CHEMICAL MANURES. 73 



has been given it. I will add that now this axiom is agricultural 

 nonsense and an economical heresy, because with the use of manure 

 alone the returns are always poor, and the wheat costs at least $1.05 

 the bushel, which is not profitable. I say, then, that this axiom has 

 lost its character of a necessity imposed by the culture itself. 



And I repeat, what you already know, that from the moment the 

 true agents of fertility are known to us, we make manure only as we 

 find it profitable ; for the rest, we will employ chemical fertilizers. 

 It is no longer a question of culture, but simply a question of profit 

 and loss. 



The necessity imposed upon the agriculturist is not to make ma- 

 nure, but to manure more abundantly than in the past by whatsoever 

 agents he may have recourse to, manure or chemical fertilizers, em- 

 ployed separately or simultaneously ; but in all cases two rules are to 

 be observed : you know them. However, as they sum up the last 

 word of agricultural science, I feel obliged to repeat them to you : 



1. Give the earth more phosphate, more potash and lime, than the 

 harvests have taken from it. 



2. Give it fifty per cent, of the azote which they contain. 

 You know now in what the new processes differ from the old. 



In the past, you were under the empire of a law which ruled you ; 

 you were forced to give the meadow and animals a part destined to 

 maintain the equilibrium. 



In the past, the sole origin of azotic matter was the meadow 

 potash, the phosphates and lime provided by the meadow or manures 

 made irregularly. 



In the past, where the meadow was the sole source of manure, the 

 returns were necessarily small, because in this case the sources of fer- 

 tility were always insufficient. Thus, wheat did not exceed 26 to 30 

 bushels the acre ; Irish potatoes, 8888 to 10,000 pounds ; and beets, 

 26,666 pounds. Now, under these conditions agriculture is become 

 impossible. 



Nothing rules us to-day but the necessity of keeping animals for 

 draught and transportation ; beyond this necessity we possess a liberty 

 of action without limit : we would make forage and manure only 

 when, all things considered, we found advantage in it. 



And if we should raise them, we can, on a relatively restricted 

 surface, produce more food than formerly, because we can increase 

 the returns from the meadow as from other cultures. 



We are compelled, it is true, to the necessity of giving the soil 

 more than we take from it, but the observance of this law does not 

 impose upon us the obligation of producing manure beyond what 

 conforms to our interests. We can satisfy it by the aid of foreign 

 manures, whose nature and qualities are clearly defined, and can be 

 regulated with entire certainty. 



To whoever reflects, to whoever seeks to comprehend the problems 

 which agitate our century, it is not difficult to perceive the connec- 

 tion which exists between the 'great interests of our country and the 

 question we are now seeking to solve. At a time when the ways of 

 communication had not the development they have acquired, the 



