150 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



the corn crop would take from the soil, as I understand it. 

 That was the largest proportion used in these experiments, 

 and then two-thirds and one-third were used in comparative 

 experiments. The result was, that the use of one-third of the 

 normal, natural ration of nitrogen was profitable ; that the 

 use of two-thirds was sometimes profitable, but not generally 

 so ; and that the use of a full ration was never so in any ex- 

 periment that was tried. 



Now in relation to this general question of exhaustion of 

 the soil. I am speaking of myself simply, but I propose to 

 take from my soil more than I put into it, and I have very 

 good authority to fall back upon. Messrs. Lawes and Gil- 

 bert have taken from a certain portion of their land sixteen 

 bushels of wlieat to the acre for thirty years, steadily, and 

 put on nothing. Are they robbers? Is that experiment 

 simply robbery ? 



Mr. Webb. I should hate to take their land after them. 



Mr. Hubbard. Perhaps you would. I have an idea like 

 this : that we are entitled to draw upon the soil for something 

 every year; that every year the natural processes going on in 

 the soil are developing a certain proportion of plant food, 

 changing the inorganic constituents of the soil into conditions 

 suitable for the plant, so that the plant is capable of using 

 them, and that it is our right to take them ; that we do not 

 in any proper sense rob the soil by taking them, we do not 

 destroy its fertility, we do not leave it in an exhausted con- 

 dition, but that it is simply the natural yield of the soil, to 

 which we are entitled. I do not think we are required either 

 by a wise policy or by any moral law of obligation to those 

 who come after us to give to the soil everything we take from it. 

 We are obliged, I think, to put on the soil enough to main- 

 lain its fertility. That I propose to do as far as I know how. 

 I do not propose to put on anything more than that. I do 

 not propose to apply anything to my land with the idea that 

 somebody who is coming after me, some fifteen or twenty 

 years hence, may get some part of it. 



Question. What kind of fertilizer do you use your- 

 self ? 



