CHEMICAL MANURES. 61 



posed upon us by the force of circumstances is to raise the fertility of 

 the soil by means of artificially-composed fertilizers, with the pro- 

 ducts existing in the form of mines in nature, and which seem to 

 have been reserved to repair the depredations of the present as of 

 the past, and to preserve us from the disasters of the future. 



It is not exact to say that manure, and manure alone, is sufficient 

 for everything. What is true is, that there is but one means of ob- 

 taining large returns without delay : it is to have recourse to imported 

 artificial fertilizers and chemical fertilizers in preference to all others, 

 because they are the only ones whose nature can always be exactly 

 defined and identified with itself the only ones, consequently, in 

 which there can be no fraud, and in my judgment the most economi- 

 cal. Find the real price of products loudly extolled for great virtues 

 by certain merchants of fertilizers, and you will find them burdened 

 with a profit that the most scandalous usury has never attained. 



To-day, as the first elements of fertility are known to us, we can 

 no more be imposed upon by absolute rules pertaining to agricultural 

 economy entirely different from the present. To-day, we govern the 

 wants of agriculture, instead of being governed by them. I can but 

 repeat what I have said in another circle. 



Agriculturists are no longer under the necessity of producing their 

 own manures ; they can become producers of manure if, all things 

 considered, they find an advantage in it ; but if they find it more 

 profitable to have recourse to artificial fertilizers, there is nothing to 

 prevent them it is no longer a question of good culture, but of profit. 



When we wish to introduce these new methods on a farm so as to 

 arrive at a maximum product, we must work still another change, of 

 which I have not spoken until now, and with which I must now en- 

 tertain you, since it will result in giving back to cultivation an im- 

 portant part of the land which has been heretofore given up to 

 forage, without, however, entrenching upon our resources in this 

 respect. 



The change in question consists in substituting, as much as possible, 

 lucerne for meadow. 



J can call up two testimonies to this, of equal importance that of 

 M. Boussingault, who recognizes lucerne as more profitable than the 

 meadow, and M. Schattenmann, who has made the substitution I 

 speak of with the greatest advantage. 



Who cannot see that if at Bechelbronn the food of the stock were 

 secured, the amount of straw increased, and 33 to 45 acres of meadow 

 more than the 125 now in use were added, there would certainly re- 

 sult a considerable increase of revenue, particularly if that part cul- 

 tivated was enriched by large quantities of chemical fertilizers? 

 This result is the more important as it can be realized immediately 

 and with a relatively small capital. 



You see, gentlemen, there is no way of escaping the conclusion 

 which I must again repeat : the great profit in agriculture is from 

 abundant manuring ; what is not well manured is of little value ; it 

 is only when we pass from small returns to large returns that benefit 

 is derived. All our efforts should, then, tend to manuring abun- 



