406 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



quence of the annual removal of the crops, is a reduction of 

 the elements upon which growth and fruitfulness depend ; and 

 without a restoration of these, sterility will ensue. We have 

 seen fields so completely exhausted, that their renovation be- 

 came a work of years. But for the annual inundations of the 

 Nile, its banks would long ago have been as barren as the des- 

 erts of Arabia ; and in some old countries, instances are not 

 rare, where territory, which Once supported a large and thriving 

 population, has become barren and desolate. 



Our farmers cannot generally afford to purchase manures, nor 

 is this necessary, except where the soil is deficient in some 

 mineral, or other quality, essential to the production of certain 

 kinds of crops. But with due attention to the accumulation 

 and preservation of all that can be acquired from the fields, 

 herds, and other sources, even where there are no beds of peat, 

 and no mineral manures, sufficient rnaybe acquired to keep the 

 soil in a productive state. It is the farmer's business to make 

 manures, and not to purchase them. 



Of the different kinds, of their manufacture, adaptation, and 

 application, it would be gratifying to speak, did space permit. 

 Suffice it, however, to say, that there are two methods of prac- 

 tice on all these points : one is, by the slow process of personal 

 experience ; the other is, by chemical analysis, which leads at 

 once to the desired result. 



Suppose that, in either way, the farmer adds twenty-five per 

 cent, to the fertility, and consequently to the products of his 

 farm, (an amount less than that which may be realized by 

 many cultivators,) and suppose, also, that a corresponding result 

 were secured throughout the country, how much have you ad- 

 vanced the agriculture of the land ? 



Look, for instance, at the crop of hay in the United States, 

 which last year was worth, at eight dollars per ton, one hundred 

 and tiventy-seven millions of dollars ; or of the product of In- 

 dian corn, which, for 1848, at fifty cents per bushel, would 

 amoimt to nearly three hundred millions of dollars. This 

 year, by this hypothesis, these would be increased, the former 

 thirty millions, and the latter seventy-five millio7is, of dollars. 

 But if we accumulate all the products of the ground, we do 



