FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 351 



the chief means tlirough which tin's great change was effected. Snperplios- 

 phate, over great stretches of Eiiglisli soil, makes, or once made, the turnip 

 crop. Tnrnips there support sheep, and with sheep the Englisii farmer knows 

 how to get rich on the poorest high land." 



May not the time come when the light, sandy soils of the northern part of our 

 State will be reclaimed to agriculture by the same methods that have suceeded 

 so well with the English farmer? Analysis has siiown that our lightest sandy 

 soils are not entirely deficient in the elements of fertility, and the time may come 

 when these waste lands shall be made as productive as any in the State. 



While superphosphates and fertilizers are valuable in their place, I do not 

 think that tlie farmers of Michigan at the present time, can afford to depend 

 upon them as manure for the farm, for the following reasons: 



1st. As a rule, our soils are not sufficiently exhausted to require any such 

 powerful stimulant. They have been cropped for only a comparatively short 

 time; and when soils do not give good returns it is largely caused by incessant 

 cropping with shiftless cultivation. Deeper culture, with the application of 

 barn-yard manure, will generally accomplish all the results of a high priced 

 fertilizer with one-half the cost. 



2d. Because farmers in the eastern States can use superphosphates with 

 profit, it does not follow that it can be in other States, because the conditions 

 are different. In the East, the price of land is higher, and many farmers 

 are situated near large cities where special crops may be grown for the market 

 at extra prices. Then, in many cases their lands are greatly exhausted bv 

 severe cropping. Mr. S. L. Goodale of Maine, in a lecture on commercial 

 fertilizers, says : 



" There are fev; Xew England farmers wJio do not have to deal with crippled 

 land, land unable to bear the burdens of successful agriculture without arti- 

 ficial helps, — unable too in part because we, and our fathers have dealt hardly 

 by it. We have taken too much from it and given too little to it, and the 

 day of reckoning has come, as come it always will, sooner or later, where the 

 laws of order are violated." 



3d. I doubt if farmers, as a rule, can afford to buy fertilizers and pay the 

 price asked, for the phosphoric acid, potash and nitrogen they contain. A 

 good quality of superphosphate costs $40 a ton. Nearly all the materials used 

 in making it are brought from a distance. By the time the fertilizer reaches 

 the consumer it is a very expensive article. 



4th. As commercial fertilizers are generally used, the land does not tend 

 to become richer, but poorer. The farmer who uses costly manures, naturally 

 wishes to get a return as soon as possible for the outlay. This cropping, year 

 after year, impoverishes the soil, for the crops taken off remove all the ma- 

 nure added, and more. The object in farming should be, to not only have 

 large crops, but to have the soil as rich at the end of a rotation as at the 

 beginning. This is the only way in which farming can pay in the long run. 



It seems to me that the way to success in farming to-day, lies in solving the 

 question, IIow can we produce the most manure on the farm at the least cost? 

 While farm manure is not so rich as commercial fertilizers, it is in itself a 

 complete manure, — it contains all the elements needed for crops, and in the 

 right proportion. In the words of Mr. Goodale: "If we deal honestly with 

 our soil, first converting the crops into meat, and milk, and wool, and nianure, 

 and then save the manure and apply it, such practice will suffice to sujtport us 

 handsotiicly, and can be kept up with increasing fertility, as long as the world 

 stands." 



