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carried on fotf any length of time without assuredly 

 and infallibly impoverishing both the land and its 

 owner. This is the period when artificial manures 

 first came into use and, I may add, abuse. 



The all-important question which every intelligent 

 agriculturist desires to solve is, how to stimulate 

 the soil so as to obtain, with the'smallest outlay 

 and least labour, the most abundant harvests, 

 without any detriment to the soil, and without 

 injuring the resources of the land. This question 

 can only be solved, and the desired result obtained, 

 by using appropriate and sufficient manure, and by 

 tilling the soil after each harvest in such a manner 

 as to ensure a thorough mixture of it. 



All intelligent agriculturists agree now that, as 

 the constituent parts of the ashes of different kinds 

 of plants vary considerably in their proportions, 

 so the manures best adapted for their successful 

 cultivation must differ accordingly, and specific 

 manures were therefore manufactured and sold. 

 Thus we had manures for wheat, potato, turnips, 

 coffee, tea, &c., which were strongly recommended 

 by well-known scientific men. The satisfactory 

 results obtained on some particular soil were greatly 

 extolled, and the manures were advertised as being 

 the most perfect that could be applied, and peculiarly 

 adapted to the specified crops. No attention was 

 directed to the fact that the success depended 

 entirely upon the constitution of the soil. Num- 



