406 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



li The reason why, in certain years, the influence of the best 

 and most plentiful manuring is scarcely perceptible, is that, 

 during the moist and rainy springs and summers, the phosphates 

 and other salts with the alkaline bases, as also the soluble ammo- 

 niacal salts, are entirely or partially removed. A great amount of 

 rain and moisture removes, in the greatest quantity, the very 

 substances which are most indispensable to the plants at the time 

 they begin to mature and form seeds. The system of draining 

 which of late has been so extensively followed in England 

 brings the land into the state of a great filter, through which the 

 soluble alkalies are drawn off in consequence of the percolation 

 of rain, and it must, therefore, become more deficient in its 

 soluble efficacious elements. Attentive farmers must have ob 

 served that, after a certain time, the quality of the grain on land 

 laid dry according to this principle deteriorates ; that the produce 

 of grain bears no due proportion to the produce of straw.&quot; 



&quot; What is more evident, after these remarks, than that intelligent 

 farmers must strive to give to the soil the manuring substances 

 in such a state as to render possible their acting favorably on 

 the plants the whole time of their growth. Art must find out 

 the means of reducing the solubility of the manuring substances 

 to a certain limit, in a word, of bringing them into the same 

 state in which they exist in a most fertile virgin soil, and in 

 which they can be best assimilated by the virgin plants.&quot; 



&quot; The attention which I have paid to this subject has been 

 crowned with success. I have succeeded in combining the 

 efficacious elements of manure in such a manner as that they 

 will not be washed away ; and thus their efficacy will be doubled. 

 Owing to this, the injurious consequences of the present system 

 of draining are removed ; agriculture is placed upon as certain 

 principles as well arranged manufactories ; and, instead of the 

 uncertainty of mere empiricism, the operations of agriculture 

 may be carried on with security ; and, in place of waiting the 

 results of our labors with anxiety and doubt, our minds will be 

 filled with patience and confidence.&quot; 



Such are the brilliant visions which are held up before the 

 mind of the farmer ; and such is the distrust which this great 

 man would throw over the enterprising practice of draining. It 

 is not quite easy to understand how the plants are to take up 

 their food but in a condition of the most minute solution ; nor 



