No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 319 



or speaking. However, personal experience and knowledge obtained 

 in the pursuit of a calling or occupation should be of more value 

 than that absorbed from others at second hand, or from theory. If 

 it happens that the j^ersonal pronoun appears in this paper, it is not 

 with a design of vanity or egotism. Depending upon one's own re- 

 sources after graduating from our early common schools, after seven 

 three months' terms, afford little mental training and a poor equip- 

 ment with w^hich to meet the struggle for an existence or a place in 

 the Sun during three score years plus ten and four. 



Knowledge is power and a foundation upon wliich to build is a 

 valuable asset if the building is not neglected after the foundation 

 is laid. Keflecting upon all the dangers passed through during the 

 time allotted us in Scripture, it makes one shudder to think of the 

 dangers of the measles, whooping cough and more fatal afflictions, in- 

 cluding earthquakes, reptiles, 1)acteria germs, flies and mosquitoes. 

 It is quite surprising tliat any remain to tell the tale after eat- 

 ing and drinking flies so many times. It seems necessary to pinch 

 one's anatomy to find whether or not the spirit and the flesh have 

 not parted. We have been told before now all about the independ- 

 ence of farm life, the ease and comfort enjoyed; swinging in ham- 

 mock under the blossoming apple tree, where the bees hum in happy 

 contentment, where the birds chirp and the butterflies in gaudy 

 colors flit to and fro sipping nectar from the fragrant blossoms; 

 how the auto speeds to the seashore or the yacht sails us over the 

 briny deep; how the office seekers love us before the election and 

 "cuss" us afterwards; how the banks are overflowing with deposits 

 and money lenders standing on street corners oftering loans on first 

 mortgages to 50% of the value of property, then hypothecate the 

 bonds with the U. S. Treasurer, getting currency for the same to 

 loan to the people, getting the interest from mortgages on one hand 

 and the discount from borrowers on the other hand. 



Forty years steady practice in redeeming an exhausted farm to a 

 productive condition and more than fifty years observation at vari- 

 ous times while traveling over Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, 

 Maryland and a little in other states has taught me some things 

 useful. From ocean level to more than 2,000 feet elevation in vari- 

 ous directions, from the hot sands of the sea coast to the cool breezes 

 of the high plateaus, evidence climatic differences according to ele- 

 vation and the variations of soils indicate the best suited locations 

 for various crops. Trending northeast and southwest, the mountain 

 ranges, hills and valleys run parallel, forming long stretches of the 

 same soil. From the present time to the long past there are more 

 than forty distinct deposits of clay, sandstone, shale, limestone, 

 conglomerate, muck, peat, glacial and volcanic deposits, each differ- 

 ing from the others in texture, and fineness from solid rocks to 

 particles of dust. These contain some eighty known elements of 

 which, however, a few are of importance in agriculture, only seven 

 always essential for crop production being, nitrogen, phosphoric 

 acid, potash, lime, iron, sulphur and magnesia. The latter is con- 

 tained in some lime and is regarded as injurious to plants if used 

 too freely. 



The problem of soil fertility is confronting farmers in many of the 

 older states and is becoming manifest also in the Western and North- 

 western States where the soil was once considered inexhaustible; 



21 



