[11] 



will singe out of existence those on &quot;poor&quot; land; and if full justice 

 is done to it by deep tillage, it will equally secure them against such 

 excess of wet weather as would be fatal to poor and stunted seedlings, 

 grown on &quot; worn&quot; soil. And last, but not least, this comparative cer 

 tainty with which the farmer can count upon remunerative crops, enables 

 him to forecast his resources to vastly greater advantage, and with little 

 risk of serious mistakes. He knows what purchases he is justified in 

 making at the time when they will be most advantageous to him ; secur 

 ing him those advantages so highly prized in all other pursuits, of 

 steady and certain profits, with little or no risk; save from extraordinary 

 events not susceptible of being included in forecasts, by either the 

 farmer or any other business man. 



FAT YEARS AND LEAN YEARS. 



From providential causes, there will always be &quot;fat years&quot; and &quot;lean 

 years,&quot; comparatively speaking. But, extraordinary cases exempted, it 

 is our own fault if we have what may properly be called years of 

 famine, as contra-distinguished from those of average harvests. The 

 terrific famines which even in our times ravage oriental countries, 

 result mainly from the fact that in consequence of the very rude and 

 imperfect mode of cultivation practised there, the issue of the harvest 

 depends almost wholly upon the seasons. With improved methods of 

 agriculture, no such total failures can happen to entire States in the 

 Occident; any more than to China or Japan, where the principle of the 

 maintenance of fertility alone, even with the rudest implements of till 

 age, prevents such disastrous events from assuming a general character. 



How much more ought we to do, with the additional advantages given 

 us by the gigantic progress of the arts and sciences, advancing hand in 

 hand so fast that but few of us are able to fully keep up with their pro 

 gress! And if our advantages are so much greater, how much greater 

 are also our responsibilities for their proper use ! 



Yet if we, on this side of the Atlantic, and especially south of the 

 Ohio, have thus far remained exempt from the scourge of famine, it is 

 more owing to the high native fertility of our yet unexhausted soils, 

 than to our own foresight. Improved implements, too, have been so 

 temptingly set before us, that unwittingly and sometimes almost un 

 willingly, we have in practice adopted some of the principles of .Pro 

 gressive Agriculture, in our Briuly Plows, our cultivators, our cotton 

 gins and presses, our improved varieties of crops and stock. But all 

 the while we have been slow to accept, and slower still to carry into 

 practice, those fundamental principles upon which depends our con- 



