NON-MANUKING. 373 



of the earth with plant food, that man's first 

 and most pressing wants, in taking possession 

 of new territory, might be easily supplied ; but 

 she has given us to understand, plainly and 

 sternly, a thousand times over, that beyond the 

 first instance she will only work with us, and 

 not for us. This first supply of plant food 

 seems to us like a providential beneficence for 

 which we are not sufficiently grateful. If we 

 approach the subject with just views of the 

 economics of nature, we shall not only see the 

 impolicy of exhausting the soil of its fertility, 

 but the magnitude of the evil we are inflicting 

 upon our own posterity and the country at 

 large! As every crop we raise consumes a cer- 

 tain amount of plant food, we can not, by any 

 kind of logic, escape the conclusion, that crop- 

 ping without feeding will ultimately produce 

 barrenness and starvation. It will be wise, 

 therefore, to begin to supply food before the 

 stage of starvation,, with its attendant evils, is 

 reached. The wants of the vine, in this respect, 

 should be anticipated. If the supply of food 

 is withheld till the vines show their want of it 

 by feebleness and lessened crops, an injury will 

 have been done which can not easily be re- 

 paired. 



