FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION 37 



and by the keeping of live stock and returning the manure ta 

 the land. Many of our best farmers come from Northern Eu- 

 rope where their training has been along the line of live stocl 

 farming. We know them as successful farmers but often for- 

 get to reason why they are successful. They have brought to 

 this country with them the thorough and thrifty methods that 

 enabled them to maintain the fertility of the farms in their 

 fatherland. The average yield of grain in many of these coun- 

 tries where land has been farmed several hundred years is 

 above that of our comparatively new land. They have been 

 forced to keep before them for many years past the idea of con- 

 servation while we in this country are just beginning to think 

 of it. 



On an average of about 80% of the nitrogen, phosplioi;us 

 and potassium in the- feed is contained in the manure and if this 

 manure is properly handled practically all of this may be re- 

 turned to the soil. Manure not only adds plant food to tlie s^il 

 and renders the plant food more available, but it also improves 

 the physical condition of the soil by adding humus. The soil 

 is made warmer and is better able to receive and retain moist^ 

 ure. A very good illustration of the value of farm manure is 

 the experiment carried on by the Tennessee Experiment Sta- 

 tion covering a period of sixteen years where manure was ap- 

 plied to the land every four years. The yield of corn was in- 

 creased from 20 bushels, which was the average for the state, 

 to 80 bushels. When no manure was applied the yield was de- 

 creased from 20 bushels to 7^ bushels in the same period of 

 time. This forcibly impresses us with the difference in the tv;c 

 methods of farming. The one impoverishes the soil and the 

 nation, the other builds up the soil, and makes farming more 

 profitable, and simplifies the problem confronting the Am- 

 erican farmer, that of feeding the rapidly increasing popula- 

 tion. 



The Pennsylvania Experiment Station found that in 24 

 years of experimenting, land cropped with corn, oats, wheat and 

 Iiay in a four year rotation without manure returned on an av- 

 erage a profit of $10.58 per acre in' the first 12 years and $7.85 



