EXHAUSTION OF SOILS. 123 



grass or wood for a couple of centuries, are not impov- 

 erished. 



It is certain that some plants take more of the geine^ 

 the sugar, the pabulum, or food, from the soil than 

 other plants do ; and if we can acciu'ately ascertain 

 the degrees of exhaustion, and the comparative value 

 of the crops taken off, we can determine with more 

 certainty which are most profitable. 



The various species of pine, and particularly the 

 white pine, will flourish and grow as fast on a sandy 

 plain, that will produce nothing else, as it will on a 

 rich soil. We may not know the reason of all this, 

 but it is of some importance to ascertain the fact. For, 

 if one of our most stately and valuable forest-trees soars 

 aloft without apparent aid from a hungry soil, and gets 

 but little nourishment excepting through its leaf, other 

 plants may do the same ; and, by making proper in- 

 quiry, we may arrive at very important results. 



One of the positions which we have endeavored to 

 maintain in our paper is, that potatoes of all kinds are 

 an exhausting crop — the Solanum tuberosum — the 

 poisonous plant ; more so than Indian corn. We are 

 quite aware that the position is new; but, as truth is 

 our object, we shall insist on the correctness of this 

 position, which we are forced to take after long experi- 

 ence on the subject, until we are satisfied, from facts 

 and from experiments, of our error. 



We well know the common notion is, that potatoes 

 enrich the soil. If this were so, our New IJngland 

 would now be the richest country in the world ; for 

 no people have raised more potatoes. We have not 

 eat so many for the last fifty years as the Irish have 

 done, for Vv^e have had' other food to eat with them ; 

 but we have cultivated them not only for the parlor 

 and the kitchen, but for the hen, the pig, the milch 

 cow, the fatting ox, and last, but not least — horrihile 

 dictu — we have cultivated large fields of them for the 

 mere purpose of procuring a vegetable exti^act, so poi- 



