36 



TIio richest soils, after the exliaustivo cropping 

 to which they are coiiimonly suhjcctcd, will 

 require deeper and more perfect cultivation in 

 order to sustain their wonted fertility, and there 

 can, I think, he little douht that in, it inav^ he a 

 few years, these improved modern a})plianc*;s 

 will renovate many of your already deteriorateu 

 soils, and impart a fresh im2)etus and give a new 

 and much improved character to American agri- 

 culture. 



In a new and extensive country, possessing 

 various degrees of natural fertilitv, where the 

 price of lahor is high, and that of produce com- 

 paratively low, the farmer is strongly tempted to 

 adopt a system of tillage that will surely, 

 although at first almost imperceptibly, diminish 

 the productive power of the soil. This gradual 

 deterioration is sometimes allowed to proceed to 

 such an extent that cultivation ceases to be pro- 

 fitable, and the land may be abandoned and re- 

 vert back to its original wild condition. In an 

 immense continent like this of North America, 

 where there are yet many millions of acres of 

 untouched virgin soil of great natural productive- 

 ness, it would be unreasonable to expect the adop- 

 tion of systems of culture which have long been 

 profitably practiced in the older, smaller, and 



