hat would be exhausted in ten thousand years,
and as some portions of the low alluvial soil will grow crops without
manure, there will be an opportunity to give the poor, sandy knolls more
than their share of plant-food. In this way, notwithstanding the fact
that we sell produce and bring nothing back, I believe the whole farm
will gradually increase in productiveness. The plant-food annually
rendered available from the decomposition and disintegration of the
inert organic and mineral matter in the soil, will be more than equal to
that exported from the farm. If the soil becomes deficient in anything,
it is likely that it will be in phosphates, and a little superphosphate
or bone-dust might at any rate be profitably used on the rape, mustard,
and turnips.

The point in good farming is to develop from the latent stores in the
soil, and to accumulate enough available plant-food for the production
of the largest possible yield of those crops which we sell. In other
words, we want enough available plant-food in the soil to grow 40
bushels of wheat and 50 bushels of barley. I think the farmer who raises
10 tons for every ton he sells, will soon reach this point, and when
once reached, it is a comparatively easy matter to maintain this degree
of fertility.

WHY OUR CROPS ARE SO POOR.

"If the soil is so rich in plant-food," said the Deacon, "I again ask,
why are our crops so poor?"

The Deacon said this very quietly. He did not seem to know that he had
asked one of the most important questions in the whole range of
agricultural science. It is a fact that a soil may contain enough
plant-food to produce a thousand large crops, and yet the crops we
obtain from it may be so poor as hardly to pay the cost of cultivation.
The plant-food is there, but the plants cannot get at it. It is not in
an available condition; it is not soluble. A case is quoted by Prof.
Johnson, where a soil was analyzed, and found to contain to the depth of
one foot 4,652 lbs. of nitrogen per acre, but only 63 lbs. of this was
in an available condition. And this is equally true of phosphoric acid,
potash, and other elements of plant-food. No matter how much plant-food
there may be in the soil, the only portion that is of any immediate
value is the small amount that is annually available for the growth of
crops.

HOW TO GET LARGER CROPS.

"I am tired of so much talk about plant-food," said the Deacon; "what we
want to know is how to make our land