276 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



constituent from the all-ambient air a thing of the very first 

 importance has been done for the soil's enrichment. If the 

 field has been cropped until even the legumes do not thrive, 

 pure cultures of the nitrogen-fixing bacteria may be had, 

 and these, sprinkled with water upon the seeds to be planted. 

 or over the surface of the field to be sown, will, if the various 

 acts of cultivation have been carefully done, assure an extraor- 

 dinary yield. The proper preservation and utilization of all 

 farm-made fertilizers and the scientific rotation of crops is 

 the new practice which is crying for adoption throughout two- 

 thirds of the farming communities of the country. It offers 

 the returns of a gold mine to the farmers of any one of twice 

 a dozen states. It is the solution of the problem of making 

 two blades grow where only one grew before. Its universal 

 adoption would double the farm products of the country with- 

 out the planting of an extra acre. The path of every pioneer 

 in this practice is bound to be bordered with waving fields 

 and abounding harvests, because the response of the soil to 

 the treatment proposed is not a doubtful result, but a demon- 

 strated certainty. 



The new practice in dairy farming is in striking contrast 

 not only with the old, but with the recent, and in certain sec- 

 tions of the country with the methods of procedure which arc 

 still in vogue. "Certified" milk, that is, milk which receives 

 the stamp of an official authority as to its purity, comes only 

 from farms which are conducted according to the best scien- 

 tific suggestion. The cattle are all of pure breed, or at least 

 of high grade; they yield abundantly of milk rich in butter 

 fat it is just as cheap to feed a good cow as a poor one, and 

 a good deal more profitable; they are kept scrupulously 

 clean, whether grazing in the open or kept under cover. The 



