F °pf f t r one speaker, evidently desirous of spreading the use 



of fertilizer in the West, had this to say: 



262 "James J. Hill has conducted some wonder-work- 



ing experiments with fertilizers, which have not re- 

 ceived the attention they deserve in the West. Is it 

 because the West does not want to admit that it needs 

 rejuvenation, or is it because she is complacent? Hill 

 showed in one season, by the use of fertilizers, that he 

 could double the yield of cereals in the Middle North- 

 west. It matters not at this time whether it was done 

 at a profit. The important thing is to demonstrate 

 that yields can be doubled by a certain treatment. 



"The value of commercial plant food has passed 

 beyond the experimental stage in Europe and in the 

 eastern part of this country. Why not accept the tes- 

 timony of seventy -five years at Rothamsted, of fifty 

 years at Halle, and of thirty years in Georgia and in 

 Maine. I sometimes wonder if the agricultural teach- 

 ers and writers in the West are not standing in the way 

 of agricultural progress by still considering as an 

 academic question the value and need of fertilizers. 

 The question is not — Are commercial fertilizers good 

 and useful? — but will it pay to use them as James J. 

 Hill has done in his part of the country. To my mind, 

 Mr. Hill has answered the question, 'Will it pay?' : 

 in the affirmative. By the use of a little over $5 worth 

 of fertilizer per acre he practically doubled the yield of 

 wheat, oats and barley, and you can figure whether it 

 paid or not. I wish that other railway officials might 

 follow his splendid example." 



No agriculturist needs knowledge of the soil more 

 than the cotton grower. Those figures showing that 

 Egypt — old, backward Egypt—is far in advance of 

 him in cotton raising should stir him, if the loss he is 

 suffering financially did not. 



When he knows more about fertilizers he will raise 

 larger crops. Quantity is less important than quality 

 in what is supplied toward energizing land. 



Considering the fact that of the more than $175,- 

 000,000 spent for fertilizer, the farmer of the South 

 pays out fully one-half, he should not be satisfied with 

 the result. 



