222 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



have 30,000 acres of the land on our own grant and on these are many aban- 

 doned farms which were taken up by settlers who were not able to make them 

 profitable, but after the first crop or two had to give up the job. Now the 

 question is whether special kinds of grasses and ways of applying them may 

 not be found by which even these lands may be brought up. Grass is the 

 great natural restorer of the soil. 



I knew a northern gentleman who bought a fine farm near the city of Wash- 

 ington. He tried commercial fertilizers, on it, but the land had so thoroughly 

 lost its heart that they would not pay their cost. He tried sheep, but tliey 

 seemed to sympathize with the land and died of foot rot. It is probable that 

 those worn out Virginia soils will have to lie for long years for the gradual 

 restorative processes of nature to take effect. 



Now we have various soils and we must learn how to deal most advan- 

 tageously with each one. In Monroe county we found that plaster did us no 

 good, while west of us it was of the greatest benefit. 



Mr. Estabrook : As to men abandoning lands, perhaps it is land from which 

 they have stripped off timber. 



Prest. Willits: Thanks for the suggestion. Peter Henderson tells of a Long 

 Island garden that had been run and run till it was almost impossible to rent 

 it. Then a German came along, when it was almost worthless, and rented it 

 for ten years with privilege of purchase at any time, and in five years he had 

 bought it with what he raised. He said to Mr. Henderson he only wanted the 

 soil to hold the plant while he fed it This was sand on sand. Happily for 

 Michigan, perhaps, the Agricultural College has got stuck with a lot of this soil 

 and we shall experiment with it if we can get the money, and try to learn 

 what this German taught Henderson. 



Mr. Lewis: Let me tell of a real estate agent who went up north with fer- 

 tilizers, grew enough in a wet season to sell some land, but in dry season the 

 wind blew away soil, crop and fertilizers. 



Prest. Willits: I wish to ask a question. It is well for Mr. Stark to advise 

 us to .buy clay farms, but we can't all get them. Probably a majority of our 

 soils are light and many owners of light soils would not swap for heavy, so we 

 may hope to settle the whole State. But the point is that there is a difference 

 in light soils. Now what makes this difference ? Sand is sand. It is flint. 

 It is not nourishing. Now why is one sand inherently better or worse than others. 



Some sand holds manure well and of some sections it is said they will pro- 

 duce two or three crops and then give out. e. g. Up north in the Flint and 

 Pere Marquette region are hundreds and thousands of acres that are of 

 this character and there we find comfortable farms abandoned. Even in beech 

 and maple lands near Ludingtou we find the same thing. This is a live 

 question. We know what to do with clay. We know what to do 

 with good sand, but do we know what to do with these light sands? Is the 

 failure owing to bad tillage? Is there a way to make them valuable ? 



