DAIRY, SEED IMPROVEMENT, STOCK BREEDERS' MEETINGS. 313 



DISCUSSION. 



B. Walker McKeen. 



I appreciate the privilege of speaking once more to Maine 

 farmers. I realize the difficulty of a man like me following a 

 man like the one who has been speaking to you, who really 

 "Beats the Dutch." I know something about Dutchmen, and 

 have been associated with some of them in my work, and expect 

 to be associated with them in the world to come. 



This subject is a matter of great importance. It makes no 

 difference whether a man is a farmer, a fruit grower, or what- 

 ever branch of agriculture he follows. I hope we may all take 

 home with us the speaker's idea of soil improvement. I con- 

 sider he is correct when he says the farmer is the Almighty's 

 right-hand man, but the Almighty had the advantage over man 

 when he planted his forests to feed the soil. He was planting 

 the crops for the soil's benefit and after planting, left them there. 

 Not so the farmer; of necessity he must take a part of what he 

 grows from the land. It is more necessary for us farmers to 

 study along these lines than for the Almighty himself, who had 

 these things at his command. I 'have believed for many years 

 that the secret of soil building and keeping was not so much a 

 matter of fertilization as it was of giving into the soil organic 

 matter, and of keeping it in the soil, after getting it there. 



I have an idea that the State of Maine is suffering from an 

 epidemic of root-bound grass fields. I believe we should strive 

 to break up these old grass fields. Every year there is less or- 

 ganic matter in these old fields. Every year there is less that 

 the Almighty put into the soil. In order to break them up we 

 must use the plow. The plow is the key which is going to work 

 the safe for us; which will make it possible for us to succeed in 

 agriculture. The plow may be a soil destroyer as well as a plow. 

 The intelligent use of the plow is being forced upon us more 

 and more. We must make a more careful tillage of the soil. I 

 would sell anything from the land that my circumstances permit 



