No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 281 



potassium remains in the straw; hence the system of farming under 

 which the grain is shipped away and the straw is kept at home 

 results in a much larger draft upon the soil stores of phosphorus 

 than of potassium. In the growth of live-stock; also, there is a 

 large consumption of phosphorus for bone formation, whereas al- 

 most no potassium is called for. Again, when milk is sold off the 

 farm it carries with it a relatively large proportion of phosphorus; 

 In fact, it is only when the straw goes to the paper mill and the 

 hay to the city that the draft of potassium begins to keep pace with 

 that of phosphorus in ordinary farming. In truck farming, of 

 course, the conditions are reversed. This explains why our fields, 

 which have been long in cultivation, show such a hunger for phos- 

 phorus, and also shows us that manure cannot be a well balanced 

 fertilizer for such soils. Our experiments indicate that for phos- 

 phorus-hungry soils the effectiveness of manure may be nearly 

 doubled by re-enforcing it with a carrier of phosphorus; in fact, 

 as between the manure taken without treatment from an open barn- 

 yai'J and that taken fresh from the stable and re-enforced with 

 phosphorus, the effect has been more than doubled. 



This point is strikingly illustrated in the long-continued experi- 

 ments with fertilizers at your own experiment station and in all 

 these conducted by the Ohio station: When the fertilizer contains 

 nitrogen and potassium, but no phosphorus is added, the quantities 

 of nitrogen and potassium remaining as before, the loss is invari- 

 ably turned to gain. Manure carries nitrogen and potassium in 

 superabundance, as compared with phosphorus, and under the con- 

 ditions of the average farmer it is used wastefully unless re-enforce 

 with this all-important element. 



THE GROWING DEMAND FOR WHOLESOME MILK. 



By Prof. H. E. Van Nobman, State College, Pa. 



The development of our great centres of population has been ac- 

 companied by the appearance of many complex problems to vex, 

 annoy and threaten the life of the city dweller, especially that of 

 babes. Realizing that a high toll is annually paid the Grim Reaper 

 from babes under two years of age, the medical profession has for 

 years sought to learn and lessen the cause. 



The milk supply is unfortunately in too many cases the probable 

 messenger of death. While admitting that this is true, I feel that 

 other factors, such as the lessened vigor inherited from parents 

 weakened by their life in crowded cities, lack of bodily exercise and 

 out door air, should be charged with some of the responsibility. 

 Milk is certainly not the only cause of the high mortality, if it is 

 the only food of many babes. 



In place of the family cow, and the milkman who kept his cows 

 near enough town so he could drive in and distribute the milk from 

 his own herd direct to his ouetomers, hag oome the milk peddler, 

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