state Convention—Hot at ion of Crops. 
217 
dom to hunt carefully for methods which will preserve a balance 
between these two forces, and avert as long as possible the disas¬ 
trous consequences of famine. 
Neither England nor France have raised their necessary food 
in the past year. Were there not gigantic means of transporta¬ 
tion at hand, and a surplus in other countries, famine would re¬ 
sult. We wish for ourselves to postpone the evil day as long as 
possible. Our western agriculture is exhaustive, and is sweeping 
over our virgin soil like a prairie fire, leaving an increasing popu¬ 
lation dependent upon worn out lands for support. We must try 
to reverse this order of things, and, if possible, adopt some 
method which will meet our present necessities and leave our land 
in condition to respond to the heavier drafts of the future. It 
may be true that, in our convention to-day, we are moved chiefly 
by a desire to make more money from our farms, b.ut if we do 
this by increasing their productive capacity per acre, we are con¬ 
ferring a lasting benefit. These interests are too important to be 
neglected, or to be trusted to men who follow methods which have 
proved their inefficency. Science and intelligence must be called 
into the field and wide-spread interest must be awakened. 
It is easy enough to observe that in our common course of crop¬ 
ping, our lands are worn out, and our farming does not pay. This 
must happen, either through the carrying off with our crops of 
the original elements of fertility, or the introduction of unfavor¬ 
able conditions for the growing crops, or these two may combine 
in causing the diminished yield. When wheat has failed, corn 
may still be raised, and, as a last resort, we may take to rye and 
buckwheat. We have land in onr county already in the buck¬ 
wheat stage, and some that has dropped out of cultivation entirely. 
A pile of straw or manure, if left undisturbed, will gradually 
disappear until, perhaps, a wheelbarrow will carry all there is left 
of many tons. The great bulk of it has escaped into the air in 
the form of gases, and we might reasonably infer that, inasmuch 
as this process of decay is continually going on, the air will be¬ 
come a vast storehouse of fertility of which we may avail our¬ 
selves if we can but precipitate it upon our land. 
Scientific investigation supports this view.* DeSaussure 
♦Johnston, page 147 . 
