Ko. 4.] MANURIAL PROBLEMS. 145 



MANURIAL PROBLEMS IN SOIL RENOVATION AND 



IMPROVEMENT. 



BY HOMER J. WIIEELEK, PH.D., KINGSTON, R. I. 



The most casual observer who traverses southern New 

 England by rail, and more particularly by the common roads, 

 cannot but observe large areas of tillable land which produce 

 crops of little or nothing excepting taxes. Careful inquiry 

 in the same sections will show that certain farm products, 

 Avhich might be produced profitably, are being brought in 

 from other States to supply the demands of local markets. 

 No more striking example of this condition could be named 

 than that furnished by a milk farm in Worcester County, 

 where the owner was buying clover ha>' from the State of 

 New York to feed to his cows, because he claimed that he 

 could not succeed in raising it. Hay of the best grades is 

 imported in large quantities into Massachusetts, Rhode Island 

 and doubtless other of the New England States, which ought 

 to be produced economically at home. We ought to profit 

 by the example in a similar line presented by the present 

 efficient head of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, who is using his utmost endeavors to have this country 

 produce at home, in so far as possible, all of the products of 

 the soil which the people of the United States consume. 

 New England has surely suffered enough in the depreciation 

 of agricultural property, as the result of the giving awa}' of 

 the public lands of the west, without sending the capital 

 Avhich is needed at home to still further enrich other sections 

 of the country. No one can question the great advantage 

 to be derived from making all of our waste lands productive, 

 provided it can be done profitably, i.e., if the markets justify 



