State Convention—Discussion. 
145 
the application of mineral salts than of barn-yard manure. This 
brings us to this practical thought. Barn-yard manure decomposes 
in that slow process which the growing crop can take up and save. 
It will last for years, while the other lasts for a single season, not 
more than two or three seasons, and often in some cases is lost in 
a few months. 
Now, what I wish to impress upon you, as I said before, is that 
we should not come to too hasty conclusions. Let us compare ex¬ 
periences, and let them stand-.as experiences; let us go on from 
time to time, from year to year, comparing experiences and trying 
to apply science to practical agriculture, and we shall make rapid 
progress. That has been the case in England, and is becoming the 
case all over the United States, at least in those States where the 
most rapid progress has been made in agriculture. To show you 
one single fact of the advantage of education, and the advantage of 
combining practical agriculture with science and brains, I will 
point to the fact of the rapid progress that we are now making with 
reference to supplying Europe, principally England, with wheat, 
as ‘compared with Russia. The per cent, that we furnish has been 
largely on the increase for a number of years, owing to our supe¬ 
rior advantages and understanding in conducting our agriculture, 
and our superior facilities for transportation. Our per cent, is 
rapidly increasing upon Russia. That is an illustration of intel¬ 
ligent agriculture, as compared with those who are a mere force 
without being guided by the intelligence which the American peo¬ 
ple possess. With these hasty remarks I leave the question, think¬ 
ing that I have suggested to you the course that I would like this 
and other agricultural conventions and gatherings to take, that we 
have less theories and isms, and more practical experience. 
President Smith, of the Northern Agricultural Society: Presi¬ 
dent Stilson spoke of the waste of mineral and barn-yard manures. 
Do you claim that upon your own land, where you have under¬ 
drained the wastage of manure, either mineral or barn-yard, is 
gfeater than where your land is not drained ? In other words, does 
the under-draining add to the waste of the manure ? 
President Stilson: I don’t wish to be so understood. The un¬ 
der-drainage in these cases merely formed the test of the wastage 
in those manures. The analysis of the drainage-water would fur¬ 
nish the test of the loss. Without under-draining, perhaps the 
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