448 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



Indian corn is now known to be best adapted to those soils ; 

 but even that crop will exhaust the soil, if we do not take care 

 to return to it those mineral substances which are removed by 

 the grain. If we sold our crops, instead of feeding stock with 

 them, we should rapidly impoverish the soil ; but our New 

 England method, of farming for ourselves, and of consuming 

 the products of the soil upon it, and of restoring the inorganic 

 matters of the crops in the form of farm yard manure, obviates, 

 in a great measure, the exhaustion of the soil by returning to 

 it those important salts which are in the manures. We should 

 remember, however, that when we sell any animal that has 

 been reared upon the produce of the soil, we dispose of a con- 

 siderable amount of the phosphates, and other valuable salts 

 which the animal derived from its food, and which all came 

 from the soil, through the medium of the crops raised. 



The farmer who raises grain and breeds cattle for a distant 

 market, is continually removing from the soil its essential ele- 

 ments of fertility, and sells the very life-blood of his land. To 

 him, therefore, it is of the very highest importance that he 

 should know the best and cheapest means of renovating his 

 soil, so as to prevent exhaustion, and ensure constant, and even 

 improving fertility. 



To the chemist is he indebted for the discovery of the most 

 certain and cheap processes for effecting this very desirable 

 object ; and notwithstanding all that has been said by ignorant 

 persons against science and " book learning," all the substantial 

 improvements made by chemists for the benefit of farmers, 

 will be ultimately adopted ; for that powerful incentive, to 

 which "we may never plead in vain" — self-interest — will 

 prompt to their adoption. 



Let us, for a moment, glance at the inorganic matters which 

 enter into the composition of our usual crops, and see what in- 

 gredients are actually removed from the soil by their cultiva- 

 tion. They are — 



Bases. — Potash, soda, lime, magnesia, oxides of iron, and 

 manganese. 



Acids. — Silicic acid, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, chlo- 

 rine. 



