A SECOND CROP DEPENDS ON THE PRECEDING ONE. 177 



now thrive better, even without the application of ma- 

 nure (with sparing application), and yield a richer crop. 

 But this is not a saving of manure for future crops, nor 

 has the field been enriched in the conditions of its fer- 

 tility. There has been an increase, not in the sum of 

 the nutriment, but in the available particles of that 

 sum, and their operation has been hastened in point of 

 time. 



The physical and chemical condition of the field 

 was improved ; but the store of chemical elements was 

 reduced. All plants, without exception, drain the soil, 

 each in its own way, and exhaust the conditions for 

 their reproduction. 



In the produce of his field the farmer actually sells 

 his land ; he sells, in his crops, certain elements of the 

 atmosphere, which come of themselves to his soil ; and 

 with them certain constituents of the ground, which 

 are his property, and which have served to form, out 

 of the atmospheric elements, the body of the plant, 

 being themselves component parts of that body. In 

 alienating the crops of his field, he robs the land of the 

 conditions required for their reproduction. Such a 

 system of husbandry may properly be called a system 

 of spoliation. 



The constituents of the soil are the farmer's capital ; 

 the atmospheric nutritive substances are the interest of 

 his capital ; with the former he produces the latter. 

 In selling the produce, he alienates part of his capital 

 and the interest ; in restoring the constituents of the 

 soil to the ground, he retains his capital. 



Common sense tells us, and all farmers agree, that 

 clover, turnips, hay, &c., cannot be sold off from a 

 farm without materially damaging the productive 

 power of the land for corn. 



Everyone willingly admits, that the removal of clo- 

 ver is prejudicial to the cultivation of corn ; but that 

 the removal of corn should injure the cultivation of 

 clover is to most farmers an inconceivable, nay, an im- 

 possible idea. 



Yet the natural connection and mutual relations 



8* 



