22 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



still, the nitrate that they would ordinarily take had been 

 released for other uses. Probably, if it was not for this fact, 

 the price would at present be very much higher. It is now 

 quoted at about $65 a ton, or 30 per cent above normal. 



Fortunately, the growing of the legumes can be substituted 

 for the application of nitrogenous fertilizers, and this is what 

 our farmers will be forced to do. The growing of alfalfa will be 

 especially helpful in this connection, and it is hoped that this 

 critical fertilizer situation will give an impetus to the growing 

 of this most useful crop. 



In this situation we are more than ever confronted with lack 

 of cattle on our farms as a means of keeping up soil fertility, 

 and while most of our farmers have come to rely entirely upon 

 commercial fertilizers, few of us realize to what extent soil 

 fertility may be maintained by manure alone. In the market 

 garden districts about Boston, land is being cultivated which 

 has had no other fertilizer but manure for over twenty-five 

 years, and is still yielding abundant crops. In this process of 

 using manure from city stables where horses are fed on western 

 grain and hay, little thought is given to the process which goes 

 on, namely, of transferring certain fertility elements from one 

 section of the country to another. If the process goes on long 

 enough, the potash, nitrogen and phosphoric acid now being 

 transferred from the west to the east in grain and hay will 

 eventually have to be replaced on the western land if its 

 fertility is to be maintained. 



The Milk Situation. 



While at this time not all of the reports of committees study- 

 ing the milk question are available, that made by the Chamber 

 of Commerce, after a New England-wide study of the subject, 

 has been published. This report is largely an analysis of the 

 whole situation, and as such is undoubtedly the best collection 

 of data relative to the question ever brought together in one 

 volume. 



Many of the findings of the Chamber of Comme'rce committee 

 are extremely interesting as related to our New England con- 

 ditions, and one in particular should be carefully studied by 

 our Massachusetts farmers. This relates to depreciation in 



