66 ' QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



From this cause land which has ceased to be productive of one 

 plant may yet be well calculated for another. And this has given 

 rise to rotation in crops, now so extensively practised. 



Another cause of unproductiveness in a soil may be merely men- 

 tioned here, and that is the presence of noxious substances. But 

 this will be referred to more at length in another place. 



All this might have been prevented and may be remedied. It 

 is possible not only to restore a soil to a former degree of fertility, 

 but the limit of its productiveness is not known. Besides, we 

 know not the effect which a continued cultivation of wheat, for 

 instance, on a highly improved soil may have upon the qualities 

 of that grain. We know indeed, that all our cultivated plants have 

 been produced from a naturally inferior stalk, and that those grown 

 upon a poor soil are inferior to those grown upon a rich one, and 

 that cultivation has been the means of making them what they are. 

 Have they reached the limit of improvement 1 is a question it is 

 hoped will not be answered till proper efforts have been made to 

 answer — no. We believe not, and we also believe that as long as 

 the soil is continued in a' condition of progressive improvement, so 

 long we shall find a corresponding improvement in not only the 

 quantity but the quality of all cultivated plants. 



But the relations of organic to inorganic matter may be traced 

 yet farther. The vegetable world is the food of the animal world ; 

 the connecting link between the highest and the lowest orders of 

 creation. The plant or its seed is eaten, and, behold, bone is 

 made — muscle — fat — milk, and all the varied products of animal 

 life. Whence all these 1 It will hardly be believed by those who 

 read it now for the first time, that these are not really formed by 

 the animal, but are the ready made products of the vegetable, 

 which have only to be appropriated and put in their proper places 

 in the body. Such is, nevertheless, the fact ; these very materials, 

 as such, being found in the structure of the plant. But the con- 

 nection does not stop here. Plants and animals die. Their bodies 

 decay and return to the earth and air from whence they sprung, to 

 become again food for a new generation — to become, in fact, ma- 

 nures. And thus the eternal circle goes on. How wonderful 

 then this relation, thus briefly noticed. The earth is the great 

 storehouse and source of vegetable food. The plant receives it 

 and prepares it for the animal, both of which must be eventually 



