ight hundred crops to exhaust the
soil of phosphoric acid; and it is admitted that of all the elements of
plant-food, phosphoric acid is the one first to be exhausted from the
soil."

I have sold some timothy hay this winter, and propose to do so whenever
the price suits. But some of my neighbors, who do not hesitate to sell
their own hay, think I ought not to do so, because I "write for the
papers"! It ought to satisfy them to know that I bring back 30 cwt. of
bran for every ton of hay I sell. My rule is to sell nothing but wheat,
barley, beans, potatoes, clover-seed, apples, wool, mutton, beef, pork,
and butter. Everything else is consumed on the farm--corn, peas, oats,
mustard, rape, mangels, clover, straw, stalks, etc. Let us make a rough
estimate of how much is sold and how much retained on a hundred-acre
farm, leaving out the potatoes, beans, and live-stock. We have say:

Sold.
15 acres wheat, @ 40 bushels per acre 18 tons
5 " barley, @ 50 " " 6 "
15 " clover seed, 4 " " 1-3/4 ton.
------
Total sold 25-3/4 tons.

Retained on the farm.
15 acres corn, @ 80 bushels per acre 33-1/2 tons.
Corn stalks from do. 40 "
5 acres barley straw 8 "
10 " oats and peas, equal 80 bushels of oats 12-3/4 "
Straw from do. 20 "
15 acres wheat-straw 25 "
15 " clover-hay 25 "
Clover-seed straw 10 "
15 acres pasture and meadow, equal 40 tons hay 40 "
5 " mustard, equal 10 tons hay 10 "
5 " rape, equal 10 tons hay 10 "
5 " mangels, 25 tons per acre, 15 "
equal to 3 tons dry
Leaves from do. 3 "
-------
Total retained on the farm 252-1/4 tons.

It would take a good many years to exhaust any ordinary soil by such a
course of cropping. Except, perhaps, the sandy knolls, I think there is
not an acre on my farm t