"CALX" AND RECALCULATION". 61 



silicic, nitric, humic, and last not least, the ' Great 

 Dissolver,' CARBONIC acid : all these it makes Tcnown, 

 by seizing upon them and becoming their base ; thus 

 disintegrating as it were, and reconstructing the ele- 

 ments of the soil, and exciting to a new action the 

 sluggards of Nature wherever they are lurking. It 

 is the Composer and the Decomposer, for nature 

 cannot suffer either process, but fertility must fol- 

 low : /^-composition (growth) has begun ere ^com- 

 position is over : does a latent atom of organic 

 matter stand inert for one instant ? it is at him, like 

 a Policeman, ' Come ! kip movin ! ' " 



But is this all? is this half? 



"Well may the "Incoming Tenant" ask "How far 

 is it to the Lime-kiln?"* 



* It is easy to perceive that our author is no advocate of 

 short leases of agricultural lands, a perpetual incubus upon 

 all permanent improvement. This illustration of his experi- 

 ment proves in the strongest light the happy condition of the 

 American farmer, holding his acres in fee, over the English 

 tenant, who occupies land on which he is doomed to the 

 innual exactions of an inexorable lease. 



We altogether agree with the homo-thrust arguments of 

 thia chapter in favor of a high standard of education as 

 necessary.to an intelligent and successful farmer. There can 

 be no profession whatever, in which a knowledge of popular 

 chemistry and physiology are more necessary than in 



