14 BOARD OF AQRIOULTURE. 



even the owners of those hinds of their mistake. Replenishment 

 must offset draught, or, sooner or Uiter, exhaustion will surely result. 



I doubt if there is an}' crop in general cultivation that will reduce 

 the fertility of a soil more rapidly than the potato. One hundred 

 bushels of potatoes will weigh G,000 lbs., or three tons. For every 

 ton of potatoes grown there must be supplied from the soil between 

 eleven and twelve pounds of potash, nearly seven pounds of nitro- 

 gen and over three pounds of phosphoric acid. An acre oC pota- 

 toes, producing at the rate of three hundred bushels, including both 

 large and small — and I presume that is by no means considered an 

 exti-avagant yield here — is reduced in its potash more than one 

 hundred pounds, in its soluble phosphoric acid about thirty-three 

 pounds, and in its nitrogen sixtv-three pounds. To produce such si 

 crop in Massachusetts we would expect to have to appl3' at least 

 a ton of commercial fertilizer worth fort}- or fiftv dollars, or its 

 equivalent, in animal manure, and I know that there is land in 

 Massachusetts, now comparativel}' barren, which would once haA'C 

 produced three hundred bushels of potatoes per acre with very little 

 manure, and without greatly surprising the producer. The same 

 methods which have reduced the fertility of our soils will sooner or 

 later, if persisted in, reduce Amours also. 



Now, how much fertility do you supi)ose is carried oil' from a 

 farm in a ton of well made butter? Practicall}- none ; absolutely 

 none, except what is contained in the small amount of buttermilk 

 or caseine which remains even in the most thoroughly worked 

 butter. All the fat in butter, the carbon, comes from the atmos- 

 phere and draws nothing from the fertility of the soil. 



I do not pretend to sa}' that there are no wastes of fertility upon 

 dairy farms. "When a cow is sold for beef, a calf for veal, or a pig 

 raised upon the skimmed milk, is sold off the farm, a certain amount 

 of plant food is sold with each of these animals. From most dairy 

 fnrms there are some other products besides butter sold, giain. 

 fruits or vegetables to a limited extent. When milk is sold direct, 

 or fu'st made into cheese, there is a heavy draught upon the fertility 

 of the soil. There may be wastes, too, from carelessness in saving 

 the ipanure from the stock, or in unwise methods of applying it to 

 the soil. I do not claim that dairy farming is simple or easy. It is 

 not like potato raising, something that anyone can do without 

 learning how. It is a business that requires for the highest attain- 

 ment the very highest degree of intelligence, of skill and of taste. It 



