94 ECONOMY OF FARMING. 



it follows that, by a mathematical mode, it cannot be brought to a completeness, 

 and much less to an end ; for it is acknowledged on all sides that the solution of the 

 problem depends on the supremacy of the unalterable elements, the effects of which 

 can be known only in the way of experiment, according to quantity, and never 

 according to quality ; the operation of the elementary and chemical powers in the 

 culture of the soil, being in a great measure withheld from our verification and obser- 

 vation, and accurate experiments exist in a small number ; so that it is extremely 

 difficult, if not impossible, to bring the free elements into a union perfectly corres- 

 ponding in every respect with the unalterable ones. The theory at the basis of a 

 formula, according to which the product and exhaustion of the soil can be reckoned — 

 with which especially Wulfen occupied himself— justly appears to the Author super- 

 fluous, and is a circuitous mode, if a man hopes by it that the agreement of the formula 

 will prove backwards the correctness of the theory ; since this would always be only 

 the old w^ay of experiment, every agreement must be often repeated in order to 

 demonstrate the correctness of the theory, which would not follow from particular 

 cases. 



Physics and Mathematics, and especially the practical mathematics, are employed 

 about bodies with varying quantities ; but Agriculture knows only one imperishable 

 quantity, the earth which yearly allows new growth to proceed from it. Here, there- 

 fore, is an eternal coming and going, and if we could explain that one species 

 of grain used just so much nutritious matter in order to form a certain quantity of 

 kernels, yet it would not thence follow, that by this quantity of kernels produced 

 from the nutritious matter in the soil, which is here named as its power, it must be 

 lessened a certain quantity according to weight, and exactly in proportion to the 

 quantity of kernels ; because the production of kernels is in no wise effected by the 

 power of the soil only, by which we here understand the given manure. 



The Author justly observes, that we must consider the soil not merely as the bearer 

 of vegetation, but also as an agent, in so far as it acts chemically on the decomposable 

 matter in it, and combines with the constituent parts of the atmosphere ; and since 

 moisture and heat cannot be brought into the calculation, because they are too 

 changeable quantities, it follows hence, that we can adopt the Statics of Agriculture 

 for nothing else than a practical natural philosophy of Agriculture with its results ; 

 and that the employment of mathematical formula do not answer for the computation 

 of the processes of vegetation ; since, though one begins this process well, yet he 

 cannot follow it in the course of its development, and cannot observe and bring into 

 the computation the combinations of earthy, organic and atmospherical matter. 



From this cause, I have never been able to explain to myself, so as by it to reckon 

 algebraically the result of the processes of hfe, and I have believed that I ought 

 therefore previously to confine myself to compute from the quantity of substances 

 affording nutriment to plants brought on the field, the probable profit to be expected 

 in vegetable products for a given rotation ; by which, as is easily seen, on account of 

 the difference of the operation of the weather, the product is not brought into the 

 course of a particular year ; but the collective amount will agree, so far as one can 

 expect of so imperfect a computation, and which can scarcely be brought to a 

 higher degree of perfection, as we know only the mixture of the soil and the quan- 

 tity of the substances nourishing plants applied to it; the other two chief factors of 

 the processes of vegetation, heat and moisture, are previously unknown. 



That my opinions concerning the proportion of manure to the production; the 

 difference of proportion in grass-kind and husk-kind of fruits, in the root and knob 

 vegetables ; then whether these should be cut before or after the blossom, or after the 

 ripening of the seed-corns, contain much that is arbitrary, resting either only on 

 probability, or not demonstrated by sufficient observations and experiments, I will nol 

 deny. The object of the question is yet too new, too little diffused, and demands for 

 the solution of the problem, very closely-tried computations of husbandry, which are 

 rarely to be found, and which the farmers can scarcely undertake on account of the 

 continued observation which they require. On this account, I hope that the simple 

 formula which I have proposed, will be acknowledged better than all hitherto set 

 forth, by which to reckon the profit to be expected in products in any given mode of 

 husbandry, and to show afterwards the increasing production which will result from 

 the change of husbandry, so far as this is connected with the production of more 

 manure, or a less consumption of the substance which nourishes the plants. 



Though many believe it to be a mere scientific, and as they say, a useless contest, 

 which is here presented, yet every man knows, that the better he manures, the richer 

 harvests he obtains, as well as that he harvests less in the year the furtlier he recedes 



