LINES OF PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURE. 



359 



the solution of this prohlem. Tlie profitable use of purchased 

 manures must be limited to particular localities and special con- 

 ditions of production, and they can not be made available to any 

 extent as the staple source of fertility in general farm practice, as 

 the markets of the world could supply the wants of but a very 

 small proportion of the farms of the country. 



Improved breeds of animals, and improved plants and seeds, in 

 great variety, especially adapted to particular purposes, can now 

 be obtained on every farm., and the rapid development of the 

 mechanic arts has provided the most perfect implements and 

 machines for economizing labor in every process. These lines of 

 progress furnish important contributions to the means of profit- 

 able production, which the farmers of the country can not fail to 

 appreciate. There remains, however, an extended field that is 

 practically unworked, in which original investigations are needed 

 to place our system of agriculture in full harmony with the 

 requirements of the age. 



From a practical standpoint, and as offering the most probable 

 means of substantial progress, under present conditions of pro- 

 duction, the subject of paramount importance to the farmer, and 

 which should, therefore, receive a prominent place in a course of 

 instruction in practical agriculture, is the utilization of farm 

 residues of all kinds, with their available stores of the elements 

 of fertility. Among these, barn-yard manure, from its obvious 

 direct relations to the economics of production, should receive the 

 share of attention its importance demands; but it must not, by 

 any means, be looked upon as the only residue of the farm of 

 economic interest. In a consistent system of practice, these resi- 

 dues must be made an efficient part of the circulating capital of 

 the farm, and converted as rapidly as practicable, and with the 

 least possible waste, into products of marketable value. 



From the complex phenomena presented in the nutrition of 

 plants and soil metabolism, the best methods for utilizing these 

 residues can not be formulated in specific rules of practice that are 

 of universal application. On every farm special conditions will 

 be found which require intelligence and judgment in the applica- 

 tion of general principles ; and opportunities will be afi'orded, in 

 each particular case, for the adjustment and balancing of the 

 many contributions of science to meet the practical demands that 

 arise from the varying combination of details presented in a wide 

 range of topics, including the amelioration of soils by drainage 

 and thorough tillage, the judicious arrangement of a succession 

 of crops that will provide for a suitable supply of food for the 

 animals of the farm, and the profitable appropriation of every 

 element of fertility as soon as it is made available for the pur- 

 poses of plant-growth ; together with the economic conversion of 



