No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 177 



the tank and will only need removing about once in five years and 

 may be done with the ordinary threshers pump. This refuse should 

 be mixed with lime and chloride of lime and when dry may be used 

 as a fertilizer. These aerobic bacteria, as their name suggests, must 

 have air and sunlight to thrive. They live in the top soil not more 

 than twelve or fifteen inches below the surface and seize on the dis- 

 ease and filth that may have escaped their cousins in the tank and 

 gradually eat them up. The water eking away from the drainage 

 tile below the surface is prevented from washing by storms into 

 water courses so polluting them, before it is finally purified and 

 clean. It is nearly clean before it leaves the tank and its flow 

 through the tiles is so slow that the aerobic bacteriam bacteria have 

 time to finally purify it before it spreads more than a few inches 

 from the drains. By using the switch and slides I will show you 

 drawings of a very small piece of ground may be used in this way 

 for years, especially if a little lime is scattered on occasionally over 

 the surface to keep it loose and to let in air and light. It is not 

 recommended to place these tiles across a back garden but under a 

 lawn or in fields that will be cropped to farm crops such as grain 

 and grass. This is sim})ly a precaution and may not be a necessity, 

 but it is wisest to be on the safe side. 



INCREASING FERTILITY 



By R. p. KESTER 



It is not my purpose to give my regular lecture on "Fertility Re- 

 gained and Retained" to this body of institute lecturers and in- 

 structors, but rather touch upon a few points upon which we agree, 

 or should agree, that are of primary importance to the practical 

 farmer in the improving of the land he owns. 



In the first place, I would like to say to every speaker and writer 

 on agricultural subjects, to use every proper means and occasion to 

 create and foster a popular interest in forestry. It is a lamentable 

 fact that so few people seem to have the broader vision by which 

 is shown the necessity of trying to make some amends to future 

 generations for the reckless waste of forests that has been practiced 

 in this country during the past two generations. 



Few seem to realize the relationship that exists between a proper 

 balance of forest land and cultivated land to insure reasonably 

 permanent crop conditions that are favorable to success, to say 

 nothing of the intrinsic value of trees to man 'and in other ways. 

 Public interest in this subject is at so low an ebb that it would 

 be difficult to get a corporal's guard to attend a meeting on forestry 

 in the average neighborhood. Men are trying vainly to work suc- 

 cessfully steep and often stony hillsides when they would be better 



J2— 5— 1914 



