No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 849 



the chemist had ever exauiiiied. This result has been brought about 

 by starting on Uiis little farm on the basis of science and putting 

 that science into practice. VV^e raise all our head fodder, because we 

 would much rather buy feed than commercial fertilizers. These ex- 

 perts are trying to find what kind of bacteria are in the soil. Con- 

 sider the value this knowledge will be to the agricultural world. Here 

 is a farm which originally had one horse and two cov.s and bought 

 haj^, to-da}^ the soil is marvelled at for its richness. These bac- 

 teria will never be found in poor soil. This is the scientific knowl- 

 edge that we have of the soil to-day. What did our forefathers 

 know about the bacteria of soils? They would talk about i)Oor and 

 rich soil, but they never knew of the life that was in the, earth. We 

 know of it to-day. Therefore, the position which I hold in relation 

 to the world about us is that Ave should know the laws of Nature 

 and obey them. Farming then will never be guesswork but will be 

 founded on a scientific basis. 



DISCUSSION. 



MR. AUSTIN LEONARD: I am not a speaker, but I wish to re- 

 late an observation verifying the force of Mr. Detrich's remarks. 

 I have a friend in New York State whose two sons preferred to 

 stay at home on the farm rather than seek positions in railroad and 

 other business offices. They w^ere graduated from their high school, 

 and afterward went to Cornell Agricultural College. They didn't 

 buy commercial fertilizers, because they had learned how to make 

 them. To shovv' what education will do, these boys asked their 

 father what he would rent them the five-acre orchard for for five 

 years. It had been rented for several years for half the product. 

 The father agreed to rent it to them at |50 a year. They plowed the 

 ground, harrowed it, sprayed the trees, and last year they sold GOO 

 barrels of apples. They went through the same operation last 

 spring and sold 1^100 barrels of apples at |2 a barrel. The father 

 said, "I guess it w^as for three years that you rented the farm?'' But 

 they said, ''No, it was five years, father." They raised potatoes and 

 cabbage and other agricultural products, v,^heat and oats. Their 

 potato business amounted to something. They asked their father 

 Vvhat lie would give them for spraying his potatoes and he said he 

 didn't think it amounted to much, but that he would give them the 

 amount of the result of the spraying. This increase amounted to (54 

 bushels to the acre. If such advances can be made in agriculture, 

 why not in ours? 



I might tell you some of my work in the dairy. When I was a 

 youngster my father thought I was not strong enough for farming 

 and he brought me up as a school-teacher but afterward I went back 



54—6—11)03 



