forces, and, if possible, aid to make their action more potent 

 and rapid. These forces, as primal agents, are water, frost, air; and, 

 second, the chemical influences and affinities which these causes start 

 into activity. They are the great iiowers of the natural world, and are 

 so far beyond our control that we can only liope to slightly aid them 

 when they work far good, or retard or tone them down when their ac- 

 tion is injurious, and then only by aid given to some counter natural in- 

 fluence. After pointing out the effects of these causes or influences 

 upon the soil, and the loss by exhaustion of some of its principal natural 

 ■ elements, Mr. Stockbridge closes his essay as follows : 



Manures are indispensable for successful agriculture, but they should bo put into 

 the soil not simply to bo reconverted into useful plant organisms, but also for the sake 

 of their specific aid iu converting the material of the soil into plant food, and increas- 

 ing its aggregate quantity. To accomplish this object successfully I'equires as much 

 intelligence in selecting the luanrtre required in a given case, and in determining the 

 best mode of its application and action, ;is in selecting and applying it for its iutluoneo 

 on specific jdauts. I5y applying manure for the soil, there is great probability of our 

 harvesting larger crops than if it was applied for special plant production. Take an 

 ■example : A given acre of land may have in its soil-combinations limo sufficient to 

 supply the amount needed by any crop you v.'ish to grow upon it. But it has none 

 free to act as an alkali on the other elements of the soil. The two great clas:ies 

 of matter are there in proper proportions, and yet it is dead and inactive, and pi'.ys 

 poorly for it.s cultivation. Make an application of lime, though it is not needed as food 

 for the }»Iant you wish to raise. It will act as an alkali on the organic matter, decom- 

 posing it and forming carbonic acid and ammonia ; these will act on the other ele- 

 ments of the soil and decompose them. The v/hole soil becomes alive with chemi- 

 cal action, and a series of changes takes place, each one of which develops food out of 

 soil-material. Take another case : A i-)iece oi land containing, apparently, all the ele- 



