270 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



by the plow, being deprived of their atmospheric support, die, 

 decompose in their places, and form inviting channels for the 

 penetration of the more delicate roots of wheat and grasses. Even 

 as Peruvian guano stimulates a production which may be made use 

 of as a means for permanently and largely increasing the fertility of 

 the soil, so clover, a little more slowly but much more cheaply, 

 accomplishes the same result. And even as Peruvian guano, 

 when used as a means for obtaining the largest immediate crops 

 for sale, is a most exhausting agent, so clover may become, in the 

 hands of an injudicious cultivator, the surest means for speedy 

 exhaustion. And the same rule applies here as in all other similar 

 cases — that where the results of any fertilizing agent are properly 

 husbanded, the fertility of the land and the wealth of the farmer 

 increase, and that where the immediate results of the fertilizer are 

 turned into money, both the soil and the farmer must ultimately 

 be impoverished. 



This- subject will be more fully treated in the chapter on Forage 

 Crops 



GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 



To sum up, in a few words, all that it has been attempted 

 to teach in this chapter, it may be stated that manures of all kinds 

 should be employed in the light of a comprehensive understanding 

 of their various effects ; and the general principle should be con- 

 stantly adhered to, that, in the policy of the farm, nothing should 

 be allowed to go to waste, and nothing should be sold without 

 the return of an equivalent, or pretty nearly an equivalent of its 

 mineral value. 



If, by the us^ of lime, Peruvian guano, common salt, or any 

 other manure whose effect exceeds its ability to supply food to the 

 plant, the crop is largely increased, that part of the earthy con- 

 stituents of the crop which has been supplied by the soil and not 

 by the manure, must be regarded as so much of the original bank- 

 ing capital of the land, which is only to be put in circulation — not 

 to be permanently disposed of. If we sell wheat, the important 

 mineral constituents of the wheat should be purchased and returned 



