THE KEY-NOTE OF GOOD FARMING. 35 



more richness in it than you can get out in a thousand years." 

 This would be all very well, if it were possible for a farmer to 

 compel his crops to live on the food that he happens to know 

 about, if roots took nothing from the soil that he has not heard of, 

 if plants did not require the same nutriment in "all parts," and 

 if "richness" meant only good color and good tilth. 



So long as we were farming the stubborn hillsides of New 

 England, and while our population needed elbow-room, while the 

 Mohawk and Genesee valleys in New York, the Western 

 Reserve and rich river bottoms of Ohio, and the wonderful prairies 

 of the farther West invited the hard-worked farmers of the East 

 to better crops, and an easier life, it was at least excusable that all 

 who could get away should mind the bidding, and go ; and the 

 world is better for their having gone, — richer and more free for the 

 marvelous people and the marvelous opportunities of the North- 

 west. But now, the case is greatly changed. The richest lands 

 of the country have been brought under cultivation — many of 

 them have been, already, ground under its heel. Emigration from 

 the Genesee Valley, or from Illinois, to Kansas or to Colorado, is 

 not excusable, on any agricultural grounds, and it can only do 

 harm if its object is to seek richer lands. Richer than the pres- 

 ent lands once were, the new lands cannot be, and any course of 

 cultivation that would keep these from speedily running down 

 would equally renovate the older soils. 



In the monthly report of the Department of Agriculture for 

 October, 1867, the editor, in an article headed "Wheat Culture 

 Ruinous," says, " Is proof of impoverishment wanted .f* one witness 

 *' only is needed, — the soil itself. First thirty bushels per acre, is 

 *' the boast of the farmer ; then the yield drops to twenty-five, to 

 " twenty, to fifteen, and finally to ten and eight. Minnesota 

 *' claimed twenty-two bushels average, a few years ago, (some of 

 " her enthusiastic friends made it twenty-seven,) but she will 

 " scarcely average, this year, twelve, and will never again make 

 " twenty-two under her present mode of farming. To be sure, 

 " there are excuses. The seasons do not suit as formerly, blight 

 " or rust comes, or the fly invades, but all these things are evi- 



