218 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



unmistakably advantageous from one point of view, we are led to 

 question wlicther the facility with which we have been supplied 

 has not led us to be careless about our own resources. The very 

 materials for which we pay so; heavily are too often permitted to 

 ooze away into the nearest ditch and pollute our streams. Baron 

 Liebig-, to whom in great degree we owe our present knowledge, 

 denounces this terrible waste, and warns us that the time will 

 come when our reckless extravagance will bring down on us heavy 

 discomfort ; and that the decay of our great country will date 

 from the day when our supplies of phosphates fall short. With- 

 out going quite so far, we would earnestly impress our readers 

 with the importance of taking care of the manure of the farm. 

 It is sad to see the ignorance that is apparent in unspouted yards, 

 washed out manures, and the porter-colored horsepond. Even 

 if it could be proved that the ivaste thus incurred can be more eco- 

 nomically made up by the j^urchase of artificials than by the outlay 

 necessary to prevent it, it would still be clear that, taking a com- 

 prehensive view, and duly considering the future, our practice is 

 most reprehensible." 



Here too are words of warning, and words of advice, but a new 

 front is presented ; the burden is changed ; the words have 

 another ring to them. Now, the trouble is, that commercial 

 manures are so good and so cheap, that the imminent danger is, of 

 forgetting the farm-yard ; and the appeal is, not to permit the pj-os- 

 pect of present gains to induce forgetfulness of the future, and of the 

 needs of posterity. He talks in the strain a wise man would have 

 used with the settlers in Aroostook fifteen or twenty years ago, 

 or in Western New York at an early day, when he saw them cart- 

 ing manures to the nearest stream, merely to be rid of them. 



Let me say here, that the trade in commercial manures seems to 

 be passing through the same phases which it underwent in Great 

 Britain a few years earlier. About 1855, Dr. Voelcker made the 

 following statement : " If ever there was a time when the agricul- 

 turist had need to exercise special caution in the purchase of 

 artificial manures that time is the present, for the practice of adul- 

 terating standard fertilizers, such as superphosphate, guano, &c., 

 has reached an alarming extent. * * ^: It is but right, however, 

 to mention that it is far from us to censure indiscriminately the 

 whole class of manufacturers and dealers ; for we know many 

 highly respectable, fair dealing and skilled parties who well deserve 

 the support and encouragement of the agriculturist, and who arc 



