No. 4.] SOIL FEUTlLITr. 153 



all. Yet it does contain a little plant food. There we find, 

 by adding just a little potash to one strip, and phosphoric 

 acid to another strip, and nitrogen to another, and defining 

 them 1, 2 and 3, that we can determine which combination 

 will produce the largest return. Tn a soil like that, that is 

 tlu^ combination you want to add. In a soil like this, which 

 has an al)undance of })lant food in it, yon want to add to the 

 least al)undant. Nitrogen and phosphoric acid, perhaps, are 

 deficient, but this can be easily determined. 



You have got to feed your soils, as Mr. Bowker said. 

 Years ago I proclaimed that the ordinary system of agricul- 

 ture which was in existence in the west, where I was brought 

 up, was nothing short of highway rolibery. I have seen it 

 with my own eyes, on the frontier, on those rich soils where 

 they would move their stables to avoid taking out their 

 manure, — it was cheaper. When the manure got so high 

 that the stock could not enter, they would move their stables. 

 They removed every particle of the corn stalks and straw 

 which they produced, changed crops year after year, until 

 that wonderful fertility of the virgin soil is reduced to almost 

 the minimum of the soils of the east. That is what I call 

 highway robbery, — absolutely taking from the soil all the 

 time, and not giving it back. A farmer is a moral farmer 

 when he leaves the land in a better condition than he found 

 it, so, when his son comes to take his place, his lands are in a 

 better condition. And it is the duty of every farmer, to the 

 State and to himself, to leave his fields more fertile than he 

 finds them. 



Next, our agricultural exhibits are too small. Of course, 

 there are certain limits which nature will not allow you to 

 go beyond, but you can approximate them, little by little; 

 and that is the duty of a farmer, — to approximate the max- 

 imum limit which nature permits. And when he does that, 

 he can grow three times as much. The sugar beet will 

 illustrate that better than any other. It is impossible to grow 

 it without scientific agriculture. Why is there not more of it ? 

 Because the agricultural department is not up to the standard. 

 The manufacture is all right, and the price of sugar is all 

 right; but the farmers don't grow the beets, and therefore 



