168 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



food to the plants in the quickest way and most available form instead of 

 allowing plants to hunt for it. That is intensive farming. 



One point I want to touch upon is the general complaint in Nebraska 

 that it is often too dry; then again too wet. These changes have much 

 to do with the growth of plants. In the spring the sun warms the soil, 

 and this, with the moisture and other agencies, works upon the humus to 

 produce plant food or nitrates. During the wet season, with heavy, fre- 

 quent rains, much of this prepared plant food is washed lower down in 

 the soil where the roots of the young plants can not get a hold of it. A 

 crust forms on top of the soil after a rain, shutting out air, and prevent- 

 ing the formation of plant food. So we see that water in the soil, soil 

 temperatures, and soil aeration all have a bearing on vegetable growth. 



As a boy I remember well that after a rain we fertilized our growing 

 crops with a liquid manure prepared in large cement tanks. We irrigated 

 our garden directly from those tanks, always after the rain. On meadows, 

 from five to seven cuttings of grass were made. The last growth was left 

 as a mulch for winter. I could not always see the why or the wherefor 

 of this. I was simply told to do it and saw the results. I was not told 

 that this liquid manure replaced the nitrates that the rain had leached 

 away from the roots of the plants or the plants had used up. 



We all do many things on our farms today because they bring results, 

 but are unable to explain to others why we do them that way. Some of 

 us can do things better than we can tell about them, but I don't object to 

 that so long as they are getting results. However, a man will learn very 

 slowly by his own experience alone. I know that some farmers make fun 

 of a book or a farm paper article, but the experienced man can almost 

 always tell if it comes from the pen of the practical man. The experi- 

 enced man is able to gather something from such articles where "igno- 

 ramus" won't. A man will learn little out of a paper or book unless he 

 possesses the grower's instinct. 



We hear so much of that "back to the land" movement. I don't take 

 much interest in it. I think we can spare a few more to the town when 

 it comes to vegetable gardening and still be able to feed them. Give the 

 farmer and producer better means and cheaper transportation, as they 

 have in Europe, and we will still be able to keep them all. There is no 

 use to make a special effort to get people out of the city. If they possess 

 the instinct, have the desire, and are able to raise the capital they will go 

 out themselves. To my mind, many of them would not last longer than 

 a snowball in the hot summertime. 



Half the people living in the country have never discovered the real 

 yielding capacity of the land. The average farmer has never even 

 dreamed of it. This holds true of the family garden as well as to other 

 crops. Last winter while in Columbia, Mo., I was shown the great cow 

 Josephine. Fifty-two quarts of milk a day was her highest record. Were 

 our cows all Josephines, with care and breeding behind them, we would 

 need only a few, and then a windmill and pipeline would furnish all the 

 milk needed for a good sized town. 



