1882.] COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 123 



mand of abundant power, help might be easy to obtain, and the 

 markets of the world might call for his productions with impera- 

 tive demand, but all in vain. The limitation of one necessary ele- 

 ment of production is the practical limitation of every element, 

 and under such a limitation enterprise is crippled, and limps along 

 with no chance of winning any worthy prize. Agriculture under 

 primitive conditions does not feel this restriction, for the work of 

 primitive agriculture is mainly to gather, while the task of ad- 

 vanced agriculture is chiefly to produce. Let me try to make this 

 distinction clear, for I regard it as important. Primitive agricul- 

 ture may do much to secure favorable conditions for production. 

 It may give the soil the best possible opportunity to produce, but 

 it adds nothing to its power. To it the soil is a storehouse, from 

 which it draws supplies, large or small according to the skill and 

 labor expended. But to advanced agriculture the soil is more a 

 •workshop than a storehouse. He who manages a farm under this 

 system, invests not only labor and skill, but material as well. He 

 needs to know not merely what the soil has in store for him 

 already, but what its possibilities of production are with the mate- 

 rial he can supply to it. His farm is his factory, and he manufac- 

 tures his crops as truly as the foundry-man his castings or the 

 weaver his cloths. Much of American agriculture is still primi- 

 tive in character. There are situations even in Connecticut, where 

 only primitive agriculture can be a practical success. In such situ- 

 ations it would be a grave mistake essentially to change its char- 

 acter. I do not mean to speak of it with the slightest disrespect, 

 but I do mean to say that when all other conditions favor a change 

 and invite to an advance, it is a misfortune to have that change 

 prevented or that advance hindered by an insufficient supply of 

 crop material. 



Wherever population is dense and conditions of soil and climate 

 are favorable, the soil should be the farmer's factory and not 

 merely his storehouse. If he runs a factory, he must supply ma- 

 terial as well as labor. And if he is to fill the measure of his 

 capacity and opportunity as a producer, he must not be restricted 

 in his supplies. This was his condition previous to the introduc- 

 tioTi of commercial fertilizers, and I count the removal of this re- 

 striction a great service to advanced agriculture. We have com- 

 mercial fertilizers to thank for it. 



It is one service, but not by any means the only one nor would 

 I say the principal one. That which, in my thought, takes prece- 



