39 



us to ignore, for the time being, the welfare of the soil upon which our 

 agricultural prosperity rests? If this country is to continue to prosper, 

 it must be a factor in the world's markets and, if we are to compete in the 

 world's markets agriculturally, we must compare favorably with the older 

 countries in our attention to permanent soil fertility and efficient production. 



I wish to close by expressing the hope and the belief that the fine team- 

 work and spirit of co-operation that exists between the various agencies, the 

 State University, Experiment Station, Farmers' Institute, Farm Advisors' 

 Association, and the Illinois Agricultural Association, will continue and will 

 bear much valuable fruit for the good of all. 



I thank you. [Applause.] 



PRESIDENT MANN: We all agree that was a mighty fine address and 

 one which will be of great value in the annual report to be published later. 

 We have had a good session and I hope limestone, phosphate and clover will 

 ring in your ears when you go to sleep. 



Now I want to sum up just in a few words the two great problems of 

 agricultural production, the basic problems. One is the fixation of atmo- 

 spheric nitrogen, which in plain English means the growth of legumes like 

 clover, and the other is the fixation of atmospheric carbon in the form of 

 sugar, starches, and so forth. The fixation of those things from the air is the 

 farmer's problem. Legumes will grow and fix the atmospheric nitrogen in 

 the proportion as they get nitrogen and phosphorus from the soil, and we 

 can fix the atmospheric carbon to make sugars, starches, oils, etc., which 

 constitute 97 per cent of our staple grain crops, in the proportion in which 

 the plants get limestone, phosphorus and nitrogen out of the soil. 



WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION. 



February 22, 1922, 1:30 o'clock P. M. 

 Vocal Solo H. W. Stewart 



PRESIDENT MANN: Our speakers this morning discussed farming 

 from the soil side. They told you what was necessary to make soil fertile 

 and our agricultural permanence depends largely on our fertility. Now 

 we must learn more about getting the things out of the soil after we have 

 put them in the soil. We don't know much about our crops, especially 

 the great staple crop of corn. Wheat had been under training of the human 

 hand for thousands of years, and some of the other crops, and they are 

 pretty well trained plants, but here is our great staple crop of corn that 

 the human hand has not been dealing with very long and we know very 

 little about that great plant. That is going to be our study a good deal 

 this afternoon, learning, if we can, how to help this wonderful plant to 

 take more things out of the soil and give us a response in crops. A good 

 way to do that is to study it from the practical side of production. We have 

 a man who has been giving a good deal of attention to that for a number 

 of years, and that is Mr. Mosher the farm Adviser in Woodford County, 

 and he will tell you what he has done with the training of corn for a few 

 years. Mr. Mosher, of Woodford County. [Applause.] 



UTILITY CORN TESTS. 

 (M. L. Mosher.) 



MB. PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE ILLINOIS FARMERS' INSTITUTE: 

 In approaching this subject I wish to present a few things that have led 

 up to the work that has been done by the Woodford County Farm Bureau 

 during the last three years. Then I wish to present that work to you, 

 telling how the Woodford County Farm Bureau corn test was carried on, 

 with some of the results. Later, with this bushel of corn that has been 



