The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-05-14

the new dt ~ ana SO IL was IN
England, bu the means of the
fertilizers introduced and the judi
cious use of manures compounded in
the farm-yards, the farmer has been
able to raise continuously those par
ticular crops that bring the best re-
turn at any given time. On many of
the farm lands of England by these
and kindred means, wheat has been
raised continuously for a score of
years or more, with little, if any, de-
crease of the annual crop per acre.
It goes without saying that the intrin-
| sic value of the land has thus been
greatly increased.
But it is in Germany that the results
| of the scientific treatment Of the land
have been most completely shown. 1t
was about one hundred years ago that
Frederick the Great conceived the idea
of improving the resources of his
kingdom by the establishment of agri-
cultural schools and the retaining
and improving of waste lands. Every
body knows that the absorbing am
bition of that great monarch was to
make Prussia one of the foremost
powers of Europe. He had the sagacity
to perceive that this could only be
done by developing in every prac.
ticable way the natural resources of
the realm. Accordingly, though his
kingdom was small and poor, he set
apart as much as thirty two million
dollars for the purpose of improving
it's agricultural condition. His sue
cessors followed his example, and the
development of agricultural instruc-
ton has steadily progressed down to
the present day. Just after the battle
of Jena, for example, when Prussia
had been reduced to about one-half it's
former territory and population, the
famous school at Moeglin was founded
and put under the direction of the
celebrated savants Thaer and Wolff.
| After the revolution of 1848 the de-
partment of agriculture was raised to
the dignity of a separate ministry, and
from that time to the present the
policy of the government has led to
the constant enlargement of existing
schools and to the frequent establish
ment of new ones.
The example Of Prussia was followed
by the other States. The far-famed
academy of Tharandt was founded in
1911, in the midst of the turmoil Incl
dent to the Napoleonic wars. In a
similar manner after the battle of
Sadowa the same government, that of
Saxony, established the agricultural
college of the University of Leipsic.
Sixty thousand dollars we're given at
once to complete the outfit of scientific
instruments and collections. To-day
the college contains no less thantwenty
PROFESSIONAL chairs, each one of which
is devoted to instruction and practical
investigation in agricultural chemistry
and the study of the physiology of
plants. Thus every new disaster
seemed to be met with a new expedi-
ent for strengthening the productive
resources of the country.
Probably the greatest impulse ever
given to the science of which | am
speaking resulted from the publication
in 1914 of Liebig's epoch making
book "Chemistry as Applied to Agri-
culture" Liebig's idea, as then pro
mulgated, was that vegetable matter
by the aid of inorganic mineral ele-
ments gives origin to new and com.
plete forms of organic life, that these
in their turn sustain animal life, and
that the animal again resolves these
into simple inorganic matter. Thus a
rotation of elements may be established
in animated nature which will possibly
result in a constant renewal of produc-
ing power. Thus he asserted, that,
in order to make a grain field per-
petually productive, you have only to
restore to it the mineral and the or.
ganic matters withdrawn from it by
the harvest.
1t is difficult for us now to under
stand the amount of interest which
these simple and natural theories
awakened in Germany. There seems
to have been something nigh a uni
versal craving of the farmers for
more knowledge of the proper methods
of apply these theories. There came
almost Immediately to bea widespread
feeling that chemistry could be made
more useful to agriculture than had
heretofore been the case; and. for the
purpose of making it thus useful, de-
mands came now to be made in all
party of the country for the establish
ment of agricultural colleges and ex-
pertinent stations. The object of these
new establishments was simply to
learn how best to apply Liebig's
theories for the accomplishment of
the desired results.
Not only in Germany, but in Eng
land, the effects of these new theories
and methods came very soon to be
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