34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



corn plant from an inferior seed variety. I can obtain twenty 

 quarts of milk a day easier from one cow than from another ; 

 I cannot, no matter what my feeding, obtain twenty quarts of 

 milk from some cows. Just so I can obtain 100 bushels of 

 shelled corn from one variety of seed by furnishing culture 

 and the plant food ; with another seed I cannot so easily get 

 50 bushels per acre, even by doubling the manure supplied, 

 while the 100 bushels is an impossibility. 



Now, whoever would use his manure most economically ; 

 whoso would purchase fertilizer so as to make a profit ; whoso 

 would raise maximum crops, must commence his operations 

 with a supply of good seed which is capable of responding to 

 his culture and manure ; and then in order to obtain the most 

 profit he must not strive to obtain a larger crop than his seed 

 is nominally fitted for. 



While crossing the ocean in an Inman steamer, some years 

 since, I enquired the amount of coal consumed, and was told 

 80 tons daily ; I asked the speed, it was so many knots ; I 

 asked how much extra coal it would require to increase that 

 speed a mile an hour ; the reply was, about 20 or-30 tons, and 

 that every mile of speed beyond a certain point was produced 

 at such a cost as to be unprofitaljle. Just so with our farm- 

 ing ; every bushel of grain beyond a certain limit for each 

 variety, is produced at such an excess of expenditure as to be 

 unprofitable. He who uses a seed corn whose ordinary yield 

 is but 40 bushels, cannot afibrd to attempt to obtain more 

 than forty bushels for a crop ; he whose corn is capable of 100 

 bushels of crop, should not be satisfied with less, but should 

 strive for no more through the application of fertilizer alone. 

 If the grower of the forty bushels desires to grow a larger 

 crop, let him seek a seed corn which can turn out a hundred 

 bushel yield in the presence of plant food and proper culture. 



Whoever tries a comparative experiment with manures, 

 using a seed of forty bushel power — as we shall express it — 

 will be apt to come to a different conclusion from that man 

 who tries the same experiment with a seed of 100 bushel 

 power. Sometimes, through a combination of circumstances, 



