188 BOARD OF AGRICDLTtJRE. 



of ordinary crops. These roots have often been traced to a depth 

 of over four feet below the surface. It also gathers a large portion 

 of its sustenance from the atmosphere. It thus serves as a mediuna 

 for gathering a very large portion of those valuable elements of 

 which it is composed from beyond the feeding-ground of ordinary 

 crops. 



What is true of clover is also true of all farm crops, only in a less 

 degree. All crops are gatherers of plant food. They create noth- 

 ing, but could all the fertilizing elements thus gathered on the farms 

 of New England in time past have been saved and applied and re- 

 applied since their first occupancy, they would now rival the prairies 

 of the West in their fertility. 



"But," says one, "how is this? Can you feed your crops to stock 

 and make them available for fertilization also?" I answer yes, 

 practically. It is true that when fed to growing and fattening stock 

 there is a slight loss, when the stock is sold from the farm, but it 

 practically retards but slightly the work of fertilization. Both science 

 and observation tell us that animals extract but a small percentage 

 of the food which they consume ; only the amount represented by 

 theu" increased weight, and their dairy or other products for which 

 they are kept. A mature ox while fattening extracts but five per 

 cent of the plant food from the rations which he consumes. Grow- 

 ing animals retain somewhat more than this. A dairy cow while 

 giving a full flow of milk extracts twenty-five per cent. But if the 

 milk of the cow is converted into butter, and the skimmed milk and 

 buttermilk are retained upon the farm and returned to the soil, there 

 is no loss of the fertility. Pure butter has but little if any manurial 

 value. Its constituents all come from the atmosphere. 



I have given the above illustration of the practical effect of veg- 

 etable growth in the gathering of fertilizing elements for the pur- 

 pose of showing how it is that a judicious cultivation of the soil may 

 and should add to its fertility, and that we should not be content 

 with a mere spontaneous production, while purchasing agricultural 

 supplies to the production of which our soils and climate are 

 adapted. The farmer is constantly gathering the u)aterials for 

 fertilization in every crop which he grows. Each succeeding crop 

 contains more plant food than it takes from the soil, and each suc- 

 ceeding crop should contain more than its predecessor, with the 

 same favoring conditions of moisture, heat, etc., prevailing. 



By a proper selection of crops this gathering in process, which I 

 have illustrated in connection with clover, may be greatly acceler- 



