106 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



organic wealth to either ; but inorganic food can 

 come from the soil alone ; and if the soil be able to 

 supply it from its own resources, one-half the value 

 of the green-crop, as a fertilizer, is renounced. Its 

 remaining value, as a collector of organic matter 

 from the atmosphere, is the point upon which the 

 question will be poised, of its adoption on a soil 

 which after effectual drainage, sub-pulverization, and 

 liming, still retains the character of a " clay." Even 

 upon such land, (which is not so plentiful as some 

 imagine,) experience has yet to prove how far, by 

 deep plowing and sub-soiling immediately after 

 harvest, and making the most of suitable weather 

 between that time and the following summer, the 

 useful Swede or Turnip may take its place in a six- 

 course system as profitably as in the four-course 

 system upon lighter soils. The bare fallow is too 

 ancient, too prospectively laborious, and patient not 

 to have deep reason at the bottom of it. Chemistry 

 has discovered the truth which Practice has attested. 

 The question may be, not whether the fallow shall 

 be abandoned, but whether its objects can be 

 achieved at a less sacrifice of Time. 



