it not as I told you?"

"But note these statements," said Percy, turning again to the book:

"'It is true that heretofore we have had better crops with no better
cultivation, but I believe that 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?'"

"But what can he mean," said the mother. "How can anyone do better
than we have done? We change our crops, and sow clover with the
oats, and return as much as we can to the land. But let me hear
further what Lincoln said:"

"Yes, Mother, this is what he said:

"'Unquestionably it will take more labor to produce fifty bushels of
wheat from an acre than it will to produce ten bushels from the same
acre; but will it 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 favor 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 by deeper
plowing, analysis of the soils, experiments with manures and
varieties of seeds, observance of seasons, and the like, these