1846.] Theory of Agriculture. 17 



The above statement, we believe, comprises the great points in 

 the theory of agriculture. They are points which are eminently 

 practical, and which conform to experience and the results of the 

 most successful practices in farming. In new soils, such as are 

 first turned up in the west, too much vegetable or organic matter 

 exists in the soil, or may exist. After a short period of cultiva- 

 tion, however, this is not the case, and even after this great sur- 

 plus is removed, the best method of farming consists in husband- 

 ing as much as possible the organic matter which remains. In 

 the poorer soils, those of New England for example, it is scarcely 

 possible to add too much to a moderately sized estate, or to any 

 estate ; and the great point in the husbandry of the estate is to 

 exhaust as little as possible, and to add as much as is possible, for 

 all experience goes to prove, that farming, or rather cropping, 

 cannot be carried on without organic matter, notwithstanding 

 there is at all times carbon in the atmosphere. 



We have nothing to say of the mode of increasing the organic 

 matter of soils, nothing of composits or manures; it is the great 

 importance of these matters that we insist upon here. 



We have been induced to dwell upon this subject at conside- 

 rable length, in consequence of the influence which the modern 

 doctrines are exerting upon many farmers. W^hen it is said that 

 all plants derive their entire nutriment from the atmosphere, with 

 the exception of two or three per cent of mineral salts, it seems to 

 us that plain common sense farmers are far more likely to be bewil- 

 dered with the doctrine, than enlightened : they had been in the 

 habit of seeking in the soil for the elements of fertility, and when 

 they have added much organic matter to their cultivated fields, they 

 have certainly derived benefit from it. Such has been their ex- 

 perience. Humus or mould, however it may behave in the labo- 

 ratory, is not such an intractable substance, when incorporated 

 with the earths, and in a moist condition. Here it is an active 

 agent entering into combinations with most of the inorganic mat- 

 ters of the soil, and forming with them food for plants. Hence 

 we infer, that although an experiment may be very good in the 

 hands of a chemist merely, yet it may stand in the same difficulty 

 Vol. IL, No. 1. 2 



