220 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ture, but decay comes to the rescue and these elements are again 
scattered to the four winds. Oar cities would become far more 
disastrous centres of waste than they are, were they not volcanoes^ 
continually belching forth large columns of carbonic acid. We 
pile straw in our fields and manure accumulates in our yauds. If 
some law of compensation was not established, the laying by in 
store of these elements would eventually destroy vegetable life. 
But we find our straw annd manure gradually disappearing. It is 
taken up by the air and swept again over the continent, thus carry¬ 
ing back to the remotest points that which it had lost. Now, if it 
was only precipitated by the action of rains, two-thirds of it would 
fall into the ocean and be lost to vegetable life; but it is wanted 
on the land where vegetables grow, so we see they are provided with 
means of catching and holding it as it passes. Plants possess this 
power in different degrees. Some will grow upon a naked rock ; 
many will live a long time without roots, or will grow by absorp¬ 
tion at the tops until they have made roots to assist them at the 
bottom. In this way we propagate by cuttings. Many plants pos¬ 
sessing this power in an eminent degree are used in Europe ; but 
for the American farmer nothing has yet been found equal to our 
common red clover. With our present knowledge it is the sheet 
anchor of our husbandry, and this because it does absorb from the 
air the productive elements found there. 
By a proper system of manuring, land may be kept indefinitely 
productive. And all the manure we can make must be judici¬ 
ously used; but while we sell off our coarse products we cannot 
possibly make enough to keep up our land. A few farms near 
our large towns, where manure can be had in plenty, may be 
kept up; but it is at the expense of other regions. The great 
majority of farmers are dependent on their own resources and can¬ 
not enrich their land at the expense of other land. This fact 
compels thinking men to refine their products. Instead of selling 
corn, they will feed it and sell beef and pork. Instead of selling 
hay, they will sell wool, butter and cheese. This is a far higher 
grade of farming than that which sells off coarse unfed products. 
Our average farmer has not achieved success thus far. Many 
are aiming at it, and are making improvement, but in the mean- 
