FARMERS' REGISTER 



721 



We must restore to the earth ils vegetable mat- 

 ter, before it can restore to us ils bouniiiui crops. 

 In three or four years, as well as I remember, tlie 

 willow drew Irom the atmosphere, and bestovved 

 two hundred weii^ht ol' vegetable matter, on two 

 humired weight of earth, exclusive of the leaves 

 it had shed each year. Had it been cut up and 

 used as a manure, how vastly would it have 

 enriched the two hundred weight of earth it grew 

 on? The (act demonstrates that by llie use ol 

 vegetables, we may collect maimre from the at- 

 mosphere, with a rapidity, and in an abundance, 

 far exceeding that ol' which we have robbed the 

 earth. And it is a I'act of high encouragement; 

 tor though it would be our interest, and conducive 

 to our happinefs, to retrace our steps, should it 

 even take us two hundred years to recover the 

 state ol" lertiiiiy found here by the first emigrants 

 from Europe; and though religion and patrioiism 

 both plead lor it, yet there might be found some 

 minds weak or wicked enough, to prel'er the mur- 

 der of the little life leli in our lauds, to a slow j)ro- 

 cess of resuscitation. 



Forbear, oh, Ibrbear matricide, not for futurity, 

 not for God's sake, but for your own sake. The 

 labor necessary to kill the remnant of life in your 

 lands, will suffice to revive them. Employed to 

 kill, it produces want and misery to yourself. Em- 

 ployed to revive, it gives you pleni}' and happiness. 

 It is matter of regret to be compelled to rob the 

 liberal mind of the sublime pleasure, bestowed by 

 a consciousness of having done its utmost for 

 future ages, by demons'raiing that (he most sordid 

 will do the utmost for gratifying its own appetites, 

 by fertilizing the earth; that (he process is not 

 slow, but rapid ; the returns not distant, but near; 

 and the gain not small, but greal. 



Inclosing is a single channel (or drawing ma- 

 nure from the atmosphere and bestowing it on the 

 earth. Though i( is the great canal, there are a 

 multitude of feeders. These are not lost in ad- 

 miration of (he most powerful mode (or ferdiizing 

 the earth, and will be subsequently remembered. 



At present it is necessary to consider the best 

 mode of practising the inclosing theory. It is one 

 which can only succeed in combination with a 

 great number of agricultural practices, at enmity 

 with those vvhich at present prevail. 



It is at enmity with the practice of summer 

 fallowing for wheat. Being (bunded in the doc- 

 trine, that vegetables extract the principles of fer- 

 tility from the atmosphere, and elaborate them into 

 a manure for the earth, it is inconsistent wiih the 

 doctrine that the earth will be improved by keep- 

 ing it bare. If vegetables do not feed upon, and 

 consume earth, but upon the atmospherical ma- 

 nure, which may have been introduced into, or is 

 floating around it, then a naked fallow by increas- 

 ing evaporation, v/ill impoverish the earth, and 

 waste at eacli ploughing a portion of this fieeling 

 fertility, without ils being arrested by a crop. 



It accords with the doctrine of lurninir in a clo- 

 ver lay, or a bed of any oUier vegetable matter, 

 lor a crop speedily sown or planted ihereon, with- 

 out disturbing this new bed of vegetables, by 

 whicli the previous stock of atmospherical manure 

 in the earth is vastly increased, and the least loss 

 by evaporation sustained. 



it is at enmity with shallow ploughing, because 

 it admits atmospherical manure into the earth by 

 water and air, to a less dep'h, and loses it sooner 



by evaporation, and the more rapid escape of wa- 

 ter fiom its fluidity. 



It accords with deep ploughing, because it ena- 

 bles the earth to absorb more atmospherical ma- 

 nure through the Iv/o great vehicles, air and wa- 

 ter; and because it buries deeper the manure 

 deposited on the earth in a vegetable form; in 

 one case inhaling more, and in both exhaling 

 less. 



It is at enmity with (he custom of exposing a 

 flat surface to the sun, and accords with an oppo- 

 site one ; because by the first the (brce of ils rays 

 in promoting evaporation is increased, and by the 

 second diminished. These cases are selected to 

 suggest to the reader, that (he theory of fertilizing 

 the earth by atmospherical or vegetable manure, 

 is one, which, if correct, will reach and influence 

 nearly the whole circle of our agricultural modes 

 of' managing the earth. 



If plants Feed on earth, why do they perish by 

 drought? If they did noticed on atmospherical 

 manure, why do ihey instantly revive fi^om rain ? 

 And why do we see them considerably revived 

 even without rain, when the air becomes con- 

 densed, after having been greatly rarified if the 

 fot'd it aflords them was not too thin in one case, 

 and more substantial in the other? 



Drought becomes far less pernicious to crops, in 

 proportion to the stock of atmospherical manure 

 with which the earth has been stored to meet it 

 and the obstacles opposed to its loss. 



To avoid a frequent relijrence to experience as a 

 voucher for the doctrines advanced in these essays 

 I shall once for all observe, that they are always 

 drawn from that source, except when the contrary 

 is expressed. But it would be tiresome to '.he 

 reader to wade through a list of experiments made 

 with more industry than scientific skill, fur a long 

 course of time, and sugjrested, not by a love of 

 fiime, but by necessity. Besides we must acquire 

 principles before we descend to details. 



Let us return to the case of drought. Its effects 

 are greatly diminished by burying with (he plough 

 a copious supply of vegetable matter, and by 

 opposing an uneven surtiice to evaporation. It is 

 because this vegetable matter or atmospherical 

 manure, elaborated into a solid form, is the (bod of 

 plants; and ihis food is retained longer by deep 

 plougiiing and an uneven surface, than by shallow 

 ploughing and a level surface. And il these latter 

 practices are not combined with a good stock of 

 vegetable (ood, the efh'Cis oi drought appear 

 sooner, and are more fatal. 



The sudden benefit of rain to plants demon- 

 strates that it is loaded with their food ; and i s 

 transitory effect equally demonstrates that this 

 food rapidly evaporates. There is no manure the 

 eflects of which are more sudden or less perma- 

 nent. As they disap|)ear from drought, the loss 

 must be attributed to evaporation. tMicclcs upon 

 evaporation are of course auxiliaries to the in- 

 closing system. 



The shade to the earth is a check it naturally 

 produces, and a consequence of this check is, that 

 the atmospherical manure carried by air or rain 

 into the earth, being longer retained, is imbibed 

 in greater quantity by the vegetable cover, "^nd 

 elaborated into a manure more permanent than 

 when deposited in these vehicles. 



Wood, and all the ve^etab'es of softer texture, 

 are exposed to the effects of putrefaction and 



