ADDRESS. 15 



organic matter, — that is, such as results from decayed animals 

 and vegetables, — and yet be very barren. And when ashes, 

 or quick lime, or marl, or gypsum, or bone powder, is added, 

 they render the soil fertile, not because the soil is entirely des- 

 titute of these materials, but because they bring the vegetable 

 matter into such a state that it can be taken up by the roots 

 of plants ; or they make it mellow, or more tenacious of heat 

 or moisture. 



If these views are correct, some important consequences 

 follow. 



One is that there is scarcely any soil too barren to be made 

 very fertile ; and that what the farmers of New England 

 should aim at, is, not to transplant their sons to the fertile 

 prairies of the west, but to improve our own soil ; so that they 

 shall be contented with the paternal inheritance. To illustrate 

 this position, let me give an example from my own experience. 

 Every one knows that there is not a more barren spot in New 

 England, than the further extremity of Cape Cod ; where the 

 traveller sees little else but white drifting sand, and scarcely 

 no vegetation, except a few stinted pines, and beach, find pov- 

 erty grass. Finding myself in Truro, and, as I fancied, almost 

 beyond the regions of agriculture, I was surprised, on being 

 invited by a respectable farmer there to visit a piece of ground, 

 on which he was in the habit of raising annually fifty bushels 

 of Tndian corn to the acre. I found that the soil did not dif- 

 fer from the white sand around it, except in containing an 

 abundance of fragments of quahaug shells, and enough of or- 

 ganic matter to give it a dark color. Having extracted these 

 shells, that is, all the carbonate of lime, (about 20 per cent.,) 

 and a little phosphate, and then burnt off the organic matter, 

 nothing remained but the pure white sand of the Cap3. 



Now this is an extreme case ; and if such a soil can be made 

 fertile, I know of none in New England that cannot be made 

 so. True, it requires industry, ingenuity, and perseverance. 

 But this is just what men need for the development of a good 

 character, and for happiness. Providence never conferred a 

 greater blessing upon this nation, than by directing our Pilgrim 



