STATE CONVENTION—INTELLIGENT FARMING. 2S5 
rich or in comfortable circumstances, while the farm of the old 
gentleman first mentioned is in such a wretched condition that I 
would not take it as a gift, if I must put it in good condition, 
although it lies near a railroad and within less than thirty miles of 
New York City. Do not say that there is no danger of such a 
result here. The only difference is in the time. In your case 
the farm will not run down as fast as there, but the final result 
will be the same in both cases. 
What shall be done to make the farms average 25 or 30 bush¬ 
els of wheat per acre, and other crops in the same proportion? 
Where barn-yard manure is plenty, and can be had for a moder¬ 
ate price, the question is comparatively easy of solution. But 
• there are very many, and in fact the most of the farmers are not 
so situated, and they must rely upon some other fertilizers. Many 
of them are also so situated, that all things considered, it is not 
best that they should enter largely into stock growing, but should 
confine themselves principally to grain growing. This makes the 
matter still worse, and demands that the owner of such a farm 
should exercise good sense, and intelligence often of a high 
order, to keep his farm in first rate condition. Still I claim that 
it can be done. First, as a means of so doing, I would place the 
compost in a heap. Valuable as a heap of compost manure is, I 
do not think that I have ever seen one in this state, except upon 
my own ground. 
If you will take the straw from the yard, commencing in the 
spring, and then during the season employ your spare time in 
gathering refuse to put with it, and if you have a swamp of muck to 
go to, you may readily make it the foundation of your fortune. 
If not, haul the wash from the road side, the leaves from the for¬ 
est, the contents of the privy, the scrapings from the hen roost, 
the soap suds and the refuse of the house, the weeds and the re¬ 
fuse from the farm, in fact anything and everything that can be 
made available and useful in increasing the heap. All of these 
should be mixed together and occasionally worked over. If the 
heap gets to heating to any extent, a sufficient amount of water 
should be put on it to check it, but not enough to drain from it. 
Butyvery few farmers have any idea of either the amount of ma- 
