184 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



enough of these wares, in the aggregate to supplv all other classes, 

 and that an aggregate nearly or quite equal to the one above given 

 must have been paid for foreign grains by the fanners of that, and 

 tiie adjoining towns, who draw their supplies from tliat center. This, 

 in one of the best agricultural districts in Vt^rraont. 



In view of the present changed conditions under which agriculture 

 must be pursued, the strong competitions, flooded markets, and 

 depleted soils, it is imperatively necessary that farmers should care- 

 fully consider what improvements they can make as off.-ets to these 

 adverse conditions. Not only how the}^ can increase their receipts, 

 but reduce their expenditures. The latter is just as important as 

 the former. The balance-sheet, and not the receipts, determines 

 the success or failure of every financial venture. Our motto must 

 be, "raise more and buj- less." 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FARM IMPROVEMENTS AND CROP 



PRODUCTION. 



By Hon. F. D. Douglass. President Vermont Dairymen's Association. 



The fundamental conditions which determine the question of 

 gain or loss in fertility are obvious. Effect follows cause with 

 unerring certainty in this as in all other affairs. If I take from the 

 soil those elements of plant growth which render it fertile, I shall 

 thereby reduce its productive capacity. If I increase the amount 

 of these while the mechanical condition pnd other influences remain 

 the same, its fertility will be increased. 



In conducting a farm we should keep these three objects con- 

 stantly in view — the production of the largest aggregate amount of 

 crops, the largest practicable amount of plant food, and the main- 

 tenance of the best possible mechanical condition in the soil. 



We should endeavor to make our farms self sustaining so far as 

 practicable. Stock farmers, as a rule, should raise their own stock 

 food, not excepting grain, while feeding much more of it than they 

 now do. It has been demonstrated in individual practice that this 

 may be accomplished in connection with a rapidly increasing fer- 

 tility, and that without the purchase of plant food in any form. If 

 this be true of individual practice, on an average farm, it must also 

 be true on a larger scale with the same systematic application. 



