170 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



great amount of diligence, care, and forethought. In the first place, 

 all the food pioducts must be fed upon the farm, and the feeding 

 must be so managed that there shall be no waste. It amounts to 

 but little for our legislators to enact laws in behalf of farmers, pass 

 stringent measures to protect their interests, or for farmers them- 

 selves to strive through the Grange or any other organization to 

 lessen their expenses and thereby increase their incomes, if all this 

 time there is a material waste of much that is valuable in fertility 

 from their farm-yards and stables. What would be thought of the 

 manufacturer who allowed a continual waste to go on, unchecked, 

 about his establishment ; that, although hardly perceptible, yet would 

 draw quite largely from his income? What would be the result of 

 any business venture when thus conducted: It is easy to predict. 

 And still, many farmers who would be the first to notice any such 

 waste by any manufacturing neighbor will allow one still more vital 

 to go on unchecked, year after 3'ear, drawing out the very life blood 

 from his farm, and not only diminishing his income, but the original 

 capital as well. Victor Hugo wrote against the loss of soil-food 

 from dumping the waste of cities into rivers and sea. His words, 

 so apt, and characteristic of the man, ma}' well be applied to the 

 waste from many farm yards. "Do you know," he says, "what all 

 this fanid, frightful looking stuff really is? It is green grass, a flower- 

 ing field ; it is the satisfied lowing of kine, it is the cattle them- 

 selves ; it is perfumed hay, it is gilded wheat, it is bread on every 

 table, it is warm blood in the veins ; it is health, jo3% life that is 

 being thrown away." 



Now in order to feed stock to any advantage every possible source 

 of waste, however small, must be stopped. And to accomplish this 

 result is no very hard task if we will onh^ comply with certain con- 

 ditions that are as plain as simple addition. There is no doubt but 

 that the liquid manure from well fed animals is more valuable than 

 the solid, and as it supplies certain elements that are not found in 

 the solids, its presence becomes necessary if we would have a well 

 balanced manure that will answer for all crops, and will tend to 

 maintain or renew the original fertility of the farm. Peer 8a3's : 

 "There is, perhaps, no branch in farm economy that receives so 

 little attention as the saving of this most valuable fertilizer, liquid 

 manure. Many farmers have brooks running through their yards, 

 or have their yards on side hills or on gravelly soil. Thus stores of 

 this most valuable plant food are lost." The following table, show- 



