MAKAGENfKNT OF MANURES ON ORAIN-FARMS, l2l 



naturally <lr:iiiir(l. And tlii)iii;h Mr. .lolinston w.is ahvaj's a pmd 

 fariiKT, yt't hi- s;iys lit- " uevi-r urn le inoiicy until he roinnit'iictMl lo 

 dniin." Tlie ai-(uinulaU>l fi-rtilily in the land could llji n be made 

 uvailalile by good tillage, and from tiiat day to this, his land has 

 been growing rielier and riihtr. And, in faet, the same is true of 

 Mr. (Jedtles' farm. It is rieln r land to-day than when first jilowed, 

 while there is one lield that for seventy years has had no manure 

 applied to it, e.vcept pliLster. How is this to be explaini'd? Mr. 

 Goddes would s;iy it was due t4) clover and plaster. But this docs 

 not fully satisfj' thow who claim, (an<l truly), that "alway.s taking 

 out of the meal-tub and never putting in, soon comes to the bot- 

 tom." The chiver can add notliing to the land, that it did not get 

 from the .soil, except orj^ini'- matter obtaini'd from the atmosphere, 

 and the i)l!Lster furnis'ies little or nothing except lime and sulphu- 

 ric acid There are all tin- other iiigrcdic:its of plant-food to be 

 accfMmted for — phosplioric acid, potash, soda, niairnesia, etc. A 

 crop of clover, or corn, or wh<'at, or barU'v, or oats, will not come 

 to perfection unless every one of tliesf elemcnt.s is present in the 

 soil in an available condition. Mr. (leddes has not funiishe(l a 

 single ounce of any one of them. 



" Where «lo they come from ?" 



I answer, from Ow ffi'l .7.*/^. There i« probably enough of these 

 elements in the s«)il to last ten thousan<l years; and if we return to 

 the soil all the str.iw, chaff, and br.in, and si-ll nothing but fine flour, 

 meat, butter, etc., t'.iere is jirobably enough to last a million years, 

 and you and I need not trouble ourselves with speculations as to 

 what will hai>pen .'.fter that time. Nearly all our soils are practi- 

 cally ine.\haustil)le. But of course these elements are not in an 

 available condition. If they were, t'.ie rains would wash them all 

 into the ocean. They are rendered available by a kind of fer'nen- 

 tation. A manure-lieap packed as hard and solid as a rock would 

 not deca}'; but break it up, make it fine, turn it occasif)nally so as 

 to expose it to the atmosphere, and witli the proper degree of mois- 

 ture and heat it will ferment rapidly, and all its elements will 

 soon become available food for plants. Nothing has been created 

 by the process. It was all there. We have simply made it availa- 

 bk. So it is with the s^)il. Break it up, make it fine, turn it 

 occasionally, expose it to the atmosphere, and the elements it con- 

 t;iins become available. 



I do not think that Mr. Gcddes' land is any better, naturally, 



tlian yours or mine. We can all raise fair crops by cultivating 



the land thoroughly, and by never allowing a weed to grow. On 



Mr. Lawes' experimental wheat-field, the plot that has never re- 



6 



