8 



since none of tliem supply nitrogen, phosphoric acid or potash to 

 the plant, except indirectly, by making what is already in the soil 

 more easily digested. My idea is that results from their use are not 

 at all uniform, and where marked improvement follows it is due to 

 local conditions in the soil. 



" The part that commercial fertilizers play in my experiments is 

 like that of kindling wood in starting a blaze. When planting corn 

 fodder on my worn-out fields I used what the manufacturers call a 

 complete fertilizer, supposed to contain the three elements of plant- 

 food which are needed most. AVhen clover becomes a fairly sure 

 crop, I know that the iield has passed the restoration period and 

 begun the maintenance period and I do not buy any more fertilizers 

 containing nitrogen. The clover supplies me with that. My opin- 

 ion is that I do not need to buy much potash either. It may be 

 necessary in orchards, but for field crops I fancy I can unlock enough 

 of the potash already stored in the soil by first class tillage. What 

 I need most and must buy is phosphoric acid. My fields have been 

 under cultivation upwards of forty years and I find that I get best 

 returns from money invested in dissolved phosphate rock. I am 

 speaking from personal experience now, and would not make my 

 practice a general rule for others. Every farmer must cut and try 

 and think out these problems for himself. In my earlier experience 

 in farming, I spent some good money in commercial fertilizer ; and 

 when it brought me no returns, I blamed the manufacturer. It was 

 not his fault but my own. That was before I became a tillage crank 

 and put my hand in ' onion bed ' condition. 



" Stable manure, when well cared for, is a friend that we can 

 count on under nearly all conditions. The chemist tells us that it 

 has only two to four dollars' worth of plant-food per ton. Perhaps 

 that is all it may have in his own laboratory, but it is often worth 

 more than that in the soil laboratory. I think it has value far 

 beyond the plant-food it contains, because it has power to put in 

 motion those ' chemical activities ' of the soil which we have been 

 talking about. It is the best thing to give clover a start when the 

 soil is near the uncertain line between restoration and maintenance. 

 If I can have from four to eight loads per acre when seeding I can 



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