41 



in England, might, if attempted in the same man- 

 ner, entail an actual loss in this country. True, 

 the principles of agriculture are the same all over 

 the world, but it requires both ciuition and local 

 experience in properly modifying their applica- 

 tion to meet the varying conditions of soil, cli- 

 mate, and markets. In old populous countries, 

 where land is high in price and in constant de- 

 mand, it may pay well to incur a very heavy 

 expenditure in restoring absolutely exhausted 

 farms; but in America, where laud is plentiful 

 and cheap, and the jippliances for restoring a lost 

 fertility, scarce and dear the operation would 

 likely prove a heavy loss, the market value of 

 the improvements tailing below their cost. 



There is an old adage of a very wide applica- 

 tion, which comprises the case under considera- 

 tion : " An ounce of prevention is worth a pound 

 . of cure." It is certainly much cheaper, and in 

 some respects even easier, to keep the soil in 

 good heart, when we have it in that condition, 

 than to suffer its productiveness to decline, and 

 restore it afterwards. This, no doubt, would be 

 the practical sentiment of farmers generally, if 

 they took a broad and prospective view of the 

 case, and felt a permanent interest in the land. But 

 it has been too much the fashion to look too ex- 



