ESSEX SOCIETY, 37 



has been faithfully returned to the earth whence it grew up, the 

 next will come into existence with an increased means of food 

 suited to its nourishment. And because there is much which is 

 common in the elements on which vegetables subsist, should 

 seed of a different kind from that of the preceding year be used, 

 the coming plant would enter tipon the harvest already gathered 

 to its hand, and enjoy the means of a more vigorous growth, 

 because served with the stores gathered by a former generation. 

 Even upon the supposition credited, we believe, by most, that a 

 single ingredient necessary to the best development of a partic- 

 ular place may be used up by its long-repeated production, it 

 does not certainly follow that the general means of vegetable 

 life may not, at the same time, have been accumulating. Were 

 there no other means, then, of increasing the productive power 

 of a given soil, than a constant tillage and a restoration in such 

 forms as could best be done of what had been taken from it, no 

 one need doubt but that, by a careful and scientific cultivation, a 

 wilderness might be turned into a fruitful field. 



Notwithstanding a very general belief of the advantage to be 

 gained by the kind of culture under consideration, and also the 

 evident support which the general laws of the material universe 

 give to it, the Committee are sensibly struck with the fact, that 

 the method has been tried but by comparatively few in the 

 county. The same observation may be extended to the Com- 

 monwealth, and, indeed, to the nation at large, and that, even of 

 those who have once or twice tried it, and reported favorably as 

 to the result, almost none have repeated the experiment, cer- 

 tainly have not introduced it into their settled modes of farming. 

 That land may be thus enriched, and at a moderate expense, is 

 credited by many, but their faith lias not become strong and 

 controlling enough, nor operative enough, to produce much ac- 

 tion. The truth needs still to be held up, the subject presented 

 in a more brightening form, the convictions to be made deeper, 

 the benefits more tangible. It is a subject of great and general 

 interest. Its principles apply with equal adaptation to the 

 smallest garden and the largest farm. Its utility is founded in 

 the general and unchanging laws of the material and vegetable 

 universe. In many places it opens almost the only hope that 



