I. AGRICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMY. 403 



manure. . . . The results of three years' experiments show 

 conclusively that under the conditions which now obtain the 

 land is unfit for any system of l high-farming.' On the con- 

 trary, to be farmed with profit, it must be given over to 

 some system of low-farming, where expenditures for labor, 

 tillage, and fertilizers shall be small and the crops propor- 

 tionally light." True economy w T ould consist in learning 

 how much production can be profitably obtained, to depend 

 upon the natural strength of the soil so far as it will avail, 

 and only supply manure for the rest. 



And the same principle applies to more than the light, dry 

 soils of this country. In the best farming countries of Eu- 

 rope, from which most of our agricultural science hitherto has 

 come, land is very dear, capital is comparatively cheap, and 

 there is a market near every farm. There, as Professor 

 Storer says, " the problem may be almost said to be : Given 

 standing-room, how to get the largest possible yield from 

 the land; and that is profitably done by i high-farming,' even 

 though some materials are thus stored up in large excess in 

 the soil." With us land is cheap, and capital needed for 

 manure and labor dear, and the market often distant ; and the 

 aim of the farmer ought generally to be " to use up the nat- 

 ural force of his land most fully, without injuring or in any 

 way weakening it, and, slowly if need be, but with constant 

 profit to himself, to increase the original fertility until it is 

 completely in accord with the other circumstances by which 

 the profits of his farm are limited and controlled." 



A great many attempts to renovate worn-out lands by 

 the use of commercial manures prove unsuccessful. In such 

 cases failure is apt to be ascribed to the poor quality of the 

 fertilizers used, and the manufacturer or seller is accused of 

 dealing in spurious wares. That such accusations are some- 

 times well-founded is only too true. But articles of fair or 

 even the highest quality are often misapplied, or the condi- 

 tions of growth dependent upon moisture or other agencies 

 are unfavorable. The ill results are oftener due to these 

 causes than to frauds in fertilizers. In some of his field ex- 

 periments Professor Storer obtained smaller crops of beans 

 and barley on plots treated with bone and other phosphates 

 than on contiguous plots which received no manure at all. 

 The phosphates then, instead of increasing the crops, actually 



