THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 167 



you. But allow me to say, that if all lands were, in place of under- 

 draining and subsoiling, treated as you do yours; deep trenches 

 broad and wide, filled with stones, and covered with soil as yours 

 are; fertilized with a compost as you prepare it; having it fully 

 assimilated before using I say, if all this could be done, then, 

 and not till then, can we do away with this creation, cultivation 

 and dissemination of poisonous fungi, which, as has been shown, 

 is working such sad disaster and death to the whole animal and 



v 



vegetable world. 



A few pages back I asked the question, whether the people were 

 not being punished for the bad treatment their stock w T as receiv- 

 ing. Now let us see if they are not. "We spread out over our fields 

 the manure coming from these animals. If they happen to have 

 any disease, their excrement is sure to have more or less germs in 

 it of the same disease. The manure lies upon the ground, and is 

 subjected to the action of the wet and heat, and the chemical influ- 

 ence is imparted to the soil. Now the soil is too wet, now to dry; 

 there is no happy medium. At one time it is a mass of mud, at 

 others it is baked like a brick. There is no golden mean. At all 

 events, there is a constant state of fermentation going on. If the 

 materials employed could be completely rotted, there would prob- 

 ably not be so much harm done ; but where you have vegetable 

 matter only partly rotted, you are positively sure to produce fungi. 

 This again fastens on the grasses and other products, which are in 

 turn, fed to man and stock. Can any sane man for an instant 

 doubt, that this continuous production and consumption of fungi, is 

 not bound to produce the most disastrous results. Must this dis- 

 ease producing system go on forever in the same channel ? Must 

 no one raise the voice of warning, and call attention to it ? Must 

 no one point with pregnant finger to the signs of its fell work ? 

 Are not the facts spread out that " he who runs may read?" Oh! 



