94 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



discussion, but I will endeavor to be brief in the consideration 

 of it. 



Mr. George Geddes, of Onondaga County, N. Y., said, at a 

 meeting of farmers a few days ago, to the effect that, though 

 now an old man, and having an excellent farm, which he has 

 kept constantly improving for many years, the only manures he 

 has used have been clover and the sheep' s foot. I can hardly 

 take him literally, for he certainly made large quantities of 

 barn-yard manure and applied that ; but, besides that, sheep's 

 foot and clover have been his manures. His sales have prob- 

 ably been wool, mutton, beef and wheat, and perhaps the prod- 

 ucts of his dairy. Taking him at his word, he has been 

 impoverishing his soil all this time that it has been growing 

 better. Here is a paradox — such an one as farmers often meet 

 with. We know, if he sells mutton of his own raising, he takes 

 much from the soil, yet it grows better because the clover brings 

 up from the subsoil enough of enrichment to keep the balance 

 in the farmer's favor. But that this cannot last forever is 

 obvious, and for the reason that the sheep, to take them as a 

 single article sold from the farm, draw their entire bony frame 

 from the soil itself, and that is sold with the sheep. 



Decompositions go on within the soil by the action of the air 

 and moisture, warmth and cold, which are constantly rendering 

 available a certain amount of plant-food. 



There are some soils in which these agents, with sufficient til- 

 lage, will develop really wonderful fertility, which is maintained 

 without apparent decrease for hundreds of years. But it is safe 

 to say Mr. Geddes' soil is not one of these. It is safe to say 

 also he has sold no hay or straw, very little corn, if any, and it 

 follows that he has fed upon the place, and returned to the soil 

 as barn-yard manure, so far as possible, all that he has raised, 

 except the products enumerated. Nevertheless, we can hardly 

 credit his statement, unless he admits that he has all this time, 

 or a good part of it, bought and fed oil-cake, or some other 

 provender, which he did not raise. This will account for the 

 constant improvement ; this will make a balance in his favor at 

 the bank ; this will supply the losses of the soil in furnishing 

 bones to lambs and calves, phosphates and alkalies to milk, and 

 ashes to wheat, &c., and enable the honored farmer of Fair- 



