418 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



necessity of more frequent turnings and the actual cost of mak- 

 ing and maintaining the fences themselves (not to add that they 

 are a shelter for weeds and a harbor for vermin) are serious con- 

 siderations." 



A most important branch of the science of agriculture, and 

 one in which our knowledge is more deficient than in any 

 other, is the art of making and preserving manure. The earth 

 is a voracious feeder ; but still she is a just and generous parent. 

 She rejoices to take that, which her children reject as unfit for 

 their sustenance, and she returns it in substances adapted to 

 prolong and comfort their existence, and in forms and colors of 

 the most attractive beauty. In some climates, kinder than ours, 

 she does, indeed, produce spontaneously the necessaries and 

 some of the luxuries of life ; but in New England, that man 

 has observed little and learned nothing from his observation, 

 who supposes that the ground will always bear crops, if it 

 never be replenished with those ingredients, which it imparts 

 to vegetation. Much has been written and published on this 

 subject, and we find our agricultural journals are frequently and 

 earnestly calling on the farmers to manure their fields and 

 meadows. It is not supposed that these appeals are entirely 

 unheeded, or that there are not many good husbandmen, who 

 need no admonition, but may safely rely on their own intelli- 

 gence and foresight ; yet a superficial survey of the country 

 would produce the conviction that too many farmers are like 

 the daughters of the horseleech, crying to their mother earth, 

 give, give. Such unnatural children should know that the earth 

 expects and demands something in return for the favors she 

 bestows. It is but a poor apology for them to say that they 

 have not a sufficient quantity of manure, to enable them to be 

 liberal in its application. If they have not enough, let them 

 make more ; and, if they are ignorant of the process of manu- 

 facture, let them read the Massachusetts Ploughman, or the Al- 

 bany Cultivator. It is easier to make manure than to make an 

 excuse for the want of it. But there are large quantities of ma- 

 nure on every farm, by the sides of highways, and in the house- 

 hold establishment, which, if it were saved and properly applied, 

 would be of unspeakable value. The liquid manure, which 



