SOIL SESSION. 121 



the supply of organic matter in order to keep the soil porous and in a 

 good workable condition as well as to prevent excessive washing. We 

 know that heat, light, and moisture, factors which we cannot control ab- 

 solutely, are necessary to the germination of the seed and to the growth 

 of the plant. We are familiar with the fact that the corn rows show 

 up across the lower and darker places of the field earlier than they da 

 on the higher and lighter ground. The darker area is warmer and sa 

 offers more advantageous conditions for the rapid germination of the 

 seed. We can, by controlling the organic matter, control to some ex- 

 tent both heat and moisture in the soil. We are all familiar with the 

 fact that most plants will not grow normally in the dark and that long 

 bright days encourage rapid growth. 



But the members of ^Missouri's Live Stock Association know that, 

 though you may have the best pedigreed pig in the cleanest of pens with 

 the proper supply of heat, sunlight, and water, unless you have food in 

 the trough and food in proper proportions you will never have an animal 

 for the show ring, to say nothing of an animal which will put dollars and 

 cents into your pocket over the scales. 



Our plants are like our animals. It is a most excellent thing that 

 they have a long pedigree and that they be grown upon a soil which is 

 so drained and cultivated as to make it a good home for them, and in a 

 climate affording sufficient heat, light, and moisture, but unless they 

 have food and food in proper proportions, they will never make the 

 most vigorous, well developed, and profitable plants. 



As individual farmers and handlers of land we want to know how 

 to succeed in the particular kind of farming which we are doing, so that 

 we may be assured of maintaining, and when necessary, of increasing the 

 supply of plant food in our soils, and by this means, together with im- 

 proved seed, drainage, rotation, and good cultivation, we may perman- 

 ently maintain, and even increase, the productive capacity of our indi- 

 vidual farms so that those who come after us will not be the loser be- 

 cause we have preceded them. 



This morning we are to consider this subject from the standpomD 

 of the grain farmer, and there is no doubt that the grain farmer has a 

 greater problem than has the dairy or live stock farmer ; for the latter 

 feed the crops grown on their own farms, together with more or less 

 of their neighbor's ; only small quantities of plant food are sold in this 

 way, the greater part being returned to the soil in manure which benefits- 

 the physical conditions of the soil as well. However, it must inevitably 

 remain true that over fifty per cent of our farmers must be grain farmers 

 in order that the human family may have its grain ration and in order 



