506 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



supply the lack of it when the bones are in the forming state ; 

 thus the peasant mothers of Germany are said to give lime- 

 water to their young children ; and when, in raising calves 

 by hand, milk is economized by the use of hay-tea, &c., it is a 

 custom, which I think is immemorial, to make up the great 

 defect of the infusion by giving them chalk to lick, with which 

 they instinctively supply the necessities of the animal econ- 

 omy. From the multiplicity of these saline or inorganic con- 

 stituents of vegetables and their importance, although many 

 are minute in quantity, it is apparent that very light applica- 

 tions of such manures as are rich in these elements may be of 

 essential service to the crop. 



A glance at the table shows that hay, and stalks, and 

 straw contain more of saline or inorganic matters than is 

 found in the grains, and the same is true of the vines of peas, 

 potatoes, &c., which are omitted ; to preserve all these with 

 care, and return them, with suitable additions, to the soil, 

 may therefore be regarded as one of the first duties of the in- 

 telligent cultivator. 



Where, as in the case of tobacco, almost the w r hole product 

 is of necessity sent away, the soil must be speedily exhausted, 

 unless the various elements contained in the crop are replaced 

 by importation, or by taxing other crops for a supply ; but, in 

 reference to ordinary farm soils and crops, the case is some- 

 what different. The elements contained in the various crops 

 above enumerated may all be replaced, and the general condi- 

 tion of the farm progressively improved by the accumulations 

 of a well-managed barn-yard, with the use of ashes, gypsum, 

 marl, and swamp-muck treated with lime, where these are ob- 

 tainable ; but especially may this be effected by the frequent 

 and regular use of clover as green manure ; this, with the ap- 

 plication of gypsum and occasional dressings of lime, will be 

 found the cheapest and easiest known mode of resupplying the 

 draughts made by the various crops, and sustaining and im- 

 proving the strength and productiveness of the soil. 



