PRINCIPLES OF FERTILITY. 131 



KNOX COUNTY 



InstitLite at Warren. 



A veiy successful Institute was held at the Town Hall, Warren, 

 November 23. Mr. Erastus Lormond, member for the county, 

 called to order and invited E. W. Stetson, of Lincoln county, to 

 preside. 



PKIXCIPLES OF FERTILITY. 

 By Z. A. Gilbert, Secretary of the Board. 



We come here for work, and farmer like we ma^' as well go at the 

 business in hand without formalities or further preliminaries. 



I don't know but I ought to make an apology for introducing the 

 subject of fertility at this time. It is an old subject, one that has 

 been talked over much before agricultural meetings of ever}- descrip- 

 tion, 3et it is one which the farmers in ever}* quarter of the state 

 have to encounter every succeeding year in their farming operations. 

 At this time I wish to present it in a somewhat ditferent form from 

 that iu which we ordinarily handle it ; I wish to present it in its 

 scientific aspect somewhat, endeavoring to analyze it into its parts, 

 that we may see the reasons for this and that result, and, therefore, 

 the better understand our way out of its difficulties. We want to 

 let the light into the deeper recesses. We are all the time inclined 

 to take superficial views of all agricultural topics ; but we ought in 

 our studies to ever be trying to dig down somewhat deeper than we 

 have before done and see if we cannot unearth some things which 

 heretofore have been be^'ond our reach, something new, something 

 not before understood. 



The relations of science to agriculture have been somewhat repul- 

 sive to the common farmer. But that is gradually wearing awa}'', 

 from the better understanding of its relations to agriculture. There 

 is nothing about it that we ought to shun at anv time, or that should 

 cause us to set up our minds in defiance to its teachings ; because 

 science as applied to agriculture is simply the laws of nature applied 

 to production. When we come to consider, as we well may, and as 

 we should, that all plant growth is produced by certain fixed laws 

 of nature, we at once understand the importance of the scientific 

 principles of agricultural production, because nature's laws are not 



