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Vol. LXV. No. 2932. NEW YORK, APRIL 7, 1906. WEEKLY. $1.00 PER YEAR. 
CHEMICALS AND WORN-OUT SOIL 
WILL SUCH FERTILIZERS FERTILIZE ? 
The Plain Story of a Practical Farmer. 
Part II. 
A DISCOURAGING OUTLOOK.—A walk over 
this farm revealed a diversified condition of things 
with the Susquehanna as a base line, and going toward 
the mountain (a gradual ascent), we found 10 or 12 
acres of quite a stiff clay soil. At the upper terminus 
of this strip the water, oozing slowly from the surface, 
bespoke the need of drainage. A former owner told 
me that this strip was “running over in the Spring, 
and in the Summer it was so dry and hard you couldn’t 
drive a nail in it.” We knocked the bottom out of 
that condition of things a little later, but the telling of 
that must be re¬ 
served for an¬ 
other paper. Just 
on this particular 
occasion we were 
looking over the 
place in a very 
general sort of 
way. Something 
inside of me kept 
saying “You’ve 
always been want¬ 
ing a farm, now 
you’ve got it.” I 
may be pardoned 
for saying that 
this “something” 
has proven quite 
refractory on sev¬ 
eral occasions. 
Sure enough, we 
had “got it,” and 
the more I looked 
the place over the 
stronger became 
the conviction 
that it had “got” 
me. Three- 
fourths of the 
place was com¬ 
posed of the fin¬ 
est quality imag¬ 
inable of sandy 
loam, — glacial 
drift—in fact, the 
terminal moraine 
was only two 
miles away, but 
this sandy loam 
had been so bad¬ 
ly deprived of or¬ 
ganic matter that 
at the time here 
spoken of (after 
harvest) great cracks were visible in the surface and 
the need of humus was very evident. 
FARMING BY PROXY.—The buildings were not 
what they should be, in fact, they never have been, and 
one of the first questions to settle was whether to make 
those buildings right and neglect the soil, or build up 
the soil and neglect the buildings. Something would 
have to be neglected, of that there could be no doubt; 
the capital was limited, and we certainly could not hope 
to do everything all at once. 1 have been criticised 
unfavorably for this action, and was told quite frequent¬ 
ly that if I ever wanted to sell the place, good buildings 
would help to get a better price and readier sale, but 
at that time I was thinking of a home, no thought of 
selling. My thought was, that the improvement of the 
soil by its increased productiveness would later on do a 
great deal toward helping to make new buildings. But 
here another factor was injected into the problem. This 
farm, the productive capacity of which was only $125 
multiplied by two, would not be satisfactory. For some 
time at least we should be compelled to live 20 miles 
away and farm by proxy, possibly for all time. The 
next point to settle was whether just to hire a man and 
family, and let the man spend his time plowing out 
hedgerows, and cleaning up generally, aiul gradually 
get some renovating crops started, hoping on some of 
the better portions to grow sufficient feed for his cow 
and my horses. As an alternative, should we invest 
more largely in fertilizers, and see if we could grow 
anything, at least enough, we reasoned, to keep down 
expenses? If I could go back over those years and be 
given the privilege of doing that thing all over again, 
with the added light that has come to me from the mis¬ 
takes I have made (and I wish to emphasize the state¬ 
ment that if a man ever attains any wisdom in his par¬ 
ticular calling he is, in my opinion, more largely in¬ 
debted to his mistakes than to his success), I believe I 
would do differently, or if I were so situated that my 
futijte home was to be on the farm, Winter and Sum¬ 
mer ; in other words I would move on that farm, stay 
there and do nothing else but farm. Would I then have 
done just as I did, I have been asked repeatedly, if I 
had it to do over again? With the changes that have 
come over the labor situation, would I adopt the same 
methods that I finally adopted, or if a different method, 
what would it be? I shall endeavor to give the method 
of cropping we finally adopted, and the reason for it, 
and then will make an effort to show how I would do 
it now, but first I wish to make clear my personal re¬ 
lation to the farm. 
EXTENDING THE TRUCK BUSINESS. —It 
should be understood that my home is located something 
like 25 miles from the farm, three-quarters of an hour’s 
ride on the train. I was somewhat extensively engaged 
in raising vegetables for the local trade in a growing 
city of 60,000 population a mile away, and within busi¬ 
ness touch of a consuming people of 250,000 in the 
heart of the Wyoming Valley, Pa. My idea was to use 
this farm as an adjunct to my business of gardening, 
and also to grow a certain class of seeds needed in my 
business, that for many years I had been improving. The 
continuous encroachments of home builders, manufac¬ 
turing enterprises, etc., all seemed like pointing to a 
time not very far distant when desirable ground could 
not be easily obtained. Along with all that, the thought 
would persist in coming into my mind that farm values 
had, in the east¬ 
ern section of the 
country, about 
reached the limit. 
Any change, I 
argued, from now 
on must be for 
the betterment in 
price. This was 
10 or 12 years 
ago, and all this 
time western 
lands have appre¬ 
ciated in value, 
while those at the 
East have stead¬ 
ily declined, until 
at present the 
most u n h a p p y 
people seem to be 
those owning 
farms, who by 
reason of ad¬ 
vancing years are 
no longer able ro 
do their own 
work as formerly. 
The problem that 
confronted me in 
those days 
seemed very easy 
of solution. I ex¬ 
pected to utilize 
the numerous 
young fellows in 
the neighboring 
village in weed¬ 
ing and other op¬ 
erations of farm 
and garden, ship 
the products to 
myself and be my 
own commission 
merchant. First I 
must get the ground in a shape to produce the articles 
I wanted in my trade, so at this point the only ques¬ 
tion worthy of consideration seemed to be: “Flow 
shall I go to work to bring this farm into a condition of 
productiveness?” I was prejudiced in favor of stable 
manure. At home, in the mining section, where great 
numbers of mules were stabled and fed, we had access 
to large quantities, and utilized it to the full, but here, 
20 or 25 miles away, the haul at one end to load on the 
car, then pay the freight, haul again from the car to the 
farm, seemed, after trying a few cars, to be so expen¬ 
sive that we were forced to abandon it. As far as ferti¬ 
lizers were concerned I knew practically nothing; was 
afraid of them. I had read in earlier years of legumin¬ 
ous plants; of their ability to do wonderful things, es¬ 
pecially when supplied with certain substances that men 
called mineral elements, Why they called those sub* 
