Further, the deep penetrating roots decay and thereby act upon 

 dormant potash and phosphorous forming plant-food compounds, 

 which would otherwise remain inactive till the end of time. 



Wisconsin has in a few years become the Holland of America, and is a 

 splendid example for farmers to follow. 



From a mathematical standpoint, it is very clear that the dairy cow 

 cannot alone maintain the fertility of the soil. If butter only is sold, 

 the loss of fertility is exceedingly small, but when the milk, cream and 

 cheese is sold, from fifteen to twenty per cent of the plant food which 

 goes to make the feed for the cow is carried away from the farm. The 

 losses can be overcome, and manifestly they are, in countries where 

 intensive methods are pursued. While it may be said we are robbing 

 Peter to pay Paul, it is nevertheless customary for dairymen to buy 

 feeds, especially some of the concentrates, from sections where stock 

 raising is not profitable, either on account of climatic conditions or 

 because of diseases. Many cotton growers, for instance, do not raise 

 stock, but depend entirely on commercial fertilizers for their plant 

 foods. Also a small per cent of farmers will never raise stock, even 

 though conditions are favorable, but will farm on and on, selling their 

 grain and hay, returning nothing to the soil until their farms become 

 derelicts and are consigned to the scrap pile. The plant food in those 

 purchased feeds goes to make up the deficit. 



Again, many dairy farmers appreciate the fact that leaves, moss and 

 peat, all rich in plant food, make splendid bedding and subsequently 

 good manure. 



We know that legumes more than keep up their end in furnishing 

 nitrogen from the air and we also know that such inorganic elements as 

 phosphorous, potash, sulphur, etc., are not confined to the surface seed- 

 bed, but are found in abundance in the deeper subsoil, far below the 

 reach of the plow and are made available through the action of humus 

 resulting from the decayed roots. Plant food compounds thus formed 

 in the deep subsoils are brought to the seed-bed by capillary attraction, 

 as every farmer knows who has grown clover and other deep-rooting 

 plants in rotation with corn and small grain. 



A Reasonable Conclusion 



In view of our resources and the potential inventiveness of man, is it 

 not reasonable to suppose that when the Creator planned this planet. 

 He, in some way, made provision to sustain the living world until the 

 end of time and that in the evolution of events, as necessity demands, 

 the man will be found to unfold the means and methods? 



We know oxygen has existed for an indefinite period, but it is only 

 recently that we have fully appreciated the fact that it was vital to the 

 plant roots and devised means of placing it in the seed-bed. 



It has been only a few years since man discovered that clover and 



