x INTRODUCTION. 



&quot;But when this natural manure begins to fail, we must manure the land and vary our system of 

 agriculture. That any of our so-called exhausted land can be speedily restored to its original fertility, 

 we have abundant evidence. All that is necessary, is to cultivate the soil more thoroughly, under-drain 

 where it is wet, sow less grain and more clover and grass, keep more stock, and make more and richer 

 manure, and the farmer is wise who makes the transition from natural to artificial fertility easy and 

 gradual, so as to avoid all sterility. 



American agriculture is in a transition state. In the older-settled sections of the country there is 

 much land that has been exhausted of its original fertility. Here the old system of fanning, which 

 was simply to raise all the grain that the land would produce, is no longer profitable. But yet some 

 farmers, with that aversion to change for which they are everywhere proverbial, are slow to adopt an 

 intelligent system of rotation and manuring, and cling to their old ways. 



One of the ablest agricultural writers of England remarked some time since, that his only hope 

 of seeing any great improvement in agriculture lay in the rising generation. This remark is quite as 

 applicable to American as to English agriculture. We must look to the intelligent young men of our 

 country for any great improvement in its agriculture, and it is a matter on which we may well con 

 gratulate ourselves, that even during the present terrible struggle, agricultural education is not neglected. 

 We have two agricultural colleges in active operation, and others in process of organization. Our 

 young men are beginning to realize that agriculture is worthy their highest ambition, and that in no 

 other pursuit will intelligent labor meet with a surer reward. 



Farming implements and machinery in use, value of. 



