SECRETARY'S REPORT. 01 



In order to the successful prosecution of any undertaking, and 

 not less, so in regard to agriculture than in other departments of 

 business, it is needful that we have both a clear idea of the end to 

 be attained and of the means best adapted to accomplish that end. 



The ultimate end aimed at in agricultural operations is the pro- 

 duction of human food, and this to the greatest amount practicable 

 from a given area of land ; but when we inquire as to the means by 

 which the desired end may best be accomplished, we enter upon a 

 subject, which in regard to its general outlines as well as in regard 

 to details, has not received the degree of attention which its import- 

 ance demands ; and one upon which many farmers have no such clear 

 views or well grounded opinions as are needful in order to direct 

 their operations to a successful issue. If our soils were inexhausta- 

 ble and all we get from them, year after year was so much clear 

 gain, the answer could be given very briefly and easily — but so far 

 is this from being the fact, that if we should attempt simply to sow 

 grain and grow bread, we should soon find our lands barren and our- 

 selves hungry and starving. 



Experience has abundantly demonstrated that to grow full crops 

 year after year, the land must be supplied with as much as it is 

 deprived of in 'the crops taken off. If the whole of these were 

 obtained from the soil, the whole would have to be returned to it, to 

 make good the deprivation, but happily such is not the case Only 

 a part is thus obtained, and so, if we return such a part, we can live 

 on as well as "before, and if we return more to the soil than came 

 from it, we can grow richer by adding to its original fertility. 



Such is the lesson taught by the experience of all who ever tilled 

 the soil, and yet until the pinch of necessity is actually felt, few have 

 profited by it as they should. Instances are not wanting in the present 

 generation where farmers in Maine have taken oats after oats from 

 unmanured land to be sold for consumption in a logging swamp, 

 until the crops were scarcely worth harvesting, and both the owner 

 and his land sadly impoverished thereby. 



If we look back to the first settlements of the country we find 



