RELATIONS OF FEEDING TO FERTILITY. 33 



callj secured. Tims we have a line of thought riuniiiig through the 

 entire exercises of the da}'. 



I sa}" we la}' down the proposition that the better course for the 

 farraer is to reh' upon the income from the stock rather than upon 

 the sale of the raw products. It is a fact which has been very 

 forcibly impressed upon my observation in my circulation through 

 the State, that, go abroad, up and down the State where we may, 

 whenever 3'ou strike a community of farmers who have been in the 

 practice for a series of years, of marketing their products in the I'aw 

 state, selling their hay, growing their crops for the market instead 

 of introducing stock husbandy as a strong feature of their farming, 

 we find unmistakable evidences that there is not that degree of pros- 

 perity among them that there is in other localities where the S3'stem 

 of stock husbandry is the absorbing interest among the farmers. 

 These facts are so plainly written on the face of these farms and 

 their surroundings that he who runs may read, if he but carefully 

 notice what he may observe. 



Let us if we can, in our work to-day, disclose the reason of this, 

 that others, seeing it, may profit thereby. 



With these preliminary remarks we will proceed to the relation of 

 the feeding of the farm crops to the fertility of the soil. If we get 

 an intelligent view of the bearing of this it may aid us in under- 

 standing the whole question better, and in comprehending the work 

 of the afternoon more completely. We want, then, this morning, to 

 show the relation of feeding these farm crops to the fertility of the farm, 

 bearing in mind all the time that these crops have been grown at a profit, 

 that the}' have not cost the farmer what they are worth as they are 

 stored in his barn and granary at the present time. 



I think I spoke before this Farmers' Club last spring, briefly, of 

 the elements of fertility. I want to allude to it again, and I will do 

 it as briefly as possible, in order to cover the ground and make the 

 work intelligible. You are aware that plants are made up of certain 

 elementary substances, and that those plants obtain that material 

 from some source. Nature builds up from certain elementaiy 

 materials a structure which we call a stock of corn, a stock of wheat, 

 or a hill of potatoes. The builder takes of brick, of mortar, of 

 wood, of nails, and constructs a })uildiug. So nature takes of 

 material within her reach and, with the sunshine and the rain, con- 

 structs a stock of corn. If there is not the material to be obtained 

 the stock of corn cannot be builded ; there must be the elementary 

 material within its reach, out of which the plant can be constructed. 



