2UU FARM MANAGEMENT 



a light application should be used so that one may get 

 over the farm more frequently. There are few farms on 

 which every field has been manured. The manure 

 spreader makes it possible to get over all the land. Usually 

 one of the largest sizes of spreaders should be used, one 

 that uses 3 or 4 horses. 



BEST WAY OF MAINTAINING FERTILITY | A BUSINESS 

 QUESTION 



130. A bank account with the soil. Sometimes 

 farmers have been told that they should return to the 

 soil as much of each element of plant-food as is removed 

 in the crop. Such advice is as foolish as is the opposite 

 statement that no attention need be given to the plant- 

 food removed. If there is potash enough in the first 

 three feet of soil to last for several thousand years, as is 

 often the case, it would be foolish to use potash as a fer- 

 tilizer, unless it paid at once, and even then, one should 

 try to find a way of making use of the supply in the soil. 

 The future potash supply of such a soil need not worry 

 one. On the other hand, there are occasionally soils 

 that have only potash enough for a few crops ; on such 

 a soil, the future may need to be considered. 



How much and what fertilizers ancl what other methods 

 should be taken to keep the soil fertile are primarily 

 questions of profits. In England, some farmers us3 

 many times as much plant-food as is removed in the crop. 

 Their method is not due to any superior intelligence. It 

 is due to high prices of products, high-priced land, and 

 cheap labor. At the same time, there are soils in Eng- 



l.uul that are open range because they are not worth 



i 



i The Soil, A. D. Hall, p. 242. 



