250 PROSPECTS OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



clover is true of all other food. Bran is sometimes used for 

 manure, and so are malt roots, and a few years ago some of the 

 Connecticut tobacco-growers used corn meal as manure. Now if 

 a sheep only takes out from 6 to 10 per cent, of nitrogen, and a 

 still less proportion of phosphoric acid, potash and other valuable 

 elements of manure from the food, and if these elements are left in 

 a more available condition in the manure than in the food itself, I 

 think we shall be able to make a profit in feeding the clover and 

 other food to sheep, rather than to plow it under merely for 

 manure. I am well aware that when we feed a ton of clover, 

 containing 100 lbs. of nitrogen, to sheep, we do not always get 

 back 90 to 95 lbs. of nitrogen in the manure. A careless farmer 

 might lose half the value of the manure by leaching. But there is 

 no necessity for this. The elements are in the manure when it 

 leaves the animal, and we shall learn how to preserve them, and I 

 feel sure we shall soon learn how to make them more immediately 

 available to our crops. How to get out of our soil more' of the 

 large amount of dormant elements of plant-food which it contains, 

 and then when we have got those elements, how best to use them 

 and save them should be the great aim of scientific and practical 

 agriculturists. I know of no better plan than the one I have sug- 

 gested : — 



1st. Draining and thorough cultivation. These operations, by 

 letting in the air and sun, decompose and disintegrates the organic 

 and inorganic elements of plant-food. 



2d. To grow such crops as will take up the largest proportion 

 of this plant-food from the soil and sub-soil. Clover, on many 

 soils, is one of the best plants for this purpose. Peas and beans, 

 in favorable latitudes, are also good. Grass and oats are less val- 

 uable for the purpose, but still useful, and our grand, national 

 cereal, Indian corn, can be used with immense advantage. But 

 we have much to learn in regard to the peculiar requirements and 

 uses of this magnificent crop. 



3d. After we have taken up and organized into useful, nutritious 

 food the annual supply of plant-food furnished by the soil, we 

 have to study the best method of extracting this nutriment and 

 turning it into meat, and at the same time save the elements of 

 plant-food in the shape of manure for future crops. 



Of course, in a paper of this kind, I cannot go into details. 

 The crying necessity of the age is more and better meat. The 

 better our education, the more skillful and intelligent our popula- 



