330 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I have known many who commenced with grades but were not satisfied. A thor- 

 oughbred was soon purchased and the grades were sold to some one else to begin 

 with, and they in turn wanted thoroughbreds. Many farmers have reached a point 

 where general farming is no longer profitable under existing conditions, and they 

 are looking for some branch of agriculture that will pay. In any location, what 

 would be more profitable than keeping a few good Jersey cows and building up a 

 trade in butter? Get a small separator and a Babcock test and begin. Make nothing 

 but good butter, keep nothing but good cows, strive to please your customers, and I 

 assure you the venture will pay. This is especially true near small towns outside 

 the strictly dairy districts, for there competition is not so great, and good butter 

 is more thoroughly appreciated. If you start first, you will get the best trade, for 

 these small home markets often pay better than in the cities. It is scarcely two 

 months since there was a butter famine in this town, and for several days no butter 

 could be had; and this occurs often. Good butter will always sell, and more dairy 

 farmers are wanted in our own community. 



COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 



W. H. WOODHAMS, KLA^LAMAZOO, AT KALAMAZOO COUNTY INSTITUTE. 



On what crops should farmers use fertilizers? From my standpoint I should say 

 on clover, roots, and soiling crops, and fruits of the best kinds. To the unthinking, 

 careless farmer the fertilizer is a damage, but to the thinking farmer the develop- 

 ment of the fertilizer ofEers the richest promise of any of the aids given us by any 

 of the agricultural scientists of this wonderfully progressive age. Of its use on 

 clover it will oftentimes pay for itself in the crop with which the clover is sown, 

 making the even catch of clover the profit. Of the value of profitable clover catches 

 this audience does not need to be told. On roots for sale or feed it is certain to be 

 profitable because they require a large amount of labor whether the crop be large or 

 small, and while one is at expense, the expense better be made great enough to make 

 a reasonably sure thing of the result. Besides which, roots of all kinds, including 

 potatoes, are much handsomer, freer from worms, rot, and scab with fertilizer than 

 with manure. That commercial fertilizers should be used on fruit should go with- 

 out saying. 



MARKET GARDENING. 



JOHN FISCHER, AT SAGINAW COUNTY INSTITUTE. 



Every market gardener knows that in order to grow the most perfect vegetables he 

 can not make his land too rich, but a great many of them do not seem to know that 

 the liquid manure which they allow to go to waste would be worth more to them If 

 properly saved and made use of than all the solid straw, called manure, would be to 

 them. I have always depended more on liquid manure to raise good vegetables than 

 on anything else, except perhaps the quality of the seeds to be sown. When I speak 

 here of the quality of the seeds, I want to include their purity also as to variety. 

 Owing to mistakes made by seedsmen, I received several times varieties which I did 

 not order. To avoid further annoyance, I determined to grow the seeds of those 

 varieties which I desired to raise in large quantities upon my own premises, and I 

 have found so far that they are invariably plumper, and were the same kinds I 

 bought of dealers. As most seeds retain their power of vegetating for several years, 

 we can, by making a careful selection each year, grow our own seeds, selecting such 

 varieties as will not hybridize if planted closely together. 



