DAIRY, SEED IMPROVEMENT, STOCK BREEDERS MEETINGS. 315 



nor ill the droppings of the animals. There is no expense or 

 loss of soiling food, as it is put on the pasture. That proved to 

 he a wonderfully good method of soil improvement. All the 

 waste matter of the animals was saved, organic matter was not 

 lost; the soil was pulverized. It seems to me this is the way for 

 the farmers of Maine, adapting their crops to their station and 

 condition, which can be practiced very profitably. 



We are certainly up against a very great difficulty at present 

 in this connection, and it seems to me that the advice given by 

 Dr. Woods is one that we must profit by. I should not forget the 

 lessons t^iat have been driven home to us during this convention, 

 building the soil, the methods of building, putting in of organic 

 matter. It has several functions to perform in the soil : -First, 

 an available plant food ; next, it is a storehouse for plant food ; 

 the plant food that is put on land lacking in organic matter does 

 not do the land as much good as on land that is full of organic 

 matter. I like the way in which the speaker emphasizes the 

 building of organic matter in the soil. We are hardly aware of 

 our dependence upon the air. A little more than 90 per cent 

 of all that these crops growing for human food use, comes from 

 the air. Nothing is destroyed in Nature. Part of the stick of 

 wood which came from the air goes back into it, leaving only a 

 very small part of it in the stove, after it is burned. 



I have great faith in the future of Maine agriculture; in the 

 future of New England agriculture. I have had something to 

 do with, and "have known something of the agriculture of our 

 state for many years. I have raised some of these exhibits 

 which you see here. I believe this is but the beginning, and if 

 the speaker could come here in 25 years, he could emphasize the 

 statement that he made today, that the farmer is the Almighty's 

 right hand man, because of the products he would see on our 

 tables and in our halls. 



