276 - ANNUAL. REP,ORT OF THE Off. Doc 



vited to attend this meeting. A special course of instruction is 

 now being prepared, and you will have an opportunity to visit the 

 Experiment Station and see what is being done for the develop- 

 ment of agriculture in the State. There will be lectures in the 

 various departments by men specially qualified for the work, and I 

 would like every one of my institute lecturers to embrace this op- 

 portunity, if possible of getting into touch with the work at State 

 College, and getting the benefit of the lectures by these scientists, 

 for one or two or three or four days, so that they may go forth to 

 their great work better equipped. We will use enough of the funds 

 at our disposal to pay the railroad fares of the lecturers to and from 

 State College, and I wish as many of you as can will endeavor to 

 avail yourselves of this opportunity would raise their hands. It ap- 

 pears to be unanimous; I thank you, my friends. Now, will Mr. 

 Agee please tell us a little more about this subject? 



BARNYARD MANURE: ITS TREATMENT AND APPLICATION 



TO THE SOIL. 



BT Prof. Chas. E. Thorne, ^Vooster, Ohio. 



It gives me gi'eat pleasure to meet the farmers of Pennsylvania 

 In this manner, although I must say that Ohio has a serious grudge 

 against Pennsylvania just now, for having taken away our Mr. 

 Agee, who has been so very helpful to us for many years in the 

 upbuilding of our agriculture — a man whom we could most illy 

 afford to lose. 



As Mr. Agee says, the Ohio Experiment Station has been v-ery 

 favorably situated for the study of soil fertility. It has had a priv- 

 ilege which very few stations have had, of selecting the soil for its 

 work after having had for ten years the opportunity of learning 

 how to experiment — a privilege which has given a greater chance 

 of success than is possible under the conditions in which many other 

 experiment stations are situated, most of them having located with- 

 out reference to the study of the soil. 



For 20 years I have been trying to persuade the farmers of Ohio 

 that they are leaning too heavily on the commercial fertilizer in the 

 endeavor to maintain the fertility of their fields. I grew up under 

 the old conditions, before commercial fertilizers were known, and 

 with the old fashioned idea that there is no method of maintaining 

 fertility so economically as by the feeding of animals and returning 

 their manure to the soil, but when I advocate this system in Ohio 

 I am met with the reply that it is impossible to keep enough live- 

 stock for this purpose. I have never believed that this reply was 

 well supported. I believed that it was a case of would not, instead 

 of could not, but have not had the facts available with which to 

 sustain my position until within a very recent period. But now we 

 feel that we are getting solid ground under our feet in this respect, 

 and a factor which has contributed much to this result is the ex- 



