ANNUAL WINTER MEETING. 55 



one should come here and become a specialist in celery cul- 

 ture. 



WASTED FERTILIZERS. 



The disposition of city wastes and its rightful return to the soil 

 from which it was produced, is one of the most difficult and 

 unaccommodating problems that is perpetually presented to 

 municipalities and the state at large, and the preservation and 

 conservation of the wasted fertilizing constituent elements of 

 plant growth should receive the undivided attention of a mul- 

 titude of the most intelligent minds versed in specific economic 

 agricultural tillage. 



This to the thoughtful, conservative, progressive agricultu- 

 rist is a very serious question, and one in which every tiller of 

 the soil and political economist should feel the deepest anxiety, 

 for on that depends largely the future prosperity of all classes 

 of society, and especially the farmers of our nation. 



The true basis of our business success is an enlarged pro- 

 ductive, prosperous agriculture and the underlying foundation 

 and support of its future prosperity will be the zealous retain- 

 ing of all this wasted fertilizing material that is being con- 

 tinually transported away from the rural distrists into the large 

 consuming centers of trade and commerce. Year by year this 

 constant drain and waste is increasing, and unless there is 

 some economical method adopted for saving and returning 

 these valuable fertilizing elements to our farms and gardens, 

 our soils will soon lose their fertility and productive power and 

 the yield be lessened continually until our once rich and fertile 

 lands shall become worn out and sterile. This is one of the 

 most important economic questions of the day, and should have 

 immediate consideration, and ought to be impressed upon the 

 minds of every solicitous, meditative, considerate citizen who 

 has or should have anxiety for the future prosperity of all 

 tillers of the soil. Each year the area of our virgin fertile lands 

 is decreasing at a rapid rate, and on the preservation or deteri- 

 oration of this fertility will be conditioned the future pros- 

 perity of our nation. Prof. Shaler, of Harvard university, 

 says : ' 'In this, as in many other important matters concerning 

 man's relation to earth, foresight has not yet been effectively 

 sustained. Men look upon the earth as in some fashion owing 

 them a living, and, in their brutal confidence, think it will con- 

 tinue to do in the future the part it has done by them in the 

 past." He also says: "The present age is marked by a strong 



