290 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
threshing; and much was abandoned as not worth cutting. As 
to Indian corn, and indeed, most other crops, the case has not 
been much better. For the last four years I do not believe the 
ground planted with corn in Illinois, has produced an average 
of twenty bushels to the acre. It is true, that heretofore we 
have had better crops, with no better cultivation; but I believe 
it is also true that the soil has never been pushed up to one- 
half of its capacity. 
What would be the effect upon the farming interest, to push 
the soil up to something near its full capacity ? Unquestiona¬ 
bly it will take more labor to produce fifty bushels from an 
acre, than it will to produce ten bushels, from the same acre. 
But it will take more labor to produce fifty bushels from one 
acre, than from five ? Unquestionably, thorough cultivation 
■will require more labor to the acre; but will it require more to 
the bushel ? If it should require just as much to the bushel, 
there are some probable , and several certain advantages in fa¬ 
vor of the thorough practice. It is probable it would develop 
those unknown causes, which of late years have cut down our 
crops below their former average. It is almost certain, I think, 
that in the deeper plowing, analysis of the soils, experiments 
with manures, and varieties of seeds, observance of seasons, 
and the like, these cases would be found. It is certain that 
thorough cultivation w T ould spare half, or more than half the 
cost of land, simply because the same product would be got 
from half, or from less than half the quantity of land. This 
proposition is self-evident, and can be made no plainer by re¬ 
petitions or illustrations. The cost of land is a great item, 
even in new countries; and constantly grows greater and 
greater, in comparison with other items, as the country grows 
older. 
It also would spare the making and maintaining of inclosures 
—the same, whether these inclosures should be hedges, ditches 
or fences. This again, is a heavy item—heavy at first, and 
heavy in its continual demand for repairs. I remember once 
being greatly astonished by an Apparently authentic exhibition 
