now To liliSTOUIi A WOUN-OUT FAI.'M. ii9 



are favorald", cause rapid fenntntaliou with the funnatiou of cur- 

 boiiate of ainuionia, ami otlu r suliil)!. nails. ^lany of our soils, to 

 tlie lieptli oi ciijlit or ten iiieiu's, contain .nougii nitrojrenous mat 

 ter in an acrj lo produce two or tliree tiiousand pounds of ammonia. 

 By stirrins; tie st)il, and cxposinsi it to the atmosphere, a small 

 portion of this nitrogen becomes annually available, and is taken 

 up by \h2 growing crops. And it is so with the other cleme ts of 

 plant-food. Stirring the soil, then, is the basis of agriculture. It 

 has been said that we must return to the soil as much plan'-food 

 as we take fro... it. If this were true, nothing could be sold from 

 the farm. What we .should aim to do, is to develop as much as 

 possii)le()f the plant-food that lies latent in the soil, and not to sell 

 in (he form of cn)|is, cheese, wool, or animals, any more of this 

 plant food than we annually develop from the soil. In this way 

 the " condition " of the soil .vould ren.ain the same. If we sell 

 U-tg than we develop, the condition of the s .il will improve. 



By " condition," I mean the amount of amilnhk plant-food in the 

 soil. Nearl}' all our farms arc poorer In plant-food to-day than 

 when lirst cleared of the original forest, or than they were ten, 

 fifteen, or twenty years later. In other words, the jdants and 

 animals that have been sold froni the farm, liavc carried off a con- 

 sitlerable amount of plant-food. V.'c have taken far more nitro- 

 gen, phosphoric acid, potash, etc., out of the soil, than we have 

 retunu'd to it in the shape of manure. Consecpiently, the soil must 

 contain less and less of plant food every year. And yet, while this 

 is a self-evident fact, it is, nevertheless, true that many of these 

 self-same farms arc more productive now than when first cleared, 

 or at any rate more productive than they were twenty-five or thirty 

 years ago. 



Sometime ago, the Deacon and I "visited the farm of Mr. Dewey, 

 of Monroe Co.,N. Y. He is a good farmer. He does not practice 

 " liigii farming" in the sense in wliicli I use that term. Ilis is a 

 good example of what I term slow farming. He raises large crops, 

 but comparatively few of them. On his farm of HOO acres, he 

 raises 40 acres of wheat, 17 acres of Indian corn, and 23 acres of 

 oats, barley, potatoes, roots, etc. In other words, he has 80 acres 

 in crops, and 220 acres in grass— not permanent grass. He lets it 

 lie in grass five, six, dcven, or eight years, as he deems best, and 

 then breaks it up, and plants it to corn. The land he intends to 

 plant to corn next year, has been in grass for seven years. He 

 will put pretty much all his manure on this land. After corn, it 

 will ])(' sown to oats, or barley ; then sown to wheat, and seeded 

 down again. Il will tlii n li" in grass three, four, five, six, or seven 



