408 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



management, the speaker would sum up his contention and out- 

 line his thesis somewhat as follows: (And this is said with an 

 appreciation of the fact that animal husbandry has its serious 

 drawbacks and in and by itself is not always profitable.) 



Grass, clover, corn, small grains and their straws are among 

 the most important crops grown upon the farm. It should be 

 the settled policy of the average Maine farmer not to regard 

 these as cash crops. They should be fed upon the farm, and 

 only the finished product be sold. The cash crops should be of 

 a watery nature and those containing the least plant food in 

 proix)rtion to the price they command in the market. Potatoes, 

 sweet corn, roots if there is a market for them, cabbage (al- 

 though it is a rank feeder and is not profitable unless it can be 

 well sold) are among the best cash crops. The more concen- 

 trated crops should be fed and sold in as nearly a finished form, 

 such as meat, milk, cheese, wool or butter, as is possible. Hay 

 in Maine never has and doubtless never will bring a price 

 sufficient in excess of its cost in labor and plant food to warrant, 

 unless in exceptional instances, its sale direct. If, however, one 

 desires to sell hay, both because of its higher market value and 

 its somewhat less plant food, timothy is the grass that should 

 be grown. 



When to the value of the plant food carried in hay there is 

 added the cost of preparing the grass, the expense of seed, and 

 the cost of cutting and making hay, it is clear to the speaker, if 

 not to others, that the man who is selling hay is either not get- 

 ting his money back or else is selling ofif the plant food in his 

 land. In this latter case he is a ''soil robber" as was his father 

 before him and is no wiser than the pioneer who sells the fer- 

 tility of his soil in wheat and oats, using up in a few years' time 

 the surplus available plant food of the soil that required cen- 

 turies to accumulate. 



Ques. Is it a fact that the Chinese do not use fertiHzers? 



Ans. They cannot use much because they cannot get it. 

 They have built up a self-sustaining country because the whole 

 country until within a few years has been a closed country. 

 They have not had much sewage. Our great loss is in our 

 sewage systems. The sewage that is taken out to the ocean is 

 taking off our fertilizer. The Chinese have no sewage systems 



