FERTILITY OF SOIL. 119 



fields lie fallow, without a plentiful application of good 

 manure successful farming is impossible. The production, 

 saving and judicious application of manures, are therefore 

 topics of greatest interest to the farmers who wish to keep 

 up the fertility of virgin soils. 



That the farmer in Aroostook county must depend mainly 

 upon home production for the dressing of his land, is evident 

 to every one. Barnyard manure is a complete fertilizer, that 

 contains all the products necessary for plant food. It is 

 adapted to all kinds of soils when rightly applied, and to all 

 kinds of crops. There is but little danger in its use even by 

 the most unskillful. To the great majority of farms, how- 

 ever rich in plant food the soil at present may be, there is an 

 absolute dependence on this resource against the loss of con- 

 tinual cropping. The adage is true, though it may not be 

 apparent, "No manure np crops, and no stock no manure." 

 Thus we come to the bottom fact, that grass is the old founda- 

 tion of farming. In more than one sense we may undei-stand 

 the declaration, "All tlesh is grass." As in the primal adorn- 

 ment of the earth the command first came, "Let the earth 

 bring forth grass," afterwards "the herb yielding seed, whose 

 seed is in itself and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind ;" 

 so in the perpetuation of earth's fertility the grass crop is of 

 prime importance. This product, which is the life of the land, 

 must be consumed on the farm, or its equivalent returned. 



Among the profits of stock raising must be reckoned not 

 only the milk, butter, cheese and beef used in the household 

 and sold for cash, but also the amount of manure produced. 

 In the scientific and profitable farming of England, the value 

 of food for stock is determined largely by the qualit}^ of the 

 manure it will produce, as well as by the amount of flesh 

 and fat it lays upon the animal. In our State, where grass 

 is king, the quantity, quality, harvesting and use of this 

 crop, to a great extent, determines the question of the success 

 or failure of the farmer. When we remember that in any 

 business it is not so much what a man earns as how he 

 invests that determines his wealth, we may better understand 



