250 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [1518, 519. 520, 521 



remain the same after a series of years. But in this as in many other cases, a 

 few well established negatives as to its power of preventing exhaustion, will 

 disarm any number of positives which have not stood the lest of time. And 

 there are plenty of soils naturally thorough-drained, whose utter exhaustion 

 plainly proves the fact, that for the latter, drainage also is only a palliative, not 

 a remedy. 



3. MANURING. 



518. It remains to say a few words in reference to the general policy to be 

 pursue 1 in the utilization of the powers of the soil, and their sustentation or 

 restoration by means of manures. 



The Dung -producing System of Culture. — It has been already stated, that 

 stable manure and night-^oil may be considered as universal manures, containing 

 all the ingredients required by plants, both directly and indirectly. Experience 

 had proved this to be the case, long before the causes upon which this universality 

 depends, had been recognized; and hence very naturally it was thought that 

 the unfailing plan of culture consisted in producing on the farm an amount of 

 stable manure sufficient to allow of dressing with it the land cultivated, 

 whenever it should give out ; or else, to sustain evenly its fertility, by dressings 

 1 repeated at regular intervals. 



519. Such, in fact, is the method which, for a considerable period, has been 

 dominant on the continent ol Europe, and was regarded as perfectly rational, 

 long after the gradual failure of crops of every kind had, in thousands of indi- 

 vidual cases, practically demonstrated the fallaciousness of the system. Such 

 instances were ingeniously explained away on special grounds ; and even at the 

 present time, when the progress of Agricultural Chemistry has established 

 beyond all cavil the true causes of the failure alluded to, the great bulk of the 

 agricultural population of Europe still fondly clings to the fallacy which has 

 been handed down to them by their fathers. They raise stock for the sake of 

 manure, wherewith to fertilize their grain-fields ; a portion of their land being 

 always set apart for the sole purpose of raising the necessary feed. 



520. Fallacy of the Dung-producing System. — It is obvious that in this 

 procedure, all that is gained is to concentrate on the grain-field a part of the 

 nutritive ingredients which have been withdrawn from the clover-field and the 

 meadow; these, having been converted into manure in passing through the 

 animal system, are thus transferred from one field to the other in a highly 

 available condition, accompanied, also, by abundance of ammonia and vegetable 

 matter. Ultimately, they are converted into marketable grain. Another portion 

 of the ingredients abstracted from the feed-fields, remains with the stock, in the 

 shape of flesh and bones, and is in part sold as such, partly as milk and 

 cheese. 



Now, whether the produco of the feed-fields be sold in its first form, as hay or 

 turnips, or whether it be previously converted into grain and meat : it is plain 

 that the mineral ingredients contained in these products, are finally withdrawn, 

 and entirely lost to the soil, while nothing is given in return. Thus the capital 

 stock of fertility is continually drafted upon, and will, of course, come to an end 

 at last ; as experience has shown. And but for the importation of manures 

 from foreign countries, it is difficult to say what would be the present condition 

 of a large portion of Central Europe. 



521. In this country, wherever the necessity of manure has come to be felt, 

 the first movement has been towards the establishment of a similar system. 

 " We must raise more cattle in order to get a supply of manure !" has been the 

 cry, which is now heard even in this State. 



The change which it is thus proposed to effect in our agricultural habits, is a 

 very serious one. The propriety of so far increasing our stock, as to supply 

 our own demand for meats, has been much discussed of late, and will hardly be 



