FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 31 



and bringing the newly turned soil in close contact with the bottom of 

 the furrow under each wheel. This sets up capillary relation with the 

 soil below and insures the upward movement of moisture from below, 

 and this insures moisture for the decay of organic matter and for the 

 germinating seed. 



4. Follow the packer with a light harrow and harrow at short inter- 

 vals, excepting in winter, till seeding time. 



5. Sow grain in drill, 18 to 24 inches apart, and when up cul- 

 tivate from time to time till grain is headed. Plant corn and potatoes in 

 the usual way and cultivate. 



The cultivator used in this work is of the weeder type. 



The amount of grain used for seed is from one-fifth to one-quarter the 

 amount usually used. 



Mr. Campbell's theory is that a few plants with an abundance of 

 moisture and air will give a greater yield than a larger number of plants 

 with scant supply of moisture and air. 



Some very remarkable results have been secured by this method of 

 handling soils and they indicate that the right principles underlie the 

 system. 



TILLAGE IN THEORY AND PRACTICE. 



HON. ROLAND MOKRILL, BENTON HARBOR. 



An abstract of the address follows: 



Because I advocate thorough work in tillage, making my practice 

 •correspond to the late theories of the scientists, I am called a crank. 

 All thinking men, successful in business, are apt to be cranks and per- 

 haps ought to be. A crank may be defined as a man who knows one 

 thing well and is enthusiastic about the one thing which he knows well. 

 It is seldom that we find a man that knows everything or that does not 

 have to learn some things that later he has to unlearn. The man who 

 has unlearned the things w^hich he had learned for true, and later finds 

 out to be untrue, is the safe man to act as guide. There is no royal way 

 of avoiding making mistakes, the best way being to adopt the theories of 

 the scientists tentatively and reject such as experience does not prove 

 to be well founded. 



The common condition against which farmers have to work in average 

 seasons is the drouth. To prepare for this condition the ground must 

 be properly worked in the spring and fitted for the crop. Dollars un- 

 numbered are laid out on land and lost every spring because the ground 

 is not properly prepared. The mechanical condition of the soil must 

 be adapted for a given crop, and tillage must be directed along lines 

 adapted to the given crop. Certain crops are adapted to certain soils, 

 while some crops fit almost any soil. But all crops on all soils require 

 intelligent treatment, intelligent tillage. 



The first rule that ought to be laid doMm is that farmers should 

 cease tilling more land than they can till well. People forget that fer- 

 tility available for a given crop can be increased by tillage as well as by 



