86 ON WHEAT, &C. 



manure, though it would very much increase the fer- 

 tility of the soil generally, yet if apphed directly to a 

 crop of wheat, would be found to be positively inju- 

 rious. And further, on soil which is much enriched 

 in this way, wheat is considered to be exceedingly li- 

 able to rust or blight. And too, our resources for 

 thus enriching the soil are too small to practice it 

 universally. 



The application of lime in large quantities would 

 probably enable us to raise wheat ; but this, on the 

 other hand, would tend very fast to reduce the fertili- 

 ity of the soil yet further, except sustained by the use 

 of large quanties of other manure ; for on our light 

 soil, the vegetable matter, on which the lime acts, and 

 which it converts into immediate nourishment, is al- 

 ready too small, and needs to be increased. 



If this view of the subject be correct, instead of 

 taxing our ingenuity for the purpose of devising 

 ways to obtain large crops of grain for the purpose of 

 sale or for feeding animals, we should introduce with- 

 out any further delay, a judicious system of alternation 

 of crops, embracing roots and leguminous plants ; and 

 thus by gradually enriching the soil, without exhaust- 

 ing it of one specific quality, we shall, perhaps, sooner 

 than in any other manner, restore our worn out soil 

 to its original fertihty. 



Let us for a moment imagine that instead of the 

 system complained of, potatoes, ruta baga, mangel 

 wurtzel, carrots, &c., had been raised in quantities 

 sufficient (with some grain, perhaps,) to fatten all the 

 cattle that have been fattened on grain exclusively — 

 that clover, lucerne, &.C., had been judiciously, alter- 

 nated with the grasses, and that the immense quanti- 

 ties of manure which would then have been fur- 

 nished had been properly applied — and can it be 

 supposed that our soil would then have been in its 

 present destitute condition ? It is not asserted that 

 under such management our soil would at this time 



