76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



HOW TO KEEP UP THE FERTILITY OF OUR FARMS. 



BY PROF. WM. P. BROOKS OF AMHERST. 



The subject assigned to me is one of the utmost import- 

 ance, and, like most subjects of that nature, it is an extremely 

 comprehensive one. Its full and exhaustive discussion 

 within the limits of a popular address of such length as this 

 occasion permits is an impossibility. At best I can but give 

 in outline a general statement of my views upon this subject, 

 and this I undertake in the hope that it may provoke thought 

 and discussion, and not with the idea that I can or should 

 attempt to tell you exactly what to apply to your individual 

 fields. 



A\''ell known as the ordinary significance of the word 

 fertility is, it seems desirable to call attention at the outset 

 to the fact that the conditions contril)uting to make our lands 

 productive are numerous. It is generally understood that 

 the physical or mechanical conditions of the soil, or, to be 

 more precise, its texture, the proportion of fine and coarse 

 particles, its drainage, its capacity to hold capillary water 

 and to favor the rise of water from below, and its relations 

 with heat, have quite as much to do with its productiveness 

 as its chemical composition. Interesting and important as a 

 discussion of such matters might be made, I believe that it 

 was not contemplated by your honorable secretary in select- 

 ing this sul)ject ; and accordingly, though I cannot forbear- 

 calling your attention to some of the results of the physical 

 analyses of a few typical soils, I shall confTne myself chiefly 

 to the consideration of manures and fertilizers in their rela- 

 tions to the important question of how to keep up fertility. 

 It should be remarked, however, in passing, that even these 

 contribute to fertility in many instances by improving the 



