MR. newhall's address. 9 



is not only one of the best moans of obtaining good crops, but of 

 constantly improving the soil. This mode of culture is specially 

 recommended for all heavy soils that are vmprofitable under a hoed 

 crop. 



The tendency in agriculture, when not conducted on scientific 

 principles, is to crop the soil till the diminished harvests pay little 

 more than the expense incurred. This has been the case in many 

 places cultivated during a long period. 



Whatever may be the state of things in relation to some portions 

 of our country, we believe it to be a fact that in this densely peo- 

 pled region, capital invested in the cultivation of the earth if judic- 

 iously managed, will bring a sure and profitable return. The un- 

 wise and parsimonious course which has been pursued in cropping 

 the soil till it yielded but a slight return, has been the cause why 

 farming has been considered unprofitable and been neglected, 

 for pursuits far more uncertain. The miserable policy of taking 

 from the ground all that can be obtained, and returning nothing, 

 is sure, sooner or later, to end in poverty ; while a liberal return 

 and good cultivation ensures an ample reward. There are farm- 

 ers, or thuse so called, who 'consider every dollar expended for 

 manure as money irrecoverably gone, and go on to plough their 

 exhausted fields, to plant the seed, to cultivate and hoe the puny 

 plants, and in the Autumn gather a harvest which scarcely 

 pays the labor of cultivation. There are others, who go into the 

 business with a knowledge of their profession, expend a hundred dol- 

 lars per acre for enriching materials, and gather harvests which pay 

 twenty-five, or even fifty per cent on the outlay. Thus while the one 

 course is a mere caricatare on farming, the other presents the sub- 

 ject in its true fight, and demonstrates that the business, if conduct- 

 ed in a proper manner is as sure of a profitable return as capital 

 invested in most other pursuits. 



Land ploughed to the depth of ten or twelve inches, and subsoil 

 ploughed if necessary, and well supphed with manure, will be much 

 less affected by drought. There is a remarkable fact mentioned by 

 Sprengel in relation to good culture, which if correct is of great 

 practical moment. He states that it has very frequently been ob- 

 served in Holsteln, that if on an extent of level ground sown with 

 corn, some fields be marled, and others left unmarled, the corn on 

 the latter portions will grow less luxuriantly and will yield a poorer 



