390 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



again, in a sense he becomes a merchant, constantly buy- 

 ing and selling with the hope of gain. To be successful 

 he must know somethino- of the elements and their cost that 

 compose a unit of his production. When Ave know that we 

 are producing our specialty at a profit we shall have confi- 

 dence to enrich our fields and further enlarge our business. 



Successful farmers as a rule are specialists, producing 

 some one principal crop from which the money revenue of 

 the farm will be derived. Their fields will be fertilized and 

 cultivated with a view to the demands of this special crop. 

 And here we meet the most diflScult and perplexing question 

 that confronts the farmer — how to feed the different varie- 

 ties of crops growing upon the different soils of his farm. 

 The capitalist, with abundant means at command, impatient 

 with delays, looking for immediate results, may by a few 

 excessive applications of plant food bring an exhausted field 

 to a fair degree of fertility ; l)ut with the farmer of limited 

 means at command this would not be the most profitable 

 method. 



We have learned that in feeding farm stock the most 

 practical method is to feed just the quality and quantity re- 

 quired, and only such varieties should be purchased as we 

 believe to be wanting in our home-grown supply. The same 

 rule applies with equal force to fertilizing for our farm crops. 

 As all classes of farm stock do not require at all times and 

 mider all conditions the same kinds and quantities of food, 

 so we find the same laws governing the growth and nourish- 

 ment of vegetables and cereals. Happily we are not com- 

 pelled to grope our way darkly along these intricate paths. 

 Fifty experiment stations, supported by the liberal hand of 

 a o-overnment that has never turned a deaf ear to the calls 

 of agriculture, are scattered through every State of our 

 Union, experimenting upon all these questions and furnishing 

 results for the mere asking to every farmer in the land. 



Chemists tell us that of all the elements entering into the 

 structure and composition of our farm crops our soils lack 

 only three, viz. : Phosphoric acid, potash and nitrogen. 

 Now, w^hile it may not be absolutely essential that every 

 farmer should be a chemist, yet it is essential that he should 

 be on sj^eakiiirj terms with these elements, factors so impor- 



