THE IMPORTANCE OF LIVE STOCK 19 



of the value of manures in keeping the soil fertile. The 

 farmer of those days learned from experience that if he took 

 a crop from the land one year, that the next harvest from 

 the same soil would be smaller unless manure was 

 used to replace the fertility removed in the crop. Thus we 

 see that 20 centuries ago the farmer learned that he must 

 replace fertility in his soil if he expected to reap abun- 

 dant harvests. To secure this necessary fertility, he used 

 the manure provided by farm animals; and much was written 

 about the value of the excrement from different kinds of 

 animals, and the preservation of manures. 



In very recent times, artificial fertilizers have come into 

 extensive use. But in spite of this fact, the natural manures 

 of animals have been absolutely necessary to keep up the 

 fertility of the soil of most regions where high-class farming 

 is practiced. There are lands in Europe today, said to have 

 been cultivated for 2000 years, that grow great crops, made 

 possible by the use of animal manures. This statement 

 may be accepted as a fact, that, except in the case of some 

 great river valleys, like the Nile, which are enriched by annual 

 overflow, no agricultural region has continued to grow abun- 

 dant harvests without the aid of manure from domestic ani- 

 mals. Each year the wheat fields of Canada and the corn 

 fields of the Mississippi Valley yield in reduced amounts per 

 acre, unless fertility replaces that removed by the crop. 

 Experience has also shown that where farmers keep the most 

 live stock, there the crops are most abundant and the people 

 most prosperous. 



We purchase commercial fertilizers to restore fertility 

 to the soil; but these lack one thing of great importance 

 found in stable manures, and that is vegetable matter, which 

 is as necessary to the soil as is the chemical nutriment. The 

 rotted manure in the soil makes it more porous and mellow 



