200 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



payment of debt, taxes, and support of family ; yet we shall 

 surely be doomed to disappointment and failure if that infini- 

 tesimal quantity of plant food, so essential, is yet so tightly 

 locked in nature's grip that it is of no service when most 

 needed. A young crop without available plant food at hand 

 is like the ancient mariner at sea, when the albatross began 

 to be avenged, — 



" Water, water everywhere. 



And all the boards did shrink ; 

 Water, water eveiywhere, 

 Nor any drop to drink." 



So there is air, sunshine, moisture, — an abundance of raw 

 mineral food on every hand for the young crop, yet it, like 

 the crew and boards of that ancient ship, shrinks and withers 

 away because, forsooth, there is not a single morsel of all this 

 abundance immediately available for the starving crop. 



It is a cardinal principle in homoeopathy to eliminate chance, 

 so far as possible ; hence the single remedy administered in 

 minute but frequent doses in order never to aggravate the 

 disease, but to cure it, if it is curable. In a certain sense, 

 agriculture might adopt this principle. All chance, so far as 

 possible, should be eliminated. Probably, also, there are 

 many crops to which it would be well to administer plant 

 food frequently during the growing season rather than all of 

 it at one time ; in short, to " feed the crop a little at a time, 

 and often," in order to counteract any unfavorable weather, 

 or any unhealthy development, or to push the crop to an 

 earlier maturity to take advantage of a favorable market. 

 In 1885 I saved a crop of corn by applying a little nitrate of 

 soda at a critical juncture. At best, we are obliged to take 

 a great chance in the weather. Can we in any way afford to 

 multiply the chances ill matters over which we have control, 

 and with crops whose short lives span but a brief three 

 months ? 



Next to availability and mechanical condition is that of 

 adaptability, and by this I mean supplying to plants that 

 form of plant food best adapted to the crop or classes of 

 crops to be grown. I know that I am touching a point that 

 has been much discussed. I know there are men who claim 



