1895.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 251 



propriety in the majority of instances, mainly to two causes, 

 namely : a gradual but serious reduction in the area occupied 

 by forage crops, natural pastures and meadows ; and a 

 marked decline in the annual yield of fodder upon large 

 tracts of land but ill suited for a permanent cultivation of 

 grasses, — the main reliance of fodder production at the time. 

 A serious falling off in the annual yield of pastures and 

 meadows was followed usually by a reduction in farm live 

 stock, which in turn caused a falling off in the principal 

 home resource of manurial matter. This chapter in the 

 history of farm management has repeated itself in most 

 countries. The unsatisfactory results of that system of farm- 

 ing find still an al)undant illustration in the present exhausted 

 condition of a comparatively large area of farm lands in New 

 England. 



Scientific investigations carried on during the past fifty 

 years for the particular benefit of agriculture have not only 

 l)een instrumental in recognizing the principal causes of an 

 almost universal periodical decline of the original fertility 

 of ftirm lands, but have also materially assisted by field 

 experiments and otherwise in introducing efficient remedies 

 to arrest the noted decline in the annual yield of our most 

 prominent farm crops. , As a scanty supply of manurial 

 matter, due to a serious falling off of one of the principal 

 fodder crops (pastures and meadow growth), was found to be 

 one of the chief causes of less remunerative crops, and thus 

 indirectly has proved to be the main cause of an increase in 

 the cost of the products of the animal industry of the farm, 

 — milk and meat, — it is but natural that the remedies 

 devised should include, as one of the foremost recommenda- 

 tions, a more liberal production of nutritious fodder crops. 

 The soundness of this advice is to-day fully demonstrated in 

 the most successful agricultural regions of the world. An 

 intensive system of cultivation has replaced in those locali- 

 ties the extensive one of preceding periods ; although the 

 area under cultivation for the production of general farm 

 crops has been reduced, the total value of the products of 

 the farm has increased materially in consequence of a more 

 liberal cultivation of reputed fodder crops. The change has 

 been gradual and the results are highly satisfactory. 



