90 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



November, 1921 



it is developed, but is not applicable to 

 Ontario conditions. .Such a criticism is in 

 many instances rank nonsense. It is worse. 

 It is a stumbling block to the advance 

 of farming in Canada. Let it be remember- 

 ed that, Avhile political questions are local, 

 and while national tendency towards a high 

 .standard., of patriotism has definite fields 

 of application, scientific knoAvledge is uni- 

 versal. Knowledge of whatever sort know^s 

 no national bounds. It should be so con- 

 sidered, no matter what antipathy may de- 

 velop toward an organization or nationali- 

 ty, or what is our pride in the findings of 

 our OAvn pi-ovincial or national institu- 

 tions. The scientific advancement of Can- 

 adian farming, depends absolutely on world 

 facts. ' 



(c) The agricultural press of the country 

 should endeavour to present more interest- 

 ing chemical data concerning farm prob- 

 lems. It is true that tables of figures are 

 uninteresting if poorly interpreted. In- 

 terest is based upon appreciation. With an 

 improved elementary educational system 

 farmers in general would be looking for 

 facts, and would demand of their local 

 l):ess such information as will actually 

 sei-ve to improve their methods. 



Farmers' clubs Avould find it highlj' ad- 

 vantageous to discuss more of these chem- 

 ical problems in their meetings, under lead- 

 erships which should be capable of ex- 

 plaining and illustrating principles in a 

 clear and luiderstandable manner, by the 

 use of illustrative data. There is absolu- 

 tely no reason why farm chemistry should 

 be uninteresting. Problems of chemistry 

 are as full of interest as an egg is of meat 

 when actually applied to the problems of 

 farm life. 



Canada is sorely in need of a far-reach- 

 ing system of soil fertility investigations. 

 With our sectional peculiarities of soil, 

 rainfall and i-ange of temperature, we have 

 a whole world of problems as yet unsolved. 

 Excellent work is being done on stock 

 feeding and breeding and improvement of 

 crops of all sorts, but as yet investigations 

 with reference to fertility problems in Can- 

 ada have almost remained untouched. 



By this we do not mean .that the work 

 done at American and European institu- 

 tions need be duplicated, but investiga- 

 tions relating to problems of our own in- 

 terest should be undertaken with the least 



possible delay, and principles already es- 

 tablished by long-time experiments in otlier 

 parts of the world should be fully and 

 carefully demonstrated. 



Bags of Fallacies. 

 In Canada's study of her fertility prob- 

 lem, especially in relation to the use of 

 fertilizers there are bags of fallacies thor- 

 oughly distributed throughout the Dom- 

 inion. Let me illustrate seven : 

 1. — Our soil is inexhaustible. 

 This view is held by what might be call- 

 ed the transient farmer, the man (a fam- 

 ily) who settled in the Maritime provinces 

 or Ontario, moved on to new lands of the 

 same provinces or to the west, and, caught 

 by the enthusiasm of each boom, continued 

 on his westward course over lands of vir- 

 gin fertility. 



In not a few instances successful farms 

 have been conducted on local and infre- 

 quent areas of extremely j'ich soil, upon 

 which "the practice of taking off crops with- 

 out putting back any fertility was attend- 

 ed with a fair amount of success. These 

 advocates of the theory of inexhaustible 

 fertility may point to the fact that Rotliam- 

 sted -has a plot where wheat has been grow-'' 

 ing continuously for the last ninety years, 

 where still they produce eight to ten 

 bushels of wheat per acre. True it is that 

 nature has provided such a wonderful 

 store-house of soil fertility that it seems 

 impossible to absolutely exhaust the sup- 

 ply, but Canadian farming is not running 

 on the "margin of cultivation". We are 

 now competing with other sections of the 

 world which are producing (not in small 

 and circumscribed localities, but through- 

 out large areas of the farming districts) 

 yields of ordinary farm crops which double 

 and treble those obtained on the average 

 Canadian farm. Hence the necessity of our 

 forgetting the theory of inexhaustible 

 fertility and paying attention to such me- 

 thods as will economically produce the 

 larger yields. » 



2. There are still a few farmers left who 

 believe that rotation of crops is all that is 

 necessary to maintain the productiveness 

 of our farm areas. The late Dr. Hopkins 

 very effectively and concisely disposed of 

 this idea when he said that it was just as 

 logical to maintain the farmer's bank ac- 

 count by circulating his cheque book among 

 the members of his family as it is to main- 



