laws of nature reassert their influence, which had 

 partly been checked by vital power ; decomposition 

 sets in, the organic compounds separate themselves 

 into their constituent parts, the inorganic parts 

 return to the soil whence they were derived, and 

 the organic parts are restored to the atmosphere ; 

 new life, new plants, spring up, perhaps upon the 

 decomposing remains of their very parent; and 

 thus the amount of food necessary for the require* 

 ments of vegetable life is constantly maintained 

 nay, even increased by the additional storage of 

 organic substances in the soil. 



These observations explain to us the cause of 

 the luxuriant vegetation in virgin forests, of 

 the astoundingly productive capabilities of a soil 

 newly recovered from nature's hands. But does not 

 the process of artificial vegetation, and the Indian 

 mode of cultivation in particular, differ most 

 materially from these Rational Principles of nature's 

 actions ? The ryot tills and sows, and, when his 

 crops have ripened, he removes them from the soil 

 to serve as food, partly for himself and partly for 

 the cattle which assist him in his work, without 

 the slightest regard to the necessities of the soil. 



The only conclusions which can be drawn from 

 these two facts, the great natural law and rational 

 principle of Agriculture to which they point, are 

 patent. The plant in its natural state, on the one 

 hand, dies on the spot where it grew, it decomposes 



