158 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTUKE. 



tree-top, and in the fertile valley of the Nile this rude implement was not known. 

 There the seed was sown upon the moist soil and then tlie farmer drove his cat- 

 tle over it until the seed was tolerably well trodden in. By either of these meth- 

 ods the results must have been incomplete and unsatisfactory. Now we not 

 only have very much improved implements for depositmg the seed, but these 

 implements are so arranijed as to give any required depth of planting, the 

 required depth being ascertained by experiment. 



In an examination of the systems of agriculture we find less of progress than 

 we do in the implements. We find the system of fallowing was known in very 

 ancient times. Moses ordained that the soil should lie fallowed every seventh 

 year. 



It is not surprising that people are at last learning their great mistake in fol- 

 lowing so long this wasteful system. The system of rotation of crops was 

 known to the early Komans, but it is not until within modern times that it has 

 dawned upon the better part of our agricultural masses that a rotation of crops 

 is economy of time and productive of better results than is the system of fallow- 

 ing. It is found that the deep feeding plants bring to the surface those ele- 

 ments of plant food which lie beneath the reach of the cereals. It is found that 

 a root crop converts as much inert material into an available form as does the 

 barren fallow. Yet our knowledge of these things is very incomplete, and to 

 the unprejudiced radical young men must we look for their advancement. 



Examine for a moment the social position of the farmer from one time to 

 another. The early Komans, with tlieir small farms, were of necessity close 

 together; each enjoyed the full benefits of his neighbor s experience. Much 

 time was spent in consulting upon what produced best effects, and much was 

 learned which is of value in the present day. Then consider what has been the 

 history of American agriculture. Until within a few years the exclusive aim of 

 the American farmer has been to till his hundreds of acres. The farming 

 community has been a group of independent, disinterested workers, character- 

 ized by a total want of mutuality, but once again progress dawns upon us. 

 The Grange, the Farmers' Club, and later still, the Farmers' Institutes, are 

 affording us that so much needed opportunity of unreserved intercourse upon 

 farm topics. I need only to point to these as other fields in which our young 

 men must make themselves useful. 



Then, again, of all that has been done in agriculture much has been written, 

 but little has been well written. Our agricultural literature is of modern origin. 

 The first English work upon general agriculture was written by Fitzherbert in 

 1534. I give you a sample of his writings, as follows: '^A housbande cannot 

 thrive by his cattell without corne, nor by his corne without cattell. Sheep, in 

 mine opinion, is the most profitablest cattell that any man can have." The 

 earliest of writers upon agricultural chemistry was Jethro TuU, 1731, who main- 

 tained that none of the food of plants came from the atmosphere. We need 

 agricultural editors and authors who shall be trustworthy authority, who shall 

 possess a practical knowledge of the principles with which they deal, but how 

 shall we have them if our young men do not fit themselves for the respon- 

 sibility. This I believe to be one of the fields in which every young agricultur- 

 ist may find opportunity to be of great use to the world ; and further, I believe 

 that at no distant day every farmer will be a writer in his art as well as a prac- 

 titioner. 



Then, in retrospect the ancients in agriculture asked for mere facts, and 



