186 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Without its aid we cannot reasonably hope to maintain that mechani- 

 cal condition of soil so indispensable to stressful farming. 



Jr' 



Second — The crop raised, or its equivalent in plant food, must 

 be returned to the soil. One of the first conditions of successful 

 farming is the provision of convenient and effective appliances for 

 saving both the solid and liquid manures produced upon the farm, 

 and for returning them to the soil in the proper season. Manures 

 should be hauled to the fields in winter when the ground is frozen. 

 There is no time for this after the soil is in condition for seeding, 

 and it is ruinous to its mechanical condition to drive upon it while 

 in a wet unsettled state. 



Plant food holds the same relation to agriculture that bank stock 

 does to banking, or the merchants stock in trade to his business. 

 The banker will receive no dividensils if he has no bank stock, the 

 merchant no profits without the goods in which he deals, the farmer 

 no income without plant food on which to grow his crops. Each of 

 these sources of profit is the foundation of financial success in the 

 department of business to which it pertains. The more of these 

 judiciously employed in their respective departments the greater the 

 pecuniary gains. The farmer can no better afford to waste or lose 

 the use of his plant food than can the banker his bank stock. The 

 loss of either implies bankruptcy, while their accumulation is evi- 

 dence of financial success. To waste the liquid manure of a stock 

 farm is equivalent to the waste of one-half of the accumulations of 

 our stock in trade. 



Third — The farmer to succeed, must have two objects in farm- 

 ing. He must not only raise good crops, but he must also provide 

 an abundant supply of material with which to grow succeeding crops. 

 He must like the merchant increase his stock in trade — his plant 

 food. He should keep the fact constantly in view, that the larger 

 the crop grown the larger the amount of plant food produced. The 

 more plant food produced, and applied, the larger the succeeding 

 crop. This work goes on in arithmetical progression, each accumu- 

 lation insuring further increase. 



This work can be greatl3' accelerated on most farms by the sub- 

 stitution of forage crops in place ©f ordinary pasture grasses. 

 While we thus suppl}^ an increased amount of plant food, we also 

 increase our stock food and shield ourselves from loss in conse- 

 quence of the failure of pasture grasses by drought or otherwise. 

 This is especially important on a dairy farm. 



