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SECTION VII. 
Of Tillage, and the principles on which 
Vt is founded. 
Titvacr has three objects :—Ist, the raising of 
plants, whose seeds, stems or roots may be necessa- 
ry or useful to man and the animals he employs ;— 
2d, the improvement of the soil, by laying it open 
to those atmospheric influences which increase its 
fertility ;—and 3d, its destruction of weeds, or 
plants which rise spontaneously, and are either al- 
together unfit, or fit only in a small degree, for the 
nutrition of men and cattle, and which, if left te 
themselves, would stifle or starve the intended crop, 
In fulfilling either or all of these objects, it is ev- 
ident that the surface of the earth must be broken 
and divided into small parts, so that in the first in- 
stance it may furnish a bed and covering for the 
seeds sown, enable them to push their roots into the 
soil, and draw from it a portion of their subsistence. 
To accomplish this leading intention (the divis- 
ion of the soil) various means have been employed. 
Fossil, animal and vegetable manures, as well by 
their mechanical action, as by their chemical pro- 
perties, promote it; as do sand, pounded limestone 
and water (as in the culture of rice ;) but it is to the 
spade and the plough we must look for that degree 
of efficiency, without which the earth would have 
remained a desart, or would become one. Of these, 
where the scale of labor is small (as in garden cul- 
