THE GENESEE FAKMEK. 



CE 



quantity of water, most of the mineral substances of plants are soluble. It is perfectly 

 obvious to all that if we wish to increase the fertility of a farm, or even to mamtam it in a 

 normal condition, and annually export crops and animals from it, we must restore, m some 

 way, the elements so exported. Yet while this is so, it is not only possible, but is, m 

 too many instances, the case, that a soil can, by cultivation alone, be made to produce 

 larcre crops, without having any of the removed elements taken back as manure; and 

 if this is the mo^i profitable method of farming for the present generation we have but 

 little hope of effecting a reformation by preaching against the morality of the practice. 

 We however by no means think this is the case, and we believe a new era is about to 

 commence in our agriculture, and the New World will be as noted for her scientific 

 farming as she already is for her ingenuity in mechanics and m the apphcation of 

 scientific principles to the great arts of civilized life. 



The luxuriousness of a crop depends, within certain limits, on the amount of available 



food brought to the plants by the water they take up. Most soils, we may say all soils 



capable of profitable cultivation, contain all the mineral elements of plants, but they are 



in a dormant or latent condition, and are consequently incapable of being used as food 



for plants. Cultivation, or tillage, converts these dormant, latent resources of the soil 



into active available substances. The former may be considered as the farmer's capital 



permanently invested ; the latter, the floating capital of the concern. The profits ot the 



establishment will be in direct proportion to the amount of floating capital annually 



turned, without overtaxing the permanent investment ; in other words, the crops and 



profits of a farm are in proportion to the amount of available substances of plants in the 



soil, without drawing too much on those lying in a dormant condition ; that is, we shou d 



keep, in an available form, food enough for thirty bushels of wheat instead of only 



sufficient for fifteen; for not only do we lose money in not havmg thirty bushels to 



sell, but we also, in all probability, lose a considerable vortion of available substances 



from the plants being unable to take them up, from lack of others equally necessary ior 



their luxurious growth. It will therefore be our object to show what substances are 



most available in the soil, what are removed from the farm in a judicious system of 



rotation of crops and feeding of animals, and the best means to employ not only to keep 



the farm in its original latent capacity for producing food, but also how to keep 



substances sufficient for a large crop each year in an available condition. That this can 



be done scientifically, we have no sort of doubt ; that it can be done economically, at 



present, when the farmers of the older settled States have to compete with the rich 



virgin soils of the west, and consequently comparatively low prices, is a matter which 



admits of some little doubt and which wc will endeavor fully to investigate ; for we 



well know that however interesting it may be to know what can be done under certain 



conditions, the vital question ever must be, will it pay under existing circumstanees 



This inquiry stares us in the face at every step of a scientific investigation in agricultural 



economy, and in the application of scientific principles to any of the great practical arts 



of life ; we will not thrust it aside, but we will have an eye to the economic, as well as 



the practical and scientific, in examining our subject. 



We shall probably express views that will not accord with the commonly accepted 

 opinions on this subject ; or, at least, that do not exactly agree, in some important 

 respects, with the teachings of a certain class of chemico-agricultural writers. We shall, 

 however, assert nothing but what we believe to have been demonstrated by a most 

 laborious and extensive series of chemical investigations*, connected with systematic 

 experimcnta on various crops and animals with which the writer has hitherto for some 

 time been engaged. We shall assert nothing that in any way conflicts with the cx)mmon 

 practice of cnlightenedp ractical agriculturists, wlio have, as we believe, taught by close 

 observation and long oxperiencc, adopted that very system of rotation and general farm 

 management which now is, or will be, indicated and explained by scientific research. , ^ 



