392 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



year, grown on the fifteen acres, and none purchased at all in the 

 market. We attribute this wondrous yield to the soiling system. 

 It lifted the mortgage, paid the taxes and the labor and finds its 

 owner not complaining that farming doesn't pay. 



RENEWED FERTILITY AND HOW TO GET IT. 



By MR. THOS. J. PHILIPS, AtgJcn, Pa. 



In conversation with farmers in many different localities and 

 under varying conditions I find the almost universal complaint to be 

 that reward for capital and labor on the farm is growing more haz- 

 ardous each 3'ear, and yet I am convinced that the carefully managed 

 farms are producing more than formerly. The turning point from 

 tearing down to building up has already made some progress. In- 

 terest is being awakened and the near future will show marked im- 

 provement. 



Our great ditticuty is not how to make plants grow under favorable 

 conditions, but what can we do to our farms so that w^e may be rea- 

 sonably sure of success under adverse conditions? Before answer- 

 ing this question, permit me to hastily review the past. The gen- 

 erations before us found a virgin soil full of plant food, both mineral 

 and organic, the latter being easily broken down became available 

 as fast as the plants could take it up, and became exhausted in the 

 first few generations. More particularly because there being no 

 home market in the beginning of any new country the entire product 

 is sold off and depletion of soluble fertility is rapid. Later we enter 

 the period when crude products are consumed on the farm, and only 

 by products more valuable but containing less plant food are sold, 

 and the deterioration of soil is checked or ceases entirely. At this 

 stage the use of lime as a stimulant became common. The lime 

 added no plant food, but did assist to burn up the organic matter 

 and release potash from the silica, and at the same time cause a 

 physical condition that was decidedly advantageous. But if the old 

 methods were continued and the product sold in bulk, the use of 

 the lime was decidedly injurious. The last condition was worse than 

 the first. 



Until recently the value of farm manures was little understood. 

 We all knew they were valuable, but manure from a fulf grown 

 animal and that from a young or growing one, was presumed to have 

 equal value, but the chemist tells us the first is three times richer 

 than the second. 



