MANURES. 143 



nectcd with the history of bad economy. The sources of foreign 

 manures arc by no means inexhaustible, and, if resorted to, to 

 any considerable extent, would soon be exhausted; besides, it 

 is bad, exceedingly bad national policy to purchase of a for- 

 eign government what care and attention might secure at home. 

 He who suffers his crops to waste away and return to the earth 

 and air whence they came, when ready to harvest, is not re- 

 garded cither as a good or provident husbandman. Neither 

 should he be who fails to save, and compost, and return to the 

 field those elements necessary to feed, nourish, and promote 

 the luxuriant growth and maturity of such plants as are culti- 

 vated and produced for the growth and sustenance of both 

 man and beast. May this subject be duly considered by all 

 who are engaged in farming and gardening. 



O <D CD CJ O 



Having thus presented the subject of manures, composting, 

 <fec, it is hoped that the farmers of the Hampshire Agricultural 

 Society will here find such facts and suggestions as shall serve 

 to incite them to the exercise of greater diligence, economy, 

 and skill in saving, composting, and applying specific manures. 

 Manure is to plant-culture what food is to your stock. Be as 

 eager, then, to save and provide manure to feed your plants 

 as fodder and provender for your cattle and hogs. It is no 

 more essential to your thrift and prosperity as a breeder of 

 stock that you should know how to feed your animals so as to 

 promote their most rapid growth and maturity than it is that 

 you should know how to cultivate and manure your land so as 

 to secure the greatest possible return in crops for the capital 

 and labor invested. In other words, it is as essential that you 

 should know how to feed your plants as your animals. Neither 

 will grow and mature to perfection unless rightly fed and nour- 

 ished. Both the quantity and quality of what the farmer and 

 his domestic animals subsist upon, from his tilled acres, will 

 depend chiefly upon his skill as a husbandman. 



In order to compass the end that every good farmer should 

 have in view, to wit, to secure the greatest possible return for 

 labor and capital invested in farming, he should read and study 

 carefully the best-written treatises on agriculture ; read the 

 most intelligibly-conducted agricultural journals ; converse 

 with his neighbor farmers, such as are actively engaged in 



