XVIII. 



ALKALIS . . . SALT ASHES LIME. 



I DO not know a rood of our country's surface so 

 rich in all the materials which enter into the produc- 

 tion of the Grains, Grasses, Fruits, and Vegetables, 

 which are the objects and rewards of cultivation, 

 that it could not be improved by the application of 

 fertilizers ; if there be such, I heartily congratulate 

 the owners, and advise them not to sell. Nor do I 

 believe that there are many acres so fertile that they 

 would not produce more Indian Corn, more Hemp, 

 more Cotton, and more of whatever may be their ap- 

 propriate staple, if judiciously fertilized. If there be 

 farms or fields originally so good that manure would 

 not increase their yield, I am confident that the first 

 half-dozen crops will have taken that conceit out of 

 them, Prairies and river-bottoms may yield ever so 

 bounteously ; but that very luxuriance of growth in- 

 jures their gradual exhaustion of certain elements of 

 crops, which must needs be replaced or their product 

 will dwindle. Whoever has sold a thousand bushels 

 of grain, or its equivalent in meat, from his farm, has 

 thereby impoverished that farm, unless he has ap- 



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