92 AGRICULTURE 01^ MAINE. 



and building up fertility, buildings and a farm, capable of main- 

 taining a family of culture and opportunity, because I think 

 that as a family property it is better than dollars in the bank. 

 But this statement of motive is a digression, and I return to 

 fifthly. On my return to the farm I found I could buy my 

 nitrogen cheaper in cottonseed meal than in any other form. A 

 ton of cottonseed meal contains 125 pounds of nitrogen. This 

 material costs more than twenty cents a pound in the fertilizers 

 on the ]\Iaine markets, making $25 worth of nitrogen in a ton 

 of cottonseed, and there are four or five dollars worth more of 

 potash and phosphoric acid. You can buy a ton by the car and 

 get it for $29.50 per ton, and it is a good fertilizer to use directly 

 on the soil provided you balance it with the minerals. The 

 material nitrogen is there, and it is as cheap to use direct as a 

 fertilizer, as a source of nitrogen and a partial source of other 

 materials, as the fertilizers on your market, and I have so used 

 it. The point is this : When I returned to the old farm I could 

 not feed it fast enough, and so I used cottonseed meal, applying 

 it directly to the soil, as a cheaper source of nitrogen than fer- 

 tilizers. But the cow takes out only about 20 per cent of its 

 value when she is well fed, and the rest is turned back to the 

 soil in the fertilizer. You have 80 per cent of its value to use 

 on the farm, provided you put the excrement in such pits as I 

 have mentioned and save it all. I know some will question this, 

 but my advice is to buy and bring on the farm protein foods, 

 first of all cottonseed meal, then linseed, then gluten, brewers' 

 and distillers' grains, bran, and last of all corn meal, which is 

 way below bran in fertilizing value. If you come to my place 

 you will very seldom see a pound of corn except in the horse 

 stable. I am feeding the farm through the cow. The number 

 of cows one keeps will depend upon the fertility of the soil, and 

 feeding the farm is the first step in high farming. And so we 

 feed the farm through the cow. 



But, sixth, the corner stone of the system rests upon chemical 

 fertilizers. Pardon me for speaking personally. I used 100 

 tons last year on my own farm, w^hich is 15 miles from market. 

 I speak of this as the measure of my confidence in them. There 

 is no aristocracy of plant food to the plant. It must get its food 

 in solution, it cannot get it in any other way. What cares the 



