ts it lie in grass five, six, seven, or eight years, as he
deems best, and then breaks it up, and plants it to corn. The land he
intends to plant to corn next year, has been in grass for seven years.
He will put pretty much all his manure on this land. After corn, it will
be sown to oats, or barley; then sown to wheat, and seeded down again.
It will then lie in grass three, four, five, six, or seven years, until
he needs it again for corn, etc. This is "slow farming," but it is also
good farming--that is to say, it gives large yields per acre, and a good
return for the labor expended.

The soil of this farm is richer to-day in _available_ plant-food than
when first cleared. It produces larger crops per acre.

Mr. D. called our attention to a fact that establishes this point. An
old fence that had occupied the ground for many years was removed some
years since, and the two fields thrown into one. Every time this field
is in crops, it is easy to see where the old fence was, by the short
straw and poor growth on this strip, as compared with the land on each
side which had been cultivated for years.

This is precisely the result that I should have expected. If Mr. D. was
a poor farmer--if he cropped his land frequently, did not more than
half-cultivate it, sold everything he raised, and drew back no manure--I
think the old fence-strip would have given the best crops.

The strip of land on which the old fence stood in Mr. Dewey's field,
contained _more_ plant-food than the soil on either side of it. But it
was not available. It was not developed. It was latent, inert,
insoluble, crude, and undecomposed. It was so much dead capital. The
land on either side which had been cultivated for years, produced better
crops. Why? Simply because the stirring of the soil had developed _more_
plant-food than had been removed by the crops. If the stirring of the
soil developed 100 lbs. of plant-food a year, and only 75 lbs. were
carried off in the crops--25 lbs. being left on the land in the form of
roots, stubble, etc.--the land, at the expiration of 40 years, would
contain, provided none of it was lost, 1,000 lbs. more _available_
plant-food than the uncultivated strip. On the other hand, the latter
would contain 3,000 lbs. more actual plant-food per acre than the land
which had been cultivated--but it is in an unavailable condition. It is
dead capital.

I do not know that I make myself understood, though I would like to do
so, beca