266 TALKS ON MANURES. 



capable of producing a maximum yield per acre, or a close ap- 

 proximation to it. As a rule, the least-paying crops are those which 

 require the least labor per acre. Farmers are afraid to expend 

 much money for labor. They are wise in this, unless all the con- 

 ditions are favorable. But when they have land in a high state of 

 cultivation drained, clean, mellow, and rich it would usually pay 

 them well to grow crops which require the most labor. 



And it should never be forgotten that, as compared with nearly 

 all other countries, our labor is expensive. No matter how cheap 

 our land may be, we can not afford to waste our labor. It is too 

 costly. If men would work for nothing, and board themselves, 

 there are localities where we could perhaps afford to keep sheep 

 that shear two pounds of wool a year ; or cows that make 75 Ibs. 

 of butter. "We might make a profit out of a wheat crop of 8 bush- 

 els per acre, or a corn-crop of 15 bushels, or a potato-crop o/ 50 

 bushels. But it cannot be done with labor costing from $1.00 to 

 $1.25 per day. And I do not believe labor will cost much less in 

 our time. The only thing we can do is to employ it to the best ad- 

 vantage. Machinery will help us to some extent, but I can see no 

 real escape from our difficulties in this matter, except to raise larger 

 crops per acre. 



In ordinary farming, " larger crops per acre " means fewer acres 

 planted or sown with grain. It means more summer fallow, more 

 grass, clover, peas, mustard, coleseed, roots, and other crops that 

 are consumed on the farm. It means more thorough cultiva- 

 tion. It means clean and rich land. It means husbanding the 

 ammonia and nitric acid, which is brought to the soil, as well as 

 that which is developed from the soil, or which the soil attracts 

 from the atmosphere, and using it to grow a crop every second, 

 third, or fourth year, instead of every year. If a piece of land will 

 grow 25 bushels of corn every year, we should aim to so manage 

 it, that it will grow 50 every other year, or 75 every third year, or, 

 if the climate is capable of doing it. of raising 100 bushels per acre 

 every fourth year. 



Theoretically this can be done, and in one of Mr. Lawes' experi- 

 ments he did it practically in the case of a summer-fallow for 

 wheat, the one crop in two years giving a little more than two 

 crops sown in succession. But on sandy land we should probably 

 lose a portion of the liberated plant-food, unless we grew a crop of 

 some kind every year. And the matter organized in the renovat- 

 ing crop could not be rendered completely available for the 

 next crop. In the end, however, we ought to be able to get it with 

 little or no loss. How best to accomplish this result, is one of the 



