No. 4.] SOIL IN FRUIT CULTURE. 65 



get it there, than it is to spend money for the chemical fer- 

 tilizers, for in this condition of soil the fertilizers cannot act, 

 and the plants cannot get the good from them. Fertilizers 

 are condemned frequently by farmers because they do not 

 always get good results from their use. You would get them 

 by giving the soil higher tillage and more of it before the 

 seed is put in. 



Stable maimres may be used to improve the texture of 

 the soil ; they furnish not only humus, l)ut plant food. 

 Where stock may be kept to advantage, and the manure 

 they produce is properl}^ handled and applied, the effect is 

 always good and lasting. Unfortunately, the manure pro- 

 duced upon many farms is so unwisely treated that much of 

 its value is lost before it reaches the field. When allowed 

 to heat, or reach a high degree of fermentation, it loses 

 much of its nitrogen ; while its value is often largely depre- 

 ciated by exposure to rains that wash out much of its soluble 

 matter. 



Not long since I was called upon to make an examination 

 of a large property, to outline what might be done to im- 

 prove the general conditions of the property. The land 

 was running down; it was unproductive. The owner felt 

 that for some reason his landed interests were a burden to 

 him, and he was not oettino- from them what he desired. It 

 was a property of over 1,000 acres. A large quantity of 

 stock was kept upon it, and as I went through the stables to 

 examine their sanitary conditions, and the effect which might 

 be produced upon the milk that came from them, to examine 

 the food, the rations that were being fed, and then started 

 from the barn and the stables to go to the fields to see the 

 condition there, I happened to go by the manure pile. I 

 learned that the manure was carted out from the stables 

 daily. There was a large number of cattle, several hun- 

 dred head of swine and a flock of sheep, and the manure 

 was carted out daily and dumped into a great pile ; and in 

 going out to examine the land I suddenly came upon a 

 ditch, over which I had to jump ; and in the ditch was a 

 running stream of liquor from this great manure pile, con- 

 taining perhaps 1,500 loads of manure. A little farther on 



