FERTILIZERS. 533 



well rotted, and far more easily handled. Steamed food, and 

 mixed and well-balanced rations, doubtless pay well for the 

 labor and expense involved, in the increased relish of the ani- 

 mals, and their more rapid improvement. This may be said, 

 without saying that a bushel of cooked meal will produce three 

 times as much beef or pork as a bushel of raw meal. This has 

 been said, and often times repeated ; but no confidence should 

 be placed in statements so extravagant, and having no carefully 

 verified inductive basis. To the experiments of most amateurs, 

 it is the element of verification that is lacking. 



That part of a scientific system of fertilization which rests on 

 the basis of fallow crops and animal manure, has now been sug- 

 gestively sketched. If such a system has been carried to the 

 highest development of which it proves capable, under the gen- 

 eral plan of farming, and the pecuniary condition of the farmer, 

 the foundation has been laid for the successful use of chemical 

 salts and manipulated manures, or natural guanos. I am satis- 

 fied that a condition precedent to the scientific and successful 

 use of this class of fertilizers, in this country, is the presence of 

 an ample store of organic matter in the soil. And this condi- 

 tion being secured, in the manner suggested, by green fallows 

 and animal manures, the skilful and scientific use of commercial 

 fertilizers may be made profitable instead of ruinous. Green 

 fallows and animal manures, supplemented by commercial fer- 

 tilizers to sustain the rotation at its weak point, will constitute 

 a complete scientific system of fertilization. 



Under normal and just financial conditions, with the con- 

 sumption of normal rations by the great mass of industrial 

 workers, and the honest middle classes, which will insure fair 

 prices for the products of the farm, we shall be once more able 

 to live by agriculture ; to pay our taxes, to improve our lands, 

 to beautify and embellish our homesteads. We shall be able to 

 introduce into our houses modern conveniences and sanitary 

 improvements, and thus to restore to our families that social 

 prestige of which existing conditions have deprived them. 



If it has now been shown that the weak point in American 

 agriculture is the depletion of our soils of organic matter ; if it 

 is true that we cannot use chemical salts, guanos, or manipu- 

 lated commercial manures with profit, until the deficiency of 



