PRACTICAL PAPERS—MIXED HUSBANDRY. 141 
the land after it is plowed. This we think is a good way, as its 
effects are much more prompt and it agrees better with the or¬ 
der of nature; but w r e doubt whether the effects are equally 
enduring as when covered, for then nothing can be lost by 
evaporation. No particular time can be prescribed for the 
hauling of manure. This work is always in order; the great 
trouble is that, from pressure of other work, it is not sufficiently 
attended to, although it is probably the most important 
work on the farm. When the manure has accumulated to a 
good depth, or has been thrown up in heaps, much valuable 
time can be saved by hauling it on sleds in winter, taking care 
to spread it as it is drawn. 
All the lots in grass should receive a dressing of plaster 
each year; the corn should also be plastered at least once dur¬ 
ing the early stages of its growth. We plaster ours twice, at 
the rate of eighty or ninety pounds per acre each time, and 
think it w r ell repays both trouble and expense. 
The correctness of the following propositions is so well es¬ 
tablished and so evident, that they ought to be accepted as 
axioms, and duly considered by every farmer in the cultiva¬ 
tion of the soil: 
That there exist no lands of inexhaustible fertility. 
That the fertility of the soil is measured by the amount of 
mineral and vegetable elements, favorable to the production of 
plants which it contains, and that these exist in limited quan¬ 
tities. 
That so much of the above elements as has been required 
to produce a crop is removed from the soil upon the removal 
of that crop; that, therefore, such removal leaves the land, by 
so much, poorer in those necessary elements than it was before 
such removal. 
That all plants which are essentially different in their nature, 
taste, growth, hardiness or other properties, are likewise differ¬ 
ent in their component elements ; or, if composed of the same 
elements, then in different proportions and combinations. 
That some soils may be deficient in certain elements which 
are absolutely requisite for the perfect production of certain 
