St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-09

enabled six men to harvest and put in
stack twenty to forty acres of wheat
each day. The eighteen-inch steel pillow,
mounted, enabled the Spring-Seated
plowman to prepare six acres OF wheat
ground where but two had been pre-
pared before.
The war closed; large number of
consumers were transformed into Epro-
ducerS. and but for combination of
circumstances the threatened blow
would have fallen quickly and with
heavy force. An abundant currency,
phenomenal increase in the number and
>size of the cities, extension of railways
and other causes, minimiZed the blow,
butt could not entirely prevent it. The
prices of farm crops receded slowly;
even so late as 1877 wheat and some
other products sold at high prices.
1 A,few saw the drain which was being
made on the soil by the added power re-
sulting from improved implements, by
the substitution of horse power for the
more expensive hand power; saw a
!. great good greedily and thoughtlessly
used to accelerate soil depletion; saw
the wheat areas steadily moving west
ward Tor lack of fertility-and sounded
|. the alarm. But of what use? The
man who was selling wheat at So
per bushel went to sleep over the ar
tlcle on nitrogen and phosphoric acid.
'Fhe eXacting wheat plant demanded all
abundance of available fertility. Where
high virgin lands of the prairieS, which
could be had for the asking? Every
100000 bushels of wheat, with the ac-
companying straw, removed from the
fields 1.920, 900 pounds of nitrogen, 1872,
COG pounds Of phoSphOric acid and ,504, :
600 pounds of potash. At the market
price of 1871 and cents per pound, re-
Spectively, it would amount to S402, 900.
Multiply this by the amount OF plant
food removed from the land by this sim
gle crop in the last thirty years, or, if
that be too large task, multiply it by
400, 00O, 600. the number of bushels raised
in 1889, and note the reSult-S197. 42l 900.
The most conservative estimates put
the amount of these elements carried
back to the field at One-fourth of the
amount carried to the barn in the crop.
But this crop is but one of many
which is constantly depicting the land
of its capital stock. Suppose the flour
had been sold and the bran and straw
had been fed or used, and the resultant
manure properly cared for and applied,
1t would have been possible TO have
carried back 10 the fields for the use
OF other crops one-half of the plant
food carried to the barn. This
would have saved $50,000,000 of
our capital invested in the land.
The Hebrew literature had no synonyms
for streams of liquid manure diluted
with water, nor the Latin Tor the pictur
esque ginhouse and the nitrOgenized
cotton seed. By this array of dscour-
aging facts it is not meant to find fault
or to cast blame on those who have pre-
eeded us. Our ancestors did many wise
and noble things-in fact they did
better than we are doing, considering
their opportunities and environ
ments. The many fertile, we'll
kept fields. the numerous stately
farm houses, in which dwell
refinement and plenty, which dot the
prairies and nestle in their valleys tes-
tify to their intelligence, their wisdom
and their success. How to maintain
and improve CD that which is cool ;how
to remedy that which is bad; how to
make the most of our inheritance; how
best to direct the forces of nature in or
der that the results may exceed those
of our fathers as much as our
opportunities exceed theirs, are
the Questions to be solved.
How may we mitigate the penalties of
natures broken laws; how to find a
remedy for Improbable agriculture?
By stopping the unnecessary waste of
the capital stock-fertility. BY skillful
notwithstanding more of the elements
of the soil into circulation; once they
are unlocked do not let them escape
for naught, through carelessness.
Stop blowing land the pro-
ducts of which only make the
owner and the land poorer Con-
centrate the energies on the best land
and for the present let the reSt-''go to
grass" Stop trying to compete with
ten bushels of wheat per acre, raised at
a loss. with the man who raises thirty
at II profit. Stop paying out the profits
on the fifteen best cows topay the losses
on the fifteen poorer ones. If, as is often
the case, all the profit is made from the
best half of the land and animals, then
the half would be etter than the whole