56 THE STATE AS FARMER 



of cattle, sheep, and pigs ; the parasites and 

 ailments of poultry ; the flies, weevils, and 

 fungi of trees ; or the plant-lice, root-flies, 

 beetles, moths, mildews, and rusts of our 

 multifarious crops — these all come from the 

 same source, a lack of due balance and care 

 in farming, and they all depend for their 

 suppression upon a united effort on the part 

 of all upon whom the responsibility for 

 the land falls. When I use the expression 

 ' balance,' I mean that both land and the 

 things which draw their sustenance from the 

 land must be supplied with nutriment in 

 neither too little nor too great quantities. 

 Manure can be applied so lavishly that the 

 soil cannot assimilate it, just as cattle may 

 have supplied to them coarse, rank food which 

 both injures them and spoils them to some 

 extent for the service of man. Poultry may 

 run upon the same ground in such hordes 

 and for so long, pigs may be so carelessly 

 handled and fed, sheep and cattle may be 

 so neglected that nature revolts and those 

 strange tribes of the, to us, unclean pest 

 that act under its name supervene. There is 

 a due balance, good sense, wholesomeness — 



