ESSEX SOCIETY. 77 



the effect of particular applications to the soil. This will be 

 avoided so far as it can be. 



It is a matter of regret that the improvement of waste lands 

 has not been treated in a manner which its importance de- 

 serves.* The idea was formerly entertained that pasture lands 

 were sufficiently enriched by the animals which fed them. 

 Practical men begin to think otherwise. It is found that a 

 profitable return is made for the little outlay which they re- 

 quire. Particularly is this the case with pastures fed by milch 

 cows. They do not return the essential elements of the plant 

 to the ground. These elements are required in great quantities 

 to form their milk, while in other animals they are required 

 only to form their bone and muscle. The ordure of cows is, 

 therefore, far less valuable and fertilizing than that of other 

 animals. The consequence is, that lands fed wholly by cows 

 are exhausted much sooner than those fed by other animals. 

 For it is evident that where more is taken from the soil than 

 is returned to it, an exhaustion must eventually follow. f 



We furnish animal and vegetable matters to the earth, to 



* The practical effect of this inattention to the importance of waste and pasture lands 

 may be distinctly traced in the eastern part of Massachusetts. Notwithstanding the rapid 

 improvement in alqiost all other departments of agriculture, and the increase of arable 

 lands, it will be admitted, I think, that a large part of our pasture lands are in a worse con- 

 dition now than formerly-. This subject is worthy to excite the attention of practical and 

 scientific agriculturists. 



tThe question whether milch cows exhaust the phosphates of the soil, is of somewhat re- 

 cent date, and may, perhaps, be regarded as still unsettled. For my own part, reasoning 

 from scientific principles, I cannot doubt it. There have been many and accurate analy- 

 ses of milk, all showing a large amount of phosphate. This must be over and above what, 

 in common with other animals, goes to form the bones. I hope to be able, at some future 

 lime, to bring some valuable statistics to bear on this subject. Whether this exhaustion of 

 phosphates is directly connected, as cau^e and effect, with the bone disorder in cows, is 

 another interesting question. It has lately been very ably discussed in the New England 

 Farmer, Vol. I, Nos. 22 and 23, and Vol. II, Nos 3, 6, 9, &c. 



I am not prepared to say that the so called bone disorder is the effect of exhaustion of phos- 

 phates in the soil, but the question is of such practical importance, that I cannot forbear a 

 remark upon it. When, on old pastures, the phosphate is gone, the quantity necessary for 

 milk, which is one of the most abundant secretions of the cow, must be absorbed from the 

 bones, just as in case of a broken or fractured limb an absorption takes place from that limb 

 by other parts of the body, leaving it smaller than before. This absorption of phosphate 

 from the bones, must produce a weakness and debility of the system. Wherever this disor- 

 der has manifested itself. I would most confidently recommend the application to the pasture, 

 of a mixture of leached ashes and bone dust in nearly equal proportions. This will both 

 increase the quantity and quality of grass, and in case the bone disorder arises from want of 

 phosphates, increase the health and strength of the cow. 



