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Levi Goodrich, of Pittsfield, showed me a field of considerable 

 extent, where in one part clover and grass followed corn ; in the other 

 part of the same field, and all other circumstances similar, clover and 

 grass followed potatoes. The grass after corn was excellent ; after 

 potatoes, not one-sixth as large. A result somewhat similar has fol- 

 lowed in respect to wheat taken after corn or after potatoes. The 

 testimony of the farmers, as given to the committee of the Agricul- 

 tural Society for viewing crops, and to myself likewise, is equally de- 

 cisive in this matter. The inference seems plain, that potatoes are 

 a much more exhausting crop than corn. 



Tiie subject of the wheat-culture has, within two or three years, 

 attracted great and not undeserved attention through the state. The 

 causes of its failure have been matter of much inquiry and discussion, 

 xhe deficiency of calcareous matter, or the carbonate of lime, has 

 Leen confidently pronounced the great and sole cause. That some 

 portion of lime in the soil in some form is essential seems generally 

 conceded ; but that a certain amount of the carbonate of lime is in- 

 dispensable, is not so fully borne out by facts, as to be pronounced 

 unquestionable. On a soil in Chelmsford, wheat has been raised for 

 twenty years at the rate of from twenty to thirty bushels to the acre ; 

 and with but a single instance of failure during that time. From Dr. 

 Dana, who, with the most public-spirited views, is disposed to ren- 

 der any aid in his power to the cau?e ol' an improved agriculture, — 

 and few individuals in the country are capable of rendering so impor- 

 tant chemical services, — I have obtained an analysis of the soil of this 

 farm, which I shall subjoin in the Appendix.* It will be seen, from 

 that analysis, that " it contains no trace of the carbonate of lime." 

 This remarkable result shows the necessity of extreme caution in 

 adopting with confidence any theory on subjects so recondite 

 and mysterious as every thing in nature connected with animal and veg- 

 etable life, until at least we are able to say what, in either case, 

 life itself is. This is a matter in which the superficial may see no diffi- 

 culty of explanation ; but, in truth, it is a secret and mystery, the so- 

 lution of which the truly philosophic mind will perceive is not yet 

 even approached. That the application of lime to land has been often 

 attended with the most beneficial effects, facts demonstrating such re- 



• Appendix D. Letter II. 



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