42 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
back, it will soon become worthless; must have rest or 
fertilizers. 
H. C. Mead did not think it best to plow manure in too 
deep; did not get any benefit the first season and might not 
the second. On an adjoining lot to his, a row of tiees 
shaded two rows of corn, which were much smaller than the 
others; was it the shade or the effects of the roots of the 
trees. Said Morrow looked like a professor; could he tell ? 
Pkof. Morrow had supposed he looked like other 
men; was sorry to find to the contrary. He knew many 
thought that agricultural editors knew but little about 
farming, and that professors knew less; it might be so. 
However, roots of trees had much to do with crops growing 
in close proximity. As to plowing in manure, it reminded 
him of the man who put his dinner in his hat, instead of 
eating it; it didn’t seem to invigorate much; he did not 
think any fertilizer could be exhausted in one year. 
E. Gf. Ketchum thought one load of barn-yard manure 
put on top, as good as two plowed in; especially on grass 
land; to plow in manure he considered as labor lost, as 
the soil would consume it as fast as applied; could see no 
results from it. 
L. W. Sheldon, Union, Illinois, furnished the following 
paper on “ Fertilizers.” 
L. W. SHELDON’S PAPER. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen : I am an advocate of any kind 
of fertilizers that will induce plant growth. Chemical fertilizers can be 
very profitably used if properly applied, but the value of each can only be 
ascertained by careful experiments. The farmer with a cold, clay soil’ 
cannot expect the same kind of fertilizer to do the same for his ciops that 
a brother farmer realizes upon a warm, sandy soil. All fertilizeis need a 
certain amount of moisture to fit them for plant food; some much more 
than others. All should be incorporated with the surface soil in early 
