160 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the starch from which is being shipped from your county, 

 the refuse perhaps floated down your beautiful streams. 

 Also of those who are growing 1,000 to 2,000 bushels of 

 oats, some at least of which are used to fertilize the more 

 exhausted soil of old Kennebec. Now, gentlemen, seeing is 

 knowing. Yesterday, for the first time, my eyes rested 

 upon your fair fields, and I am prepared to believe that half 

 has not been told of its beauty and fertility. But do not 

 delude yourselves with the fallacy that continual cropping 

 and removing such crops from your farms will not eventually 

 impoverish your soil. The history of the Old World and 

 the present condition of our own Western prairies are strik- 

 ing illustrations resulting from such a course. We were told 

 yesterday that it was vastl^^ easier preventing the exhaustion 

 than restoring the fertility of a worn-out soil, which alL I 

 think, who have had experience in renovating soils exhausted 

 would be disposed to admit. Gentlemen, now is the time 

 for you to heed the warning and escape the doom of those 

 who are making an effort to restore fertility to the exhausted 

 fields of the older portion of Maine. 



Should I be asked what this may have to do with dairying, 

 the answer would be, that indirectly it has very much to do 

 with it. The question which presents itself for your con- 

 sideration is, would it not be for your interest to send from 

 Aroostook less hay, potatoes and oats, and more beef, pork, 

 butter and cheese. Please consider, w^ould not this be the 

 part of wisdom, and would your farmers, as would those 

 those who are to occupy and improve these fair fields in the 

 future, not reap a benefit as the result of such a course? 



