PRACTICAL PAPERS—SOILS. 
373 
used, I would recommend gypsum and lime. The latter can be 
made in any part of the state, and at a price so low that every 
farmer can afford to use it to the fullest extent his lands may re- 
quire. The former is found in almost inexhaustible quantities in 
the adjoining state of Michigan; hence transportation is cheap, 
and the price of gypsum being little above the labor of reducing 
it to a proper condition to be applied to the soil, is within the reach 
of all. Both contain many of the elements which we find in 
abundance in the soil in its native condition. Gypsum I consider 
very valuable as a stimulus to the soil, causing it to retain moist¬ 
ure better, thereby assisting to prepare a full supply of food for 
the growing crop, particularly in dry seasons, when the amount 
otherwise would be insufficient. It is also highly prized as an ab¬ 
sorbent of the ammonia in the atmosphere, retaining it until carried 
to the soil by rains. Considerable sums of money are annually 
expended in Wisconsin for fertilizers, aside from the purchase of 
the kinds mentioned, and I wish I might say with beneficial re¬ 
sults. But, so far as my experience and observation extend, re¬ 
muneration has not followed these investments. The increased 
crop has not been equal in value to the additional cost and trouble ; 
Sr 
hence it was found to be worthless, even worse than worthless, as 
it destroyed the confidence of the experimenter in any commercial 
manures, which if honestly made, and sold at fair remunerative 
prices, would be of incalculable benefit. 
A valuable fertilizer ought to, and in my judgment can, be 
made'from the human excreta and other waste of our large cities 
and towns, and at a price so cheap as to be profitable for the farmer. 
By carefully prepared statistics in Germany, it is estimated that the 
annual waste in cities and large towns is equal to $2.50 per head 
of the inhabitants. I doubt not this is true, and is equally true of 
this state, not only in cities and towns, but in my judgment for our 
entire population. Assuming this to be true, this vast wealth, 
amounting to two and one half millions of dollars, instead of being 
utilized by being taken up by proper absorbents and applied 
directly to the soil, or manufactured into a rich and convenient 
manure to be fed to hungry plants, is carried to the bottom of 
lakes and rivers, or swept into the ocean and lost. When the 
tillers of the soil of this state awake to the necessity of this 
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