A RATIONAL AGRICULTURIST. 315 



theoretical, is that, in order to obtain uniform crops, great care must be 

 taken to maintain and restore the composition of the soil. 



The practical man proves that the notions which he has conceived are 

 entirely inapplicable in his practice ; and that the scientific principles 

 which he disputes are precisely those by which he is unconsciously guided. 

 Sound practice and true science are ever in unison ; and a contest on these 

 matters is possible only between two persons, one of whom does not under- 

 stand the other. The chief fault lies in want of precision in defining 

 things, and in using indefinite or vague language to express our ideas. 



The opinion of Rosenberg-Lipinsky (see his 'Practical Agriculture/ 

 b. ii. Breslau: E. Trewends, 1862), is 'that no kind of plant actually 

 exhausts the great storehouse of the soil' (p. 738); and further, 'that 

 plants, directly and indirectly, return to the soil more strength than they 

 take from it ' (p. 740). This opinion is thus modified (p. 742) : ' when 

 therefore the farmer does not take sufficient care that the more important 

 magazine of nutriment, the soil, receives at the right time, and in proper 

 quantity, the necessary compensation for that which is inevitably consumed, 

 the picture of exhaustion which the cultivated plants manifestly wear, 

 cannot possibly be charged upon their consumers, but the blame is wholly 

 and solely attributable to the farmer himself.' Further, at p. 740, he says, 

 ' Only in' those plains, where the injustice of the elements, or of man, has 

 violently disturbed the natural laws of the nutrition of plants, does the 

 scanty vegetation of the wild flora indicate the exhaustion of the soil.' 



