394 AGRICULTURK OK MAINE. 



SELLING HAY. 

 ITS RELATION TO COXSERVIXG FARM FERTILITY. 



Chas. D. Woods, Director. 



Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 



At the conference on agricultural conditions in Maine held 

 at the University in December a year ago, the speaker said, 

 perhaps more dogmatically than he should, that in general it was 

 bad economy to sell hay from a Maine farm. This led to con- 

 siderable discussion. With the exception of a farmer whose 

 mowing fields are so situated that they are flooded each spring 

 and the washings from his neighbors' farms are deposited 

 upon them so as to increase their fertility, there was no real 

 difference of opinion upon this subject of the selling of hay. 

 Partly because of this discussion the committee in charge of 

 the meeting here has invited the speaker to talk for a few 

 minutes -upon the subject of selling hay. 



It is said that Dean Swift, once being asked to speak upon 

 the subject of charity, chose for his text : **He that giveth to 

 the poor lendeth to the Lord," and that his sermon comment 

 on the text was: **If you like the security come down with the 

 dust." Inasmuch as it seems to the speaker that the economy 

 in selling hay from a Maine farm can be about as tersely dis- 

 posed of and, as the committee on program has allotted him an 

 half hour of time, he will go somewhat afield of his subject in 

 the way of introduction and discuss some of the bearings of 

 conservation upon the present crisis in the supply of plant food. 



A consideration of the topic of selling hay speedily resolves 

 itself into the larger one of the conservation of the fertilizing 

 resources of the farm, of which the selling of hay is a single 

 phase. Obviously, if all of the products produced upon the farm 

 could be consumed upon the farm and a farmer could produce 

 everything for his own need, agriculture upon that farm would 



