more populous countries of the Eastern lieniis- 

 pliere. Still it must he oljvious, on a little retlec- 

 tion, that even in America some limit will have 

 to he put to th(^ operation of this priiu'iple (;f 

 deterioration, or the period will he reached when 

 farming will cease to he i-cmuiierative, (jr the 

 land to yield sullieieut Ioo;l to meet the «!;rowing 

 wants of a rapidly increasing i)()pulation. The 

 great proldem to he solved hy the American 

 farmer is how hest to sustain the e({uilihrium he- 

 tween waste and supply. Every crop he raises 

 abstracts from tlie soil a certain amount of min- 

 eral ingredients, constituting the essential food 

 of plants. If this waste be suffered to go on 

 without repair, the ultimate result will surely 

 be sooner or later reached, the exhaustion of the 

 soil; or, in other words, a soil so weakened by 

 over-cropping and non-manuring that its cultiva- 

 tion ceases to be prolitable. Anudst the too 

 general tendency of diminished productiveness, 

 it is encoura<;ing to be assured that in most 

 instances exhaustion of the soil is relative rather 

 than absolute. A farm absolidelij exhausted, that 

 is, the tillable soil deprived of all, or nearly all, 

 the ingredients necessary to feed healthy crops, 

 would, in a country where land is plentiful and 

 cheap, he dear as a gilt, unless it possessed some 



