No. 144.] 649 



That no system of farming is deserving of our attention that 

 does not recognize the necessity of farm exports ; 



That a State may, to some extent, export agricultural products 

 without diminishing in capability to produce them ; 



That an inspection of the census returns of the United States 

 and of the State of New York, shows that the amount of crops of 

 this State has increased for the last ten years much faster than the 

 area of improved lands in the State, and that consequently the 

 land cannot be "running out ;" 



That the processes of Nature, to which we owe the present allu 

 vial condition of the surface of the earth are still at work, and that 

 land left entirely to itself will, by the action of water and vege- 

 tation, improve in fertility ; 



That the process of tillage alone may be made to accelerate this 

 improvement and help to provide for the necessary waste of mar- 

 keting; 



That rain penetrates the porous parts of the earth's surface and 

 percolates through them until it comes to impervious strata, and 

 that it runs along this impervious strata until it finds egress as 

 springs, and that spring water is always impregnated, more or 

 less, with saline substances; 



That the evaporation whicli is continually going on of the wa- 

 ter from the surface of the earth, leaves the saline matter in the 

 surface, as but a small part of the water that falls as rain ever 

 reaches the sea ; 



That the mineral springs of Saratoga and other localities are 

 exaggerated illustrations of this process, and the more fertile con- 

 dition of valleys is to be in part referred to the same cause j 



That, in the present thinly populated condition of our conti- 

 nent, the true purpose of American agriculture at this time is to 

 wisely direct these natural forces, lather than apply pinches of 

 guano, and tea spoonfuls of super-phosphates to individual plants, 



