416 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



ing the oldest command : Six days shall thou work. I hope you will bear 

 in mind I am not speaking of our spiritual existence; that is quite a differ- 

 ent subject. 



Now, we, as tillers of the soil, want a knowledge that will aid us along 

 our line. 



Do I hear some one say if I wish to grow 40 bushels of wheat per acre I 

 had better commence the study of anatomy and the science of medicine? 

 And will a wise one tell me to become familar with Blackstone, Greek 

 and Latin, before I can ever grow 400 bushels potatoes per acre? That is 

 not the knowledge we need, we cannot use it in the growth of vegetation. 



Life is short, we have only time to learn that which relates to our busi- 

 ness. The farmer needs a broader education than any other profession, and 

 the best place to acquire it, is first, on the farm; second, at our Agricult- 

 ural College. 



The profits of a farmer do not depend on the number of his acres, nor on 

 the extent of his crops, but on the amount produced per acre above the cost. 

 Now if this is true, the question arises : In what manner can we increase this 

 extra production. The two principal agents are manure and thorough cul- 

 tivation. 



I do not think our soil can be stirred too much if done in the right time. 

 Yet, I do not approve of barren fallows in hot weather. If a great amount 

 of tillage is necessary to get rid of troublesome weeds or destroy roots of 

 grass, I would substitute hoed crops. 



I use large quantities of bedding for animals, and, so far as I can, keep 

 both animals and manure under cover until they can go where there are 

 growing plants to welcome them. Fire-burnt, rain-drenched manure hardly 

 pays to handle. It certainly costs less to draw the manure, as it is made, to 

 the field where it is wanted than it does after it is soaked in rain water. 

 Manure is only available to plants in a dissolved or liquid state. Hence, 

 after stable manure is thoroughly drenched with water, all that is at that 

 time available is washed away. Now this is a big waste, when we consider 

 that the urine is the richest in ammonia of any part of the manure. Bushels 

 of wheat, oats, corn, potatoes and tons of hay are being washed from our 

 manure piles every time it rains, and we don't seem to care. 



Mr. Terry, of Huron, Ohio, who is excellent authority, uses nothing but 

 box-stalls, and with absorbents and a sufficient quantity of water to keep the 

 manure from burning, leaves it there till he wants it on the land. This 

 plan seems to be the best of all. 



I use walking hog-pens — that is, pens built on runners. I move them 

 with a span of horses from time to time, and first one place and then 

 another, wherever necessary, and at the end of each year I have from one to 

 three acres by this means rich enough for any crop, and I never had a sick 

 hog on my farm, while some of my neighbors, with their dirty, filthy, sta- 

 tionary pens, lost all they had. Then they said they had bad luck. Some 

 one said centuries ago, "All flesh is grass. n At least all successful farming 

 is founded on grass. This term I use in its broadest meaning. Where red 

 clover can be made to grow well without manure, there is no difficulty in 

 sustaining the fertility of the soil without the use of commercial fertilizers. 

 I used to sow four quarts of clover seed per acre; not so stingy now, I sow 

 one peck per acre. 



Would it not be well, the last time we plow our corn, to seed the field to 



