46 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



agriculture. It has been demonstrated that there is a certain 

 balance in the character of animal food, which when secured 

 gives the greatest efficiency to each component thereof. 

 Chemical invstigation has pointed out the character of the 

 ration which should be employed for the various kinds of do- 

 mestic animals — for those engaged in hard labor, as well as 

 for those simply to be fattened. It is not extravagant to say 

 that where the principles of scientific feeding are thoroughly 

 understood and carried out, the cost of animal feeding, for 

 any definite purpose, is less than it was thirty years ago by at 

 least thirty per cent. In illustration of this fact, it may be 

 said that in the preparation of animals for feeding purposes, 

 as for instance in the case of a pig, they can be prepared and 

 placed upon the market at a given weigh, with about two- 

 thirds of the expense which would have been necessary to ac- 

 complish the same purpose thirty years ago. This economy 

 in animal feeding is therefore one of enormous magnitude 

 and value. 



In the principles involved in the increasing of soil fertility, 

 great progress has also been made in the time mentioned. 

 So great has been the progress in this line that thousands of 

 farms which had been abandoned by reason of sterility are 

 now again brought under cultivation and restored almost to 

 their virgin degree of fertility. The rapid exhaustion of the 

 fertility in other soils has been checked by the application of 

 the same principles. It is now certain that the production of 

 immense crops can be continued indefinitely, under the scientific 

 treatment, which the progress of agricultural chemical science 

 has developed, without in any way impairing or exhausting 

 the fertility of the soil. On the other hand, it has been seen 

 that the fertility of a soil which has been partially destroyed 

 is gradually restored under practically scientific treatment, 

 while the fields themselves continue to give greatly increased 

 yields. Thus it is seen that the fear which was formerly en- 

 tertained by some philosophers of the final exhaustion of the 

 fertility of the earth and the destruction of the human race, 

 by the enforcement of hunger thereby, is entirely groundless. 



The progress of agricultural chemistry has touched every 

 department of agricultural science and the illustrations above 

 given are only some of the more important ways in which the 

 beneficent effects of the progress in this branch of investiga- 

 tion have been manifested. 



DISEASES OF PLANTS. 



Millions of dollars are lost every year in this country 

 through such diseases as the rusts and smuts of cereals and 

 the various blights of fruits, vegetables and other crops. As 



