42 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



mented by alternating crops, and a system of mixed 

 husbandry ; 



5. That the cattle-food and manures of the farm, the 

 main sources of fertility and profit, may be greatly 

 increased by the cultivation of roots ; 



6. That the labours of the farm may be econo- 

 mized, and its products farther increased, by substi- 

 tuting fallow crops for naked fallows. 



And, finally, that, were these several improvements 

 generally introduced into our agricultural practice, 

 they would render our farmers more independent, 

 bring industry into better repute, and essentially pro- 

 mote the prosperity and happiness of all classes of 

 society. 



There is no doubt that most of our impoverished 

 farms may, under the system of management we 

 have been describing, and with the auxiliary and 

 available aid of lime, marl, gypsum, swamp-earth, 

 ashes, &c., be progressively improved in fertility, 

 and rendered productive and profitable. We have 

 the strongest grounds for this belief. The like has 

 been done in Great Britain, in the Netherlands, in 

 Germany, in France. Worn-out lands have there 

 been renovated and rendered very valuable. They 

 have been so in the United States. They are now 

 undergoing this improvement in the valley of the 

 Hudson. The partial introduction of the New Hus- 

 bandry has, within a few years, doubled the surplus 

 agricultural products of most of the counties be- 

 tween Albany and New- York ; and yet the improve- 

 ment has there been but begun. 



The same management which our subject sug- 

 gests for the renovation of old lands, will perpetuate 

 the fertility of those which have been newly brought 

 under culture. Although the soils of the great sec- 

 ondary formation of the West will not so soon be- 

 .come impoverished as those of primitive and transi- 

 tion formations ; and although fertility may be more 

 readily restored to them when they have become ex- 



