226 THE SYSTEM OF FAEM-YARD MANURING. 



How paltiy and insignificant do all our discoveries and 

 inventions apjDcar, compared to what is in the power of 

 the agriculturist to achieve ! 



All our advances in arts and sciences are of no avail in 

 increasing the conditions of human existence ; and though 

 a small fraction of society may by their means be gainers 

 in material and intellectual enjoyment, the load of misery 

 weighing upon the great mass of the people remains the 

 same. A hungry man cares not for preaching, and a 

 child that is to learn anything at school must not be sent 

 there with an empty stomach. 



Every step in advance, however, made by agriculture 

 serves to alleviate the sufferings and troubles of mankind, 

 and to make the human mind susceptible and capable of 

 appreciating the good and the beautiful that art and 

 science present to us. Improvements in agriculture con- 

 stitute the only soHd foundation for further progress in 

 all other branches of knowledge. 



We now proceed to consider the changes brought 

 about in the composition of the soil of a given field by 

 cultivation by the system of farm-yard manuring. The 

 cause to which the restoration of the power of produc- 

 tion in the soil by farm-yard manure is attributable is 

 the same in the case of all soils, without exception, how- 

 ever widely the rotations may differ, or whatever be the 

 nature of the crops cultivated upon them. 



By the cultivation of cereals, and the removal of the 

 corn-crops, the arable surface soil loses a certain portion 

 of corn-constituents, which must be restored to it by 

 farm-yard manure, if the fiitm^e crops are to be kept up 

 to the mark of the preceding ones. 



This restoration is effected by the cultivation of fodder- 

 plants, such as turnips, clover, grass, &c., on which the 

 cattle on the farm are fed, and the constituents of which 



