No. 4.] COMMERCIAL PLANT FOOD. 55 



more corn, more wheat, more human food. This may prop- 

 erly be regarded as a triumph of economic science, for it 

 powerfully increases the capacity of all civilized countries to 

 sustain the vast populations that are sure to exist. 



A few years ago Hon. (Virroll D. Wright, United States 

 commissioner of labor, was directed to ascertain the extent 

 of the fertilizer trade in the United States ; and he reported 

 that in the year 1892 one and one-half million tons of manu- 

 factured goods were sold in the United States at a cost to 

 the farmers of tifty-three million dollars. It does not appear 

 to be an exaggerated estimate to declare that in 1896 this 

 quantity had prol)ably reached two million tons, at a cost of 

 not less than sixty million dollars. This is a vast sum of 

 money, which is paid, we must remember, from the proceeds 

 of our farms. Moreover, it is a cash expenditure, to meet 

 which there must be actual sales of farm produce, — a fact 

 of no little signilicance. 



It is important to remember also that this fertilizing 

 material is used chiefly in the eastern half of our country. 

 So far, the great west has depended upon stores of plant 

 food which have so long awaited the use of man. Not so 

 with the eastern farmer. Many of our crop producers, even 

 some who are growing ordinary field crops, depend very 

 largely for a supply of plant food upon commercial fertil- 

 izers. The most remarkable instance of this which I am 

 al:»le to cite is the case of the Aroostook County potato 

 growers. Here is a new country, the natural resources of 

 which are l)y no means exhausted, being perhaps one of the 

 most fertile spots in New England, into which commercial 

 nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash have been imported to 

 the value of many thousands of dollars annually. Notwith- 

 standing the fact that the Aroostook County farmer has iiad 

 around him vast stores of the needed elements of fertility, 

 he has preferred to spend cash for his raw materials, rather 

 than attempt to find some means of making useful the 

 materials already within reach. He has been warned of a 

 day of judgment, and already there are clouds in the horizon 

 considerably larger than a man's hand, w^hich are a forecast 

 of impending danger. 



The proper consideration of our subject in its ]n-actical 



