C. T. JACKSON'S ADDRESS. 447 



you will see that there is something wrong in the systems pur- 

 sued. You are doubtless aware of some of the causes which 

 are effecting this exhaustion of the soil, and know that it re- 

 sults from the continual removal of certain ingredients from 

 the soil, and selling them in the form of grain and flour, with- 

 out restoring to it similar substances. 



By the analysis of grain we learn what has been removed by 

 it, and by a knowledge of chemistry we may learn how to re- 

 store the requisite elements to an exhausted or impoverished 

 soil, so as to render it perpetually fertile, even to the same crops. 



Chemistry teaches the cheapest methods, and prevents waste- 

 ful empirical experiments. 



Already, by chemical analysis of the ashes of tobacco, the Vir- 

 ginia planter has learned how to renovate his soil that had been 

 exhausted by numerous crops of that plant. And the cotton 

 planters of the southern States have caused analyses of cot- 

 ton and of the seed of that plant to be made, with a view to 

 supplying the materials removed by it from the soil. 



It will not be long before our farmers, generally, will learn 

 how to restore to fertility soils that have been, in a measure, 

 impoverished by long cropping ; and the western farmers, in- 

 stead of abandoning their homes and pushing farther west in 

 search of virgin soils for the growth of wheat, will obtain still 

 larger crops from their old wheat fields, and do so without so 

 much labor as before. 



You are aware of the fact that wheat was once profitably 

 raised in this State ; and that now, although some few districts 

 are favorable for its growth, that it cannot be generally raised 

 on our soils. This was pretty effectually proved by the unfor- 

 tunate law, offering a bounty on wheat grown in the State, 

 which resulted in large crops of nearly worthless straw. It 

 was interesting to the geologist and chemist to observe in what 

 particular districts the wheat crop did prove successful, and im- 

 portant hints were derived from those observations. It is a 

 question of considerable practical importance to know, by care- 

 fully conducted experiments, whether our granite soils can be 

 so improved as to render them capable of bearing good crops of 

 wheat, and whether this can be done economically. 



