394 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



more slowly accomplished, by letting land lie idle for three or 

 four years. How much more advantageous and economical the 

 effect of green crops, where the same decomposing action takes 

 place in the soil, while additional mineral matter is brought 

 from below, and the organic part at the same time increased. 

 In naked fallows, on the contrary, this part, owing to constant 

 stirring, and exposure to atmospheric action, rapidly decreases. 

 Naked fallows ought, therefore, no longer to be employed by 

 good farmers, save as they may be occasionally necessary, for 

 the destruction of some troublesome weed. 



It will now, I think, be easily seen, how it is that land is so 

 wonderfully improved by judicious green cropping. The whole 

 system is perfectly simple, and yet it may be considered one of 

 the greatest improvements of modern times. It enables the 

 farmer to cultivate, with profit, light, poor soils, that would 

 otherwise scarcely be worth fencing. Where it has been pur- 

 sued for any length of time, farmers are accustomed to say, 

 that if they can only get a crop of clover in a field, they can 

 afterwards, by proper management, do what they choose with 

 it. By such a system, and by perseverance, all of the light 

 lands, in this region, might gradually be brought into a state of 

 permanent fertility. I have seen, in the north of England, a 

 fertile tract, covering what was, a few years since, a wide moor, 

 bleak and desolate. 



In the centre of the flourishing farms, on a small hill, stands 

 a tall stone pillar, some seventy feet in height, bearing on its 

 base an inscription, signifying that it was erected in former 

 days, to guide the traveller, bewildered on those dreary and 

 trackless wastes. Many of the farms immediately surrounding 

 that pillar, now produce thirty-two bushels of wheat to the 

 acre. This change was brought about almost entirely by 

 green cropping, and the use of bone and rape dust for manures. 



There is yet one point to be noticed, as to the cultivation of 

 green crops. The organic matter which they furnish, is drawn 

 chiefly from the air, and is therefore, so far, a clear addition to 

 the soil ; the inorganic matter, on the contrary, although brought 

 into a form and situation to serve growing crops, is, after all, a 

 part of the earth itself j nothing new is there ; we have only 



