52 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



supported a thriving and industrious population l«iYe, 

 from the action of the causes above alluded to, be- 

 come deserts, in which the solitary camel can scaice 

 find a shadow of vegetation to supply his easily-sat- 

 isfied wants. Mesopotamia, parts of Syria and 

 Palestine, Edoni, and parts of Arabia Felix, many 

 parts of the north of Africa, and no inconsiderable 

 portion of Asia Minor, have thus been rendered 

 hopelessly barren. The finest of wheat can now 

 no longer be grown on the plains where once the 

 reaper filled his arms with the yellow sheaves. 

 They were ceaselessly cropped until the soil was 

 so exhausted that the unaided efl!brts of nature were 

 unable to restore fertility, and the result is perpet- 

 ual barrenness. 



To counteract this tendency to sterility is the 

 business of the farmer; and on the possibility of 

 doing this rests the whole system of improved agri- 

 culture. Science has here come to the aid of the 

 cultivator of the soil, and, by revealing the agents 

 and promoters of fertility, has greatly assisted and 

 simplified the processes, without which all would be 

 still doubtful and uncertain. The action of manures 

 has been ascertained ; the value and activity of the 

 various salts formed by the decomposition of ani- 

 mal and vegetable matter in part determined ; the 

 aid which the mineral earths aflTord to vegetation 

 has been carefully examined ; and those combina- 

 tions of soil the best calculated to induce fertility 

 have been accurately investigated. It has been 

 shown, that to take from the soil without making 

 corresponding returns is suicidal policy ; and that, 

 if this point is properly attended to, land can be 

 cropped without danger of deterioration. 



Manure, then, is the sheet-anchor of the farmer. 

 It is to this source of fertility he must look for the 

 renovation of the soil and the means of continued 

 productiveness. And it is on manures produced 

 from his own fields, from his herds and his flocks, 



