Manure (Continued). 155 



sacks, two or three times. It will be wise to experiment with 

 them in a small but accurate way, and be governed accordingly. 

 Had I not done so I might have lost hundreds of dollars. I am 

 of the opinion, from careful observation, that fertilizers have not 

 paid our Ohio farmers, as a whole. It is worthy of notice that 

 our Experiment Station, in tests at different points in the State 

 has not, on the average, found that they paid. Director Thorne 

 has lately issued a pamphlet entitled : ' ' Forty Years of Wheat 

 Culture in Ohio." To this subject he has given a vast amount 

 of patient study and thought, and he is an exceedingly careful 

 man. He concludes with, "These statistics indicate that the 

 wheat crops of Ohio have been slightly increased by the use of 

 commercial fertilizers, but it appears that the average cost of this 

 increase has equaled its market value, and that a general improve- 

 ment in the methods of agriculture has contributed more largely 

 to the increase of Ohio's wheat crops then the use of purchased 

 fertility." Now I would not for anything lead any one wrong, 

 but this I believe : That you may save manure because it has paid 

 someone else to do it every time, but you must not buy fertilizers 

 because some one else advises it ; nor would I have you drop them 

 or leave them entirely alone because I say so. Know certainly 

 that they pay you on your farm, and then go ahead. But you 

 need never wait to know about saving manure if you use what 

 you save properly. 



Manure is anything that fertilizes land. We may save fer- 

 tility or manure by paying attention to what we are selling off 

 from the farm, or what we are bringing onto it by way of pur- 

 chased feed. Wherever stock keeping in any line is a leading 

 feature, I would buy fertility if I wanted it in the shape of wheat 

 bran, oil meal, or cottonseed meal, raising on the farm the 

 proper coarse food to go with this hay, corn fodder, ensilage, etc. 

 With good business management one should get nearly or quite 

 the cost of his feed back in money and an increased value to his 

 manure. With cement floors and other good care of manure, this 

 plan can hardly fail to pay. I would bring a farm up in this way 

 every time, if I were starting on a poor one, in preference to using 

 fertilizers. I believe I could get real fertility cheaper, particularly 

 if I kept dairy. I do not hesitate at all about advising the pur- 

 chase of fertilizers in this shape, providing the purchaser will do 

 his part in the way of saving and using the manure. You will 

 remember I purchased some fertility in this way when I began. 

 I would buy it -to-day in this way to use on a farm that was run 

 down so I could not get clover to grow well . I would buy ferti- 

 lizers, too, if they would help me as I knew to get a good stand of 

 clover ; I would use them as a starter but not as a dependence. I 

 could do better. 



But now in regard to what we sell off the farm. Some pro- 

 ducts carry off fertility much faster than others. I paid a good 



