THAT IS THE QUESTION. 173 



the barn-yard manure we can save and all we can make on 

 the farm, and use it in the most economical way. After we 

 have used that manure, the question occurs to us, How can 

 we get more manure ? We have used all we have ; we want 

 to get the largest profit from our farm by making every acre 

 productive, and by not having any idle capital in the land ; 

 therefore, we must have manure. What shall we do? Shall 

 we buy barn-yard manure, or shall we buy chemicals ? Chemi- 

 cals have been proved to produce results in crops, under cer- 

 tain circumstances, equal to barn-yard manure. Witness 

 Lawes and Gilbert's experiments in England, carried, on for 

 over thirty years. They applied fourteen tons of barn-yard 

 manure to one plot each year, and to another plot they applied 

 a certain mixture of chemicals each year. What has been 

 the result? For fifteen years the chemical manure has pro- 

 duced the same crop as the land manured with barn-yard 

 manure. In other words, there has been no difference in the 

 result. The chemicals and the barn-yard manure have both 

 produced the maximum crops on the land. There is a fact 

 that can be depended upon in our practice. Under the proper 

 conditions, chemicals and barn-yard manure will produce the 

 maximum crops on the land. There is no getting beyond 

 that. It is a fact, as definite and decisive a fact as we have 

 in agriculture. 



Now, where does the question come? Here we are, in this 

 condition. We have used up all the manure we have. We 

 want to get more manure. What is the question ? The ques- 

 tion is, Where can we get the balance of the manure that we 

 need the cheapest ? If we can get barn-yard manure cheaper 

 than we can get chemical manure, then barn-yard manure is 

 the best. If we cau get chemical manure cheaper than barn- 

 yard manure, then chemical manure is the best. Then comes 

 in another question : Can we buy the chemicals at a price so 

 low that we can raise crops at a profit? On my own farm, I 

 have shown that it can be done, and no gentleman of the hun- 

 dreds who have been on my farm and looked over my fields 

 will deny it. You can see it. You can go into my corn 

 barns and measure the corn, and measure the fields. Those 

 fields have produced those crops. There is no question that 

 you can use chemicals and use them to a profit, provided they 



