246 THE SYSTEM OP FARM- YARD MANURING. 



than a petition to be allowed to collect ' forestings,' 

 that is, to carry off the natural manure from the 

 forests for the benefit of their fields. They urged that 

 without this (very pitiful) addition to their manure, the 

 future prospects of agriculture in the Palatinate were 

 endangered. In fact, a great quantity of manure is laid 

 out upon the vineyards and tobacco-fields, which give 

 none in return ; hence the increasing want. 



There can be no doubt that in the earhest periods 

 most of our cultivated fields gave a succession of abundant 

 crops, without manuring, as is the case even now with 

 many fields in the United States of America. But no 

 fact has ever yet been more clearly established by expe- 

 rience than this, that in the course of a few generations 

 all such fields are found perfectly unsuited for the growth 

 of wheat, tobacco, and cotton, and that they recover 

 their fertihty only by manuring. 



I know full well that recorded facts have as little 

 weight with ignorant 'practical men' as those of poli- 

 tical history with practical statesmen, who also act 

 according to ' circumstances and contingencies,' and are 

 simply led when they fondly believe they lead. Still, the 

 reflecting mind cannot fail to be struck by the circum- 

 stance, that it is just in countries where the land is most 

 positively known to have given for above 4000 years, 

 without manuring by the hand of man, an uninterrupted 

 succession of abundant crops, that the full action of the 

 great law of restitution is most clearly seen. 



We know, most positively, that the corn-fields in the 

 valley of the Nile and the basin of the Ganges remain 

 permanently fruitful, simply because nature has taken 

 iipon herself to restore the lost condition of productive- 

 ness to the soil in the mud deposited by the inundation 

 of these rivers which gradually raises the land. 



