132 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



stored with the elements of plants, can long be annually 

 cropped without becoming sterile and unproductive. Hence 

 it is fair to infer that to dress and to keep the first garden 

 signified more than spading, or ploughing, and cropping. As 

 man multiplied upon, and replenished the earth, he would 

 come to see, as the process of soil exhaustion was going on 

 from year to year, as he observed the diminution of his harvest 

 from season to season, that some mode of re-fertilization must 

 be resorted to, or else he must frequently emigrate, and thus 

 carry forward the sure work of impoverishing desolation until 

 every fruitful field should be converted into a desert waste. 



Man, being both an observing and reflecting creature, would 

 most certainly come to a knowledge of manurial specifics such 

 as would, if rightly applied, restore, and even improve, the 

 original state of his garden or farm. Thus from history may 

 this process be demonstrated. But in the course of time, 

 when the maximum of improvement in cultivating the soil 

 should be attained, as in Egypt, the work of emigration would 

 be as sure to go on as under the exhaustive and minimum 

 process. 



Very little can be found concerning the modes of cultivating 

 and fertilizing the field and garden until the dawn of Grecian 

 history. It is said of Augeas that he was first among the 

 Greeks to discover the use of manure. If so, it was probably 

 subsequent to the time when he stipulated with Hercules to 

 clean out his stable in one day, — though it had not been done 

 for thirty years, notwithstanding he is reputed to have kept 

 three thousand oxen, — promising, if he would do so, to give 

 him one-tenth of his cattle. This Hercules is said t6 have 

 done ; not, however, after the way of modern times, but by turn- 

 ing the River Alpheus through the stable, which immediately 

 carried away the dung and filth. The condition of many a 

 modern farmer's barn would remind one of the Augean sta- 

 ble. So let it be cleansed, as by water, that none of the 

 excrcmentitious matter, whether solid or liquid, shall be lost, 

 but all so saved that it may be used to fertilize his gardens and 

 fields, whence comes his daily bread. 



Zcnophon, who lived about four hundred and fifty years be- 

 fore Christ, recommends the use of earth that has long been 



