THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 49 



" In the discussions indulged in on the part of your Club at date 

 of July 26th, while considering the systems of horticulture and 

 agriculture, proposed by your correspondent, the question unan- 

 swered was the one always asked ' will it pay ? ' 



" That a body of men like yours should have been found in sub- 

 stance agreeing to every proposition I make in urging the merits 

 of my system, and that, too, when that system proposes the most 

 startling of new departures, is evidence that the world has reached 

 a point where all things seem possible with men as with their 

 Maker. Reading your discussions as I do, you agree to this: 



" 1. The rains and dews and melting snows can be gathered into 

 store, and in regions of country where hard-pan and clay subsoils 

 are found, so held back or allowed to flow on as to feed and water 

 vegetation in their track, giving to all trees, plants, grasses, grains 

 and other forms of plant life what is needed by way of food and 

 drink in abundance, and never in surfeit. 



" 2. You agree that the waters moving evenly and in uniform 

 currents from mountain and hilltop along slopes and inclines till 

 the streams are reached, passing through the soil in subterranean 

 flow, bear with them nutrition for plants at their roots, which, by 

 capillary attraction are watered and fed in conformity to the neces- 

 sities of each and all. 



" 3. You equally agree that irrigation and abundant supply of 

 food being realized, all forms of plant growth will be perfectly 

 developed. 



" 4. Again, you agree that when my system comes to be gen- 

 erally adopted, there will be fewer floods, fewer frosts of a deadly 

 character, and as for droughts they need not occur in regions of 

 country at least underlaid with the prevailing subsoil of the slopes 

 and inclines of the Southern Tier, and of other regions similarly 

 conformed. 



