68 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



After knowing what elements the soil lacks the question arises how tO' 

 obtain these most cheaply. We shall have to resort to different methods of 

 keeping up fertility, according to what materials are cheap and what are 

 dear. There is no royal road to enriching land. Plant food should be 

 considered in a commercial light, and there is no doubt science has so far 

 advanced that a commercial article should be placed on this market contain- 

 ing all the elements of available plant food. 



Mr. John Front finds that the commercial system of manufacturing 

 manure in the long run is the cheapest, and that, all things considered, 

 manure, whether made in the barnyard or in the factory, Avas simply j^ro- 

 duced by capital and labor. The question is whether our animals are the 

 cheapest manufacturing machines of plant food, or whether it cannot be 

 made cheaper than in the barnyard. It will generally depend upon circum- 

 stances and the facilities people have of procuring manure. There are only 

 two ways that suggest themselves — either to buy manure or to plow under 

 green crops. If manure is obtained at anything like reasonable prices, 

 to buy is the most direct way of increasing production. Farmers living in 

 the vicinity of cities have easy access to manure, which can often be bought 

 very cheaply. If our cities had any sufficient system of collecting night soil, 

 and pondrette companies were started, this would be a great source of obtain- 

 ing a cheap supply of rich manure. The apatite mines of the Saginaw valley 

 are an endless source of plant food. If it could be placed within the reach 

 of the farmer he would want nothing else to restore his worn out sandy 

 lands. A farmer should look around for every available means ^'or obtaining 

 plant food. There are often means within his own reach which he neglects 

 to utilize. There are but few farmers that have any means of saving their 

 liquid manure, which is allowed to drain oil and stand in cesspools around 

 the barnyard. This liquid manure contains more plant food — essential 

 salts — than the solid in the ratio of 9 to 7, and hence it can be seen what a 

 loss is sustained on every farm. Then these ashes, the inorganic part of the 

 plant. How many save these and do not trade them off for a bar of soap? 

 To a great many sandy soils ashes have in reality all the elements that are 

 wanting — potasn, phosphoric acid and lime. Indeed, the action of ashes on 

 potash plants, such as potatoes, corn, turnips, etc., is wonderful. I have 

 experimented for years on a sandy soil with ashes for these crops, and I 

 have found the results in the yield corresponding to what should be expected 

 from their chemical composition. In a country like Michigan ashes can be 

 obtained cheaply, and if the theory of others is correct that the nitrogen of 

 plants is mainly derived from the atmosphere, ashes may be looked upon as 

 containing all the essential elements the plant receives from the soil. 



Plowing in green crops is the only remaining way left of restoring 

 fertility to a sandy soil ; but a green crop, to be of much service when 

 plowed under as mannre, must be the growth not of a worn-out sandy soil, 

 but of soil well supplied with plant food ; and green-crop manuring, to be 

 effectual, should be subsequent to barnyard or artificial manure, and should 

 be the second stej) in restoring fertility. Restoring fertility to a sandy soil 

 any way must be a gradual process, and no one can expect to recuperate a 

 sandy soil by one or two manurings. It is easy enough to keep up fertility 

 of the soil by plowing under good, heavy crops of clover, buckwheat, etc., 

 when your land is in good heart, but when it is poor is another question. 

 Last year I saw a direct application of manure, and the plowing of green 

 crops experimented with on a poor sandy soil, and I am fully persuaded that 



