448 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



the peculiar difficulties with some peculiar soils? I cannot answer 

 these questions better than by saying that the people of Illinois 

 have made it the duty of their Agricultural Experiment Station to 

 make a complete survey of the soils of the state, including not only 

 the mapping in practical detail of all the soils found, but also the 

 analysis of representative samples from every type of soil, supported 

 by actual field experiments on all important types, so that when 

 the work is completed every farmer may know the type or types of 

 soil on his farm, and the average composition of each type of soil, 

 and also the results obtained from different systems of soil treat- 

 ment. The total expense of doing this work for the whole state, 

 including the operation of soil experiment fields for many years on 

 the most important soils in every section of the state — -the total ex- 

 pense for this work will probably be no greater than the cost to Illi- 

 nois of exhibiting her products at the Chicago and St. Louis exposi- 

 tions. 



I accepted an invitation to speak to Pennsylvania farmers with 

 the definite understanding on the part of your officers that I am not 

 (]ua]ified to discuss Pennsylvania soils; but I am to try to discuss 

 the materials and the methods to be used in soil improvement. 



Farm manure has always been, and without doubt always will 

 be, the principal material used in maintaining the fertility of the 

 soil; but it is an unquestionable fact that the greatest source of loss 

 to American agriculture today is in the enormous waste of farm 

 manure. 



If corn were worth |1,05 a bushel, then the average annual value 

 of the corn crop in the United States for the past ten years, includ- 

 ing 190G, would be equal to the average value of the total farm ma 

 nure annually produced in this country. This statement is based 

 upon the careful estimates of the United States Department of Agri- 

 cnlture, placing the average annual corn crop at nearly two and a 

 quarter billion bushels, and the average value of the manure an- 

 nually produced bj' tvx^enty million horses and mules, sixty-one mil- 

 lion cattle, forty-seven million liogs, and fifty-tv>'0 million sheep at 

 more than two and one-third billion dollars. 



The evidence is sufficient to fully justify the conclusion, and prac- 

 tical observing farmers will agree, that at least one-third of the 

 manure produced is wasted on the average American farm. If this 

 is true, then the total value per annum of all commercial fertilizers 

 ustd in the United States (amounting to about sevent^^-five million 

 dollars) is equal to only one-tenth of the annual waste of farm ma- 

 nure. This is no argument against the intelligent and profitable 

 use of commercial plant food by those who make and save and use 

 farm manure to the greatest practicable extent, but it serves only to 

 emnhasize the tremendou8 loss to the countrv from the waste that 

 is permitted. 



The value of farm manure can be, and has been, determJned by two 

 entirely different methods. 



First, the manure may be analyzed chemically to ascertain the 

 kinds and amounts of plant food it contains, and its value then com- 

 puted from the cost of the same amounts of these plant food ele- 

 ments if purchased in the world's markets in commercial form. 



Second, the manure may be applied to the land in a series of soil 

 experiments where a suitable orop rotation ig praotiofible, and its 



