128 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The CHAiRMAisr. Gentlemen, according to the programme, 

 the next thing to be brought before the meeting is a lectnre 

 by Mr. Elbridge Cushman of Lakeville, on the fertiliza- 

 tion of our farms. 



HOW SHALL WE FERTILIZE OUR FARMS? 



BY ELBRIDGE CUSHMAN. 



He who subsists by cropping the land without maintaining 

 its fertility is no more worthy to be called a farmer than he 

 who merely conducts the closing-out sales of another's goods 

 is worthy of the name of merchant. Yet there are many 

 whose system of farming runs on the easy decline of a down- 

 hill grade in the old ruts and beaten paths of their fathers. 

 Happily their number is diminishing, and with this generation 

 they will pass from the stage ; for it is gratifying to note the 

 increasing interest, by the great body of our farmers, in ad- 

 ding to the productive power of the soils they cultivate. 

 This is shown not only in practice but also in the interest 

 taken in the reports of scientific investigations, and in the 

 increasing demand for the latest knowledge and best proved 

 means of fertilization. This desire for information, and this 

 quick appreciation of approved though new methods, is the 

 more important, in view of the fact that we are yearly meet- 

 ing with unexpected competition and new obstacles. 



The construction of lines of railways into vast regions of 

 fertile lands, that in consequence are rapidly settled and 

 pour eastward the abundant wealth of the virgin soils of the 

 West, the scarcity and high price demanded for farm 

 labor, the increasing varieties of insect pests, and other con- 

 trary influences, compel us to be wide awake and progres- 

 sive. I wish to speak more particularly to those engaged 

 in what is generall}^ termed " common farming," or the pro- 

 duction of the staple farm crops. We are often told that, 

 with the competition of the West, there can be no profit for 

 this class of farmers ; that such shoidd go where there are 

 cheap and fertile lands that railways have made accessible 

 to the markets of the world, and that our farming must be 

 in the direction only of dairying, and the production of such 

 perishable crops and fruits as are demanded by the mar- 



