GRASS. 53 



dispensed with ; yet the Graham doctors still indulge 

 their disciples in the use of grain ! Even in the cold 

 and figless climate of Britain, grain, in former times, 

 was not relied on as a staple article ; but, as population 

 increases, grain is demanded ; for the tract that would 

 be required to feed a buftalo would maintain its thou- 

 sands of human beings, when well planted with grain. 



In the most populous portions of the earth — China 

 is an example — few beasts can be kept. Grain is 

 produced by manual labor ; and vegetable diet is the 

 only food of the mass of population. A dollar now 

 expended in meal will feed ten men a week : a dollar 

 expended in meat would hardly last a day. 



The raising of grain requires a soil by nature rich, 

 or made so by culture. In a populous country are 

 created the means of enriching the soil ; and these 

 means supply the exhausted fields with the necessary 

 pabulum or food of future plants. This is nature's 

 rotation ; and nature's laws must be obeyed. If we 

 will maintain our population on the luxury, grain, with 

 the product of grain we must restore an exhausted soil. 

 Grain is the great exhauster ; and we could readily 

 render our plains fertile again, if we Avere not obliged 

 to crop them with grain. Grass grows spontaneously, 

 and does not exhaust our soil. You will dispute and 

 controvert our doctrine until you have well considered 

 the subject, and then ninety-nine of yon in a hundred 

 will agree with us. When your lands have been 

 mown seven years without manuring, you obtain a 

 larger crop of corn or grain, on ploughing up, than if 

 you had mown them but four. What is the reason of 

 this ? You get as large a crop because your grass is 

 not an exhauster ; you get a larger crop because in 

 seven years the soil becomes filled with grass-roots, to 

 be decomposed as soon as you kill them with the 

 plough. In seven years, your grass-land is hide-bound 

 and choked with abundance of roots. It will not give 

 you half a crop of grass ; but it is not because your 

 land has been growing poorer in grass ; for if you 



