366 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY . 
this paper, and your time in listening have not been lost. It can 
but be apparent, to at least every discerning, thoughtful farmer in 
the state, that in many of the older counties, the fertility of the 
soil is becoming exhausted of those elements which science and ex¬ 
perience have shown to be essential in the maturity of the cereals 
and other products in large quantities and in perfection; that the 
continual crops of grain, hogs and cattle raised and shipped to 
distant markets to be consumed, have gradually been sapping it of 
plant food, until some of those lands will not produce one half the 
crop of cereals, they did twenty years ago. It must be equally 
apparent that some system ought at once to be adopted to restore 
this waste that is thus gradually but surely going on by this ex¬ 
haustive cropping and returning little or nothing as an equivalent; 
that this robbing the soil of its fertility until the occupants become 
amazed that their products are not larger, and their labor more 
remunerative ought at once and for ever to cease. 
What would be thought of the farmer who should keep his 
horse or his ox upon just food enough to sustain life, but not suf¬ 
ficient to impart that physical strength requisite in tilling the soil 
or other important farm work, or who should deprive himself of 
an abundant supply of that nutritious food which now gives him a 
firm, elastic step and the bloom aud vigor of manhood, and thus 
reduce his physical ability to perform his daily toil? We should 
at once exclaim, he is an inhuman wretch, perhaps a madman, or a 
fcol. But is not he who knowingly robs the land of its producing 
power, without using reasonable means within his reach to restore 
it, equally culpable, short-sighted and unwise, and will not the 
judgment of the Creator, in the shape of poverty at least, sooner 
or later overtake him ? Nature teaches wise and valuable les¬ 
sons. Let us glance for a moment at her natural farming opera* 
tions, and see if some practical hints cannot be obtained worthy of 
our imitation. In the economy of nature, nothing is lost, and a 
careful observation has taught me that the nearer she can be fol¬ 
lowed in her system of economy in the natural products of the 
earth, the less waste there will be, and hence the more successful 
and remunerative will be the labors of the husbandman. 
The soil of our state in its natural condition is rich in all the 
elements of fertility, and its natural products of trees and grasses 
