9 



what ought to be clone and what ought not. Crops are like 

 human beings, to a certain extent. They have a stomach, and 

 require certain kinds of food. If you treat a crop with special 

 manures, you can soon find by experiment just what that crop 

 likes, and precisely what ought to be done for it to get the 

 best results. You all understand, after a while, the import- 

 ance of reducing the bulk of manures as much as possible. 

 Let me refer again to Delaware. The soil of that State is 

 made up of the washings of a great river. A large portion of 

 the land has been cropped and cropped, until some of it will 

 now hardly bear sorrel, it is so poor. A man went down 

 there some years ago and bought some of this land that would 

 not pay taxes. He cultivated it with only superphosphate of 

 lime, with a view to raising crops of peaches and strawberries. 

 It was like taking a drowned man out of the sea. By means of 

 the proper manuring, he soon restored this land to a state of 

 fertility and raised most excellent crops. The rules of wealth 

 and the laws of nature combine to teach the lesson which may 

 be applied right here amongst you. All summer long Boston 

 has been complaining of the bad odors from this river and 

 that river. Worcester has been complaining of her sewage ; 

 so have Newport and other places. We find that the Back Bay 

 of Boston is the source of a good deal of trouble — that the peo- 

 ple living in the large houses of that section say it is unhealthy. 

 These matters may seem about as far oft" from agriculture as 

 the north pole, yet they tell us some stern facts of nature. 

 You make huge draughts on the guano banks for material to 

 put on the land, and yet you waste in your rivers and sewers 

 manure worth more than guano. Not only this, but the efflu- 

 via from great sewers poisons the air and undermines the 

 health of the people. And yet you allow the waste of mat- 



