150 IMPORTANCE AND VALUE 



fertility can be imagined possible. It may, perhaps, 

 be objected, — Are there not many such farms ? Do 

 not most farms, indeed, belong to the class of those 

 that are restricted to natural manures, and neverthe- 

 less yield abundant, very abundant crops ? To this 

 I reply. Abundant, very abundant crops, are prob- 

 ably, nay even certainly, not the most abundant that 

 are in general possible. Were as much again ma- 

 nure as he himself produces placed at the disposal 

 of an intelligent farmer, who has brought his land 

 into the best condition attainable by the usual 

 mode of farming, I believe that he would still 

 know how to use it to advantage. Let it even 

 be assumed that his land already yields the largest 

 harvest-produce that, with the ordinary rotation of 

 crops, is in general possible, ought he not with a 

 superabundance of manure to have it in his power 

 to increase essentially the money-produce^ by being 

 able so to change the alternation of his harvests, 

 as to reject from their turn in the succession such 

 crops as need less manuring, and are, as a general 

 rule, less profitable, and to introduce in their place 

 those which require a more vigorous manuring, 

 but bring in a higher compensation ? A farm will 

 not have reached its highest point of cultivation, till 

 the land is brought into such a state of vigor, as to 

 bear not merely the first and second crops (say rape 

 and wheat), but also the after-crop (oats, etc.), in the 

 greatest perfection ; nor till the farmer manures in 

 general for every crop that requires manure, and as 



