No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 39S 



Possibly the solid manure was cared tor religiously, but no thought 

 given to the licjuid, except to get rid of it. Now we know that they 

 have about equal value as plant food; the nitrogen being equally 

 divided between the solid and the lit^uid. The phosphoric acid being 

 all in the solid but the potash almost entirely in the liquid. 



About forty years ago commercial fertilizers came into general 

 use in my neighborhood, and the quantity and possibly the quality 

 used has increased from year to year until now no profitable yield is 

 anticipated unless a generous share of the proceeds is advanced in 

 preparing the seed bed. Of the $5,0U0,U00 expended annually for com- 

 mercial fertilizer in Pennsylvania, perhaps two-thirds is contributed 

 by nine or ten counties in the south east. The drain upon the re- 

 sources of the farm for this item alone is enormous, and yet it is 

 money well expended, if done with a fixed determination to restore 

 the land to its former condition, when their further use may be 

 cheapened and modified. 



The Experiment Station informs us that every acre of ordinary 

 good soil nine inches deep contains more than two tons each of nitro- 

 gen, phosphoric acid and potash, and yet we find in practice that 

 eight or ten pounds of the first and last with twenty-five or thirty 

 pounds of the second applied to an acre show marked improvement, 

 because the tons are not soluble and not available as plant food, but 

 the pounds we buy are ready for use immediately. I am convinced 

 that the difiiculties w'e complain of are due largely to absence of vege- 

 table matter in the soil. In nature the ground is covered with vege- 

 table grow'th every year, which when decayed supplies humus. 

 Modern agriculture removes this vegetable matter to the sewers of 

 the cities and towns, or across the ocean. Can wc work our farms 

 hard and yet increase the supply of humus? Is this the burning 

 question? Certainly. Thousands have done it and other thousands 

 are doing so. 



First; let us care for the manure of our farm animals and apply to 

 the soil direct from the stable. Use lime if you will, to assist in lib- 

 erating plant food, but return, the vegetable product to the soil in 

 generous quantities; plow down second crop grass, rye, crimson 

 clover, cow peas, etc., which cost little for seed, and practically no 

 labor. Humus holds water and yet afi:ords drainage, and keeps the 

 soil light and porous, w'hich is essential to growth of clover. I am 

 convinced that failure of clover to hold through the winter is due 

 to compactness of soil. It holds w'ater to the surface in early spring 

 and excludes air and the clover roots are smothered and drowned. 



On your truck patch which has been heavily coated with vegetable 



manure year after year, clover does not die in winter, or on the new 



ground recently reclaimed from forest growth you have no ditficulty. 



An upland, stony spot that is cropped but seldom, and not suited to 



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