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ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
JOHN KEATING’S ADDRESS. 
The subject of the present paper is one of the most important, perhap 
the most important connected with the science and practice of agriculture. 
So important is it, indeed, that all experience has shown that on it, more than 
on anv other one thing, hinges the failure or success of the agriculturist. 
The man who makes a large quantity of rich manure, and applies it properly, 
can not and will not fail of being successful. Per contra, the man who is 
careless on this point, who feeds his cattle poor and insufficient food, wli 
allows his manure to be swept away by the winter’s winds, and dried up by 
"the summer’s sun, though he may rise early and labor assiduously, is destin 
to failure and disappointment. 
Time was, and that but recently, when this subject received very li e 
serious consideration from the majority of the farmers of Illinois, r .e 
doctrine was then taught that the fertility of our prairies was inexhaustible 
and that although in the East manure was indispensable to a crop, that in 
the West the happy farmer was freed from this laborious and expensive 
necessity.^That time is past, and past forever. The fertility of our State 
is yet unimpaired. She yet bears crops of grass and grain which may_ehal- 
leime competition with those of any other State; and the secre ot this 
™t?noed fertility is that the farmers of this State are fully awake ned to 
the^necessity of caring for their manures and properly applying them to 
ii aX It is Impossible, in a limited article of this nature, to more 
than glance at the most important parts of this vast subject How vast t 
is and how much may be written on it without exhausting the subject, 
realize However, I shall not attempt to dwell on the subject in the minute 
Ind scientific manner with which Eastern agriculturists are familiar. I 
shall sav nothing of mineral manures, or of artificial manures, of gieen 
manuring or of sewage manuring. I shall avoid all mention of super-phos- 
ohates and nitrates, of chlorides and sulphates, and shall confine myself to 
that of which I know something by actual experience; to that wine 1 a 
convinced is the most important to Illinois farmers, the production, care 
and application of barnyard manure. 
In the production of barnyard manure it should be the aim of every farmer 
to nroduce as much as possible. We want a quantity of fertilizing substances 
to cover our broad acres, and to make any recompense to our lands for the 
abundant crops they bear us. This is one of the great difficulties with which 
we have to contend. Our farms are so large, and generally so insufficient y 
stocked that it is impossible for most of us to produce annually anything 
like the’quantity of manure that we so earnestly desire to use. Ihe first 
thing therefore, that we should do, is to stock our farms as heavily as the 
“Am support, or as we can afford to buy, even if we were obliged to buy 
someTxtra grain to winter them. Having done this, we should remember 
that it is not alone in bulk that the value of manure consists. e should 
remember that quality is even more important than quantity. In Older to 
tret rich manure it is necessary that we feed our cattle nutritious and abun¬ 
dant food, and keep them in warm and comfortable barns. 
