HOW TO OBTAIN A LAKGE YIELD OF CORN. 225 



soil to which it is precisely adapted, to the very soil, 

 in fact, out of which it is created, it can scarcely pro- 

 duce less than the amount assumed, and would very 

 probably yield more. 



But there are many cases in which the result 

 would be more striking than that above given. One 

 farmer would find his soil so constituted that a less 

 amount of tillage than the above would give an equal 

 effect, or the same amount would give a larger effect. 

 Another would find his land so prolific by nature that 

 the amount of fertilization stated above would give a 

 larger product than that assigned to it. A third 

 would find that his soil lacked only one or two ele- 

 ments of fertility, while containing all, the rest in am- 

 ple abundance, and that these absent elements could 

 be added at less than half the expense of the above 

 manure. In such cases as these, if all the other con- 

 ditions of success were complied with, the cost of pro- 

 duction would be found lower than in the above esti- 

 mate, and the yield larger. 



Thus, by a system of unsparing investigation, each 

 man perfects his own method, and acquires for him- 

 self all the knowledge essential to the highest success. 

 He may derive valuable aid from books and journals, 

 from tables and formulas, from chemical analysis, and 

 from all the countless instances of recorded experience. 

 But in order to know precisely what is best suited to 

 the peculiarities of his soil, climate, and other circum- 

 stances, and to know this with the highest attainable 

 certainty, his ultimate reliance must be on his own 

 experience, and that experience he has the means of 

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