314 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



pending the discussion, will insure the farmer good crops in propor- 

 tion to the amount of raw material which the Lord furnishes him in 

 the shape of sunshine and shower. 



First, if the farmers are to grow good crops in proportion to 

 the raw material furnished them, they must get their land in the 

 best possible physical condition for growing these crops. I am quite 

 well aware that it is not an easy matter to get some Missouri soils 

 into good physical condition. You have in this State a good deal of 

 tenacious clay, which the unregenerate foreigner calls hardpan, and 

 which if it is not hardpan is, to say the least, often a hard proposi- 

 tion. That this hardpan soil is not deficient in the elements of fer- 

 tility is quite fully demonstrated by this simple historical fact : that 

 after a year of burning drouth you are always sure, with average 

 heat and rainfall, of a first-class crop of every kind within the State 

 of Missouri. You could not grow these crops if the fertility was 

 not there. 



Why is the year following a year of severe drouth a productive 

 year in Missouri ? Simply because the great heat shrinks the soil 

 particles, pulverizes your clay soils as no plow, harrow or cultivator 

 could pulverize them, and^ thus permits of the early root growth 

 necessary for a full harvest. 



The proper physical condition of the soil is therefore the very 

 first thing that Missouri farmers should consider if they wish to 

 grow crops and also to maintain the fertility of the land. A great 

 deal of Missouri land that is counted poor would be counted rich if 

 it had a first-class dose of good farming. 



It is impossible in ordinary years to put land, even if naturally 

 or artificially well drained, in proper physical condition unless it is 

 liberally supplied with humus. Complaints come to me frequently 

 from Missouri that land is worn out or exhausted, and askir.-g what 

 kind of fertilizers to use, when I suspect that all that is lacking is 

 sufficient humus to enable the farmer to put it in proper physical 

 condition. Have you ever noticed how carefully the Great Farmer 

 of all looked after the humus supply in fitting this Mississippi valley 

 lor the home of man ? He spread a carpet of grass over the prairie 

 and leaves over the forest, growing weeds where grass failed to 

 grow and brush wherever there was an opening in the forest. I 

 cannot believe that in preparing this modem Garden of Eden He in- 

 tended to allow any one or two generations of farmers to hog in all 

 the fertility and then declare the land worn out, when all that has 

 been done is to exhaust the humus by continuous growing of grain 

 to be sold off the farm. 



