MANURING AND WORN-OUT SOILS 345 



effective, and certainly more remunerative, if it 

 can be associated witn some form of stock hus- 

 bandly, so that the crops may be fed or pastured on 

 the place and the manure returned to the soil. 

 Stock-feeding, not clover, cowpeas nor any other 

 plant, is the key to the most economical main- 

 tenance of soil fertility in general farming. There 

 are few sections of the country where it is not 

 practicable to raise some kind or stock. 



When animal manures are not available, how- 

 ever, green-manuring alone will improve worn-out 

 soils, but less economically. Commercial fer- 

 tilisers have little value for restoring a worn-out 

 soil if, as is usually the case, the texture of the soil, 

 not its chemical contents, is at fault. They are 

 of far greater usefulness after the soil has been put 

 into good heart by green-manuring or the addition 

 of animal manures. 



The final step in the improvement of a worn- 

 out soil is to put it into a rotation of crops which 

 is not exhaustive and which makes provision for 

 a continuance of the various farm practices that 

 maintain fertility. Thousands of acres of land 

 in the East, thought to be worn-out, have been 

 restored to bountiful productiveness by these 

 methods. 



