99 



and this may naturally account for the prices of Corn 

 at Cracow and Warsaw, being higher, with the addi- 

 tion of freight and the other charges, than at Dantzic 

 and Elbing. 



It has been frequently remarked, that the Expor- 

 tation of Corn from any country, if long continued, 

 must tend to exhaust the soil, unless some articles, 

 capable of becoming converted into manure, are 

 introduced to compensate for the injury. Many parts 

 of the North of Africa, and of Asia Minor, which 

 formerly supplied large quantities of Corn to Europe, 

 have since become desarts. Perhaps one of the chief 

 causes of the progress we have made in agriculture, 

 and of the superior productiveness of our fields, has 

 arisen from our exporting but few, and importing 

 many, of those articles which are capable, when de- 

 composed, of becoming manure, and being applied to 

 renovate the soil, as much or more as it is exhausted 

 by cropping. 



From Poland, for nearly two centuries, according 

 to the Document in Appendix, No. 24, the Exports 

 of Corn have been very large ; whilst, on the other 

 hand, nothing has been imported, deserving of notice, 

 which could be converted into nutriment to the soil. 



The system of rotation by which two crops of Corn 

 are raised in succession, and nothing is administered 

 to refresh the land but a fallow, would exhaust the 

 best soil with which we are acquainted. 



In every part of my journey through Poland, the 

 impression communicated, in looking at the fields, 

 whether with growing crops, in stubble, or under the 

 operations of the plough, was, that they were ap- 

 proaching to a state of exhaustion from excessive 

 cropping. 



This view, which the rotation of crops and the face 

 of the country suggests, is confirmed by the statistical 

 facts, which show that its power of supplying the 

 wants of other countries is greatly diminished. The 



