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ammonia have taken to themselves wings and left the 

 poor man, and the soluble portions of the lime and mag- 

 nesia, the soda and the potash, have all run away. And 

 then the swine, that would have grown so fat and com- 

 fortable housed in the warm cellar, suffer in growth as 

 well as beauty, as they wallow in the half built open 

 stye. Sometimes rooting a hole under the loose dilap- 

 idated boards, out rush the eager, hungry pigs into the 

 garden, while over the fence bounds the gaunt, haggard 

 mother, and round races the farmer and the expostulating 

 farmer's wife, while sticks and stones and hogs complete 

 the destruction commenced by the oxen, who came 

 through the rotten rails after the last storm. His tillage 

 lands have only been scratched by a dull and ancient 

 horse-plough, his pastures are worn out years ago, and 

 have never been turned, and over and over again have 

 his fields been carried to mill. His mowing lands, never 

 blessed Avith any rotation or change, and never at first 

 plowed to any depth, or manured through those long ex- 

 hausting years, have completely run out, and in much 

 shorter and less pinching droughts than that of the last 

 summer, crisp and sere, crumple under your feet, and 

 almost blaze as they ineffectually try to grow. And the 

 pale-leaved corn, early parched and curling, makes you 

 groan in spirit for the spindling, impoverished crop ; for 

 one loves the beautiful maize crop — above all other grains 

 the Indian corn, the peculiar grain of our clear native 

 skies, and the hot native suns to which we too belong ! 

 The swamps, in place of being cleared and trenched and 

 drained, saving abundant stores of mud as a basis of pro- 

 lific composts, and absorbents of fertilizing juices, are a 

 wild tangled waste, with stagnant water rotting the 

 coarse sedgy grass among the useless alders, and tainting 

 the sweet air of heaven. His ill-fed cattle, diminutive 

 and mangy, with here and there a great rack of bones 



