372 INORGANIC ELEMENTS OF MANURES AND CROPS. 



principles, an attempt has been made to imitate what is done in more 

 favored districts, where it is possible, for example, to add animal 

 remains to the manure. The corn crops felt this new procedure ; 

 nor could it be otherwise. But now there is a reaction in the op- 

 posite sense, and I could name most thriving establishments, where 

 one-half of the farm is in meadow. The ever-increasing demand 

 for butcher-meat will further this movement to the great advantage 

 of the soil. In consequence of our peculiar position at Bechelbronn, 

 nearly halt 3ur land is meadow, which allows of a large exportation 

 of the prodjce of the arable land. In applying the results of the 

 preceding analyses, I find that each year, provided there is no loss 

 the hay ought to bring at least : 



1254 lbs. of phosphoric acid, 



This large amount of mineral substances is supplied by the mead- 

 ows, which have no other manure than the water and mud thereby 

 deposited, after flowing over the Vosges' freestone ; they receive 

 no manure from the farm, but are merely earthed with the sludge 

 and mire borne down by the stream ; these are real sources of saline 

 impregnation. Meadows without running water ought not to be 

 ranged in the same category, they only give the principles naturally 

 contained in them ; hence, they must be always manured ev^ry 

 three or four years, and indeed, if not situate upon a naturally rich 

 soil, are, according to my experience, very far from profitable. 



The excess of mineral matters introduced into the ground over 

 those that issue with the crops, an excess that ought always to be 

 secured by judicious management, enriches the soil in saline and 

 alkaline principles, which accumulate in the lapse of years, just as 

 vegetable remains and azotized organic principles accumulate un- 

 der a good system of rotation. By this, even in localities the most 

 disadvantageously situate for the purchase of manure, temporary 

 recurrence may be had to the introduction of such crops as flax, 

 rape, &c., which being almost wholly exported, leave little organic 

 residuum in the earth, and at the same time carry oflf a considerable 

 quantity of mineral substance ; circumstances which determine, as 

 may be easily conceived, the maximum of exhaustion, and for that 

 reason wend to reduce a soil becoming over-rich to what may be 

 called the standard fertility. 



In reviewing the chief points examined it will be seen, that as far 

 as regards organic matter, the systems of culture which in borrow- 

 ing most from the atmosphere, leave the most abundant residues in 

 the land, are those that constitute the most productive rotations. In 

 respect to inorganic matter, the rotation, to be advantageous, to have 

 an enduring success, ought to be so munaged that the crops ex- 



