302 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



from cultivation, rendering them unfit for plan 4 .? of a 

 particular kind, we make the follow rig extracts from 

 a communication in the ji'ultivjitor of April, 1838. 

 It is from the pen of a g<-.. tic-man of Suffolk county, 

 Long Island : 



" With us, wheat was raised from the first settling 

 of the county until 1780 or 1790; it then failed. 

 About that time we began to get fish (for manuring), 

 which were used for rye, and did well. It was no 

 uncommon thing to have 40 bushels to the acre. For 

 wheat they did not answer, neither did any other 

 manure. Farmers, as a general thing, gave up try- 

 ing to raise it. At the present time, wheat is a far 

 more certain crop than rye, and has been for years 

 past. Rye has been failing for some time, and lat- 

 terly many pieces have been cut merely for the 

 straw. There is a complete revolution in the two 

 grains. * * * * Corn has not fluctuated ; it has 

 been a steady crop, and governed by the seasons. 

 Oats the same. Flax has run nearly the same 

 round as wheat ami parley." 



Two causes have, by vegetable physiologists, been 

 assigned for this action of plants on the soil, both of 

 which have been advocated with great skill, and in 

 favour of both of which a formidable array of facts 

 and experiments may be adduced. One of these 

 theories supposes that a specific food for each kind 

 of plant exists in greater or less quantities in the 

 soil, and that, when this food is exhausted by a suc- 

 cession of crops of the same kind, the plant must of 

 necessity fail for want of its proper nourishment. 

 In this way the changes of forest timber noted 

 above may be explained, since rendering the soil 

 unfit for the production of one kind of plant by no 

 means disqualifies it for growing another. By this 

 theory, also, the cause of the changes of the grain- 

 crops in our country is made plain ; as the specific 

 food of each plant being in a great degree different, 

 that required by the rye had been untouched by the 



