Chapter X

The Products of Vegetation—Importance of
_Chemical_ quality as well as quantity of
Produce—Influence of different Manures on the
quantity and quality of the Crop—Influence of the
time of Cutting—Absolute quantity of Food yielded
by different Crops—Principles on which the Feeding
of Animals depends—Theoretical and experimental
value of different kinds of Food for Feeding
Stock—Concluding Observations.

The first object of the practical farmer is, to reap from his land the largest possible return of the most valuable crops, without permanently exhausting the soil. With this view he adopts one or other of the methods of treatment above adverted to, by which either the physical condition or the chemical constitution of the soil is altered for the better. It may be useful to shew how very much both the quantity and the quality of a crop is dependent upon the mode in which it is cultivated and reaped, and how much control, therefore, the skilful agriculturist really possesses over the ordinary productions of nature.