MAKING THE MOST OF MANURE 95 



character of the sludge and partly because of the farm- 

 er's distance from the dumping ground. 



We are slowly learning to use the millions of tons of 

 corn fodder which used to rot in the furrow, but we 

 have scarcely begun to comprehend what we are wasting 

 by the negligent care of our manure crop or of the inex- 

 haustible store of nitrogen which envelops the earth and 

 which could be put into the soil by sowing leguminous 

 crops like clover, alfalfa and cowpeas more liberally. We 

 are wasting our land by not farming to its last pound of 

 productivity. We are wasting even our weeds, by not 

 carrying a band of sheep on every one hundred acres. 

 We are wasting our time by sowing year after year un- 

 selected seed on partially tilled soil, by milking inferior 

 cows which don't pay their board; we are guilty — all 

 guilty more or less — but, fortunately, we know it, we 

 are ashamed of it, but not ashamed to admit it. And we 

 are going to do better. 



If any of our young men from the farms are contem- 

 plating a professional career, we suggest that before they 

 join the ranks of lawyers or physicians, they consider 

 whether the science of agriculture has not greater attrac- 

 tions. In a few years we prophesy that every progressive 

 farming community will have in its service an expe- 

 rienced soil doctor, whose employment will not only be 

 lucrative to himself, but will pay immense dividends to 

 his employers. 



