106 TALKS OV MAKI'RES. 



3,000 lbs. of nitrogen, and an oqiial amount of phosphoric 

 acid, per acre, in the first six inches of the surface soil. This 

 is as much nitrogen as is contained in 100 tons of meadov;- 

 hay, and more phosphoric acid than is contained in 350 tons of 

 meadow-hay. Tliese are the two inirredients on which the fertility 

 of our farms mainly depend. And yet tliere arc soils containing 

 this quantity of plant-food that do not produce more than half 

 a ton of hay per acre. 



In some field.s, or parts of fields, the land is wet and the plants 

 cannot take up the food, even while an abundance of it is witiiin 

 reach. Tiie remedy in this case is under-draining. On otiicr 

 fields, the plant-food is locked up in insolul)le corahinations. In 

 this case we mu.st |)low up the soil, pulverize it, and exjuise it to the 

 oxygen of the atmosiiherc. We must treat the soil as my mother 

 used to tell me to treat my collee, when I comjdained that it was 

 not sweet enough. " I put plenty of sugjir in," she said, "and if 

 you will stir it up, the coffee will be sweeter." The sugar lay un- 

 dissolved at the bottom of the cup; and so it is with many of our 

 soils. Tliere is plenty of plant-food in them, but it needs stirring 

 up. They contain, it u)ay l)0, ;!,ik;0 lbs. of nitrogen, and other 

 plant-food in still greater pniportion, and we are only getting a 

 crop tliat contains 18 lbs. of nitrogen a year, and of this probably 

 tl)e rain supplies 9 lbs. Let us stir up the soil and see if 

 we cannot set 100 lbs. of this 3,000 Ib.s. of nitrogen free, and 

 get three tons of hay pe-r acre instead of half a ton. There arc 

 men who own a large amount of valuable property in vacant city 

 lots, who do not get enough from them to i)ay their taxes. If they 

 would sell half of them, and put buildings on the other half, they 

 might soon have a haudsoine income. And so it is with many 

 farmers. Tiicy have the elements of 100 Ions of hay lying dor- 

 m<>nt in every acre of their land, while they are content to receive 

 half a ton a year. They have j^rojierty enough, but it is unproduc 

 tive, wiiile they pay high tuxes for tlie ])rivilege of Imlding it, and 

 high wages for the pleasure of hoanhng two or three hired men. 



We have, saj-, 3,000 lbs. of nitrogen locked up in each acre 

 of our soil, and wc get 8 or 10 lbs. every year in rain and 

 dew, and yet, practically, all that we want, to make our farms 

 highly productive, is 100 ll)s. of nitrogen per acre per annum. 

 And furthermore, it should be remembered, that to keep our farms 

 rich, after we have once got them rich, it is not neces.sary to de- 

 velojic this amount of nitrogen from the soil every year. In the 

 rase of clover-hay, the entire loss of nitrogen in tlie animal and in 

 the milk would not exceed 15 per cent, so that, when wc feed out 



