FARMER.S' INSTITUTES. 383 



been impoverishing liis farm to add to his hank account or put more improve- 

 ments on his farm. He has really made no money ; he may have lost. At the 

 best he has only been transferring his property from one form to another, from 

 fertile land into money. The accomit might be rendered in this form : 



Debtor to so many acres of fertile land. Ten years from that time. 



Creditor by so much cash and improvements. 



Creditor by so many acres of land worth not over half price for farming pur- 

 poses, and the account will barely balance, in many cases will fall short on the 

 creditor side and need some cash to balance, although some farmers will point 

 approvingly to such a one and say "he has made money." If money or profit 

 is the prime motor in agriculture, let us see how we can best attain our object. 



With too many farmers at present it is the all-prevailing idea that they must 

 raise tlie crop that pays the best, and thus make rapid strides toward wealth. 

 There is, however, one drawback, and that is, that there are so few pi'ophets 

 who are capable of predicting what crop to raise to accomplish that end. Early 

 in the opening up of a country the pioneers must of necessity be restricted in 

 the number of crops they can profitably raise. They require more cultivated 

 land in proportion to the grass land, and consequently less stock is kept in pro- 

 portion to the arable land than in the older portion of our country. A system 

 of farming is thus inaugurated that takes gradually from the virgin fertility of 

 the soil, and does little to keep up or restore that fertility. After such a system 

 is once begun and practiced for a term of years it is very hard to change the 

 habits and sentiments of such a farmer. The pioneer farmers generally, after 

 a term of years of slip-shod farming, give place to others who have to labor to 

 get back a reasonable amount of fertility. The pioneer farmer is generally very 

 wasteful about his manures, and in many parts of our country they have thrown 

 them into streams to be washed away, or drawn them away from their stables 

 simply as a matter of convenience in depositing more, and burned them to get 

 rid of them, almost regarding them as a nuisance. In twenty-five years these 

 same farmers if there, or others occupying their places, would be willing to buy 

 the manure they wasted at good prices. 



Their soils are skimmed over and the cream taken off ; their crops about one- 

 half what they once were, and they wondering what is the matter. If they 

 know what the matter is, they wonder how they can remedy it. It is a fact 

 patent to all that we cannot take wheat from a granary and still have the same 

 amount there ; that we cannot draw constantly on a bank account without 

 depositing and keep our fnnds good. Neither can we constantly draw on the 

 fertility of the soil and have our farms as productive as at first. The necessity 

 for full and large supplies of manures becomes apparent, and these can only be 

 obtained by the majority of farmers by the keeping of plenty of live stock. 

 They are his first necessity. How mistaken the ideas of the farmer who thinks 

 to make money by selling his hay, his straw, and liis corn. How much better 

 to feed them out and have most of the elements left in the manure for use in 

 the growth of succeeding crops, while he gets a return for food consumed in 

 growth, meat, milk, or wool. 



In American Agriculture Ave have not learned the value of manure. In some 

 of the older iwrtions of the United States they are feeling the want severely, 

 and are just looking about for some means of amelioration of their condition. 

 These wants have been felt in the old world, and various means adopted to get 

 back the fertility of their once fertile land. They have saved all their liquid 

 manure, either in tanks or by means of absorbents, and allow no waste. In 



