34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



chusetts and Ohio because of its unparalleled value as a food for 

 animals, an acre of corn yielding more potential food than an 

 equivalent acre of any other crop grown in the temperate zones. 

 But the marvelous growth of the cities in and near Massa- 

 chusetts during the last half century has necessitated a com- 

 plete readjustment of tRe agricultural industry of that State, 

 and the same cause is producing a similar effect in Ohio. No 

 farm product lends itself more readily to transportation than 

 wheat, and none is adapted to a wider range of soil and climate. 

 The center of production of this incomparable bread grain has 

 therefore moved to Kansas, the Dakotas and the Canadian 

 Northwest, while the production of milk and vegetables — 

 products to which long-distance transportation is comparatively 

 unfavorable — is crowding out the wheatfields of the eastern 

 States. Corn may withstand this pressure longer than wheat 

 because of its value for animal food, and wherever milk pro- 

 duction is a prominent industry corn will continue to be grown; 

 but recent statistics of crop production show that 25 counties 

 in Ohio are each annually producing more bushels of corn than 

 the entire State of Massachusetts, and each of the 88 Ohio 

 counties is producing more wheat than all of Massachusetts. 



The Phosphorus Supply. 



The chemist tells us that as the cereal crops mature ap- 

 proximately three-fourths of the phosphorus in the plant is 

 transferred to the grain, while a similar proportion of the 

 potassium remains in the straw and leaves. When grain or hay 

 is fed to live stock the animal abstracts from its food the 

 phosphorus required to build its skeleton, of which phosphorus 

 is one of the leading constituents. We buy bone meal to 

 fertilize our fields for the sake of the phosphorus it carries. If 

 wx are feeding for milk production the need for phosphorus is 

 no less urgent, for milk is the natural food of the young animal, 

 and therefore must be abundantly stored with this indispen- 

 sable element. It follows, therefore, that, whether our system of 

 agriculture have for its chief object the production of grain or 

 of milk, the soil supply of phosphorus will eventually be de- 

 pleted, relatively to that of potassium, unless some measures be 

 taken to restore the equilibrium. 



