Norwich bulletin., 1922-08-25
AUsPTCIoUS FOR REVIVAL OF NEW ENGLAND
 AGRICULTURE

of sufficient phosphates to balance up the rations of nitrogen and potash which the bacteria supply for nothing. His own experiments and those of Mann and others in the west have shown that the cheaper raw rock phosphate is quite as effective and good deal cheaper for this purpose than acid phosphate.
 Similarly, experiment has shown that raw limestone is quite as valuable tn its action on the soil and its effect on the bacteria as burnt ume-and a good deal safer and cheaper.
 It is simply the practical application to practical farming of the discoveries made in regard to bacterial action in the soil
 If bacteria will draw from the limit I less atmospheric ocean above us all the nitrogen which our crops can use, and transmute it into such forms as those crops can feed upon, why waste money buying high-priced nitrates?
 That the bacteria will do exactly this, is now an admitted and accepted fact.
 Also, if the bacteria will release from the almost unlimited supplies of potash lying dormant in practically an soils the potash our crops need. and supply it to those crops in the forms they de- mand, then what is the use of spending | money for German potash?
 This eliminates the costliest two fac tors in the fertilizer problem. The two remaining, lime and phosphate, are both American products, handy to come al and cheap to buy. The fifth factor viz. green Inanuring. is always at our | command. For green manuring means simply the regular return to the soil of all the weeds and tors and crop wastes taken off it. Its purpose is not only to make 'eaunus' but to nurture the bacteria, and encourage them to dc their best.
 This is an especially good time to think about anything and everything which will tend to revive New England agriculp1re. What with raElroad strikes, 'neverything, 1t looks as if New England cities might find 1t increasing 1 ly difficult to fill their bread-b baskets the coming winter
 It would mean good many dollar: in the pockets of New England farmers If they, the said farmers, had raised the crops, the cities will clamor for.
 The decadence of New England farm ing in the past forty or fifty years ha. 1 been due to a combination of circum stances which are not going to work al l ways. The first cause has been lack O labor, due to the rush of young peopl, l freigllts from the west Another ha been the lack of capital to supply ade quade fertilizer on worn-out farms i The first of those difficulties, f. e lack of labor, Is already much miti gated and is going to be still furthei relieved by the freer use of machinery The limit of inventive ingenuity aasn' yet been reached. The time asn't ia away when one farmer, with adequat tools and machines, will be able to do a much as half-a-dozen hired hands wer needed for, few years ago. ]. The second circumstance, that of io1 freights from the west, can already b almost ignored Present freight rate are so high as to make up much Of tn difference between western and easter shuts off western deliveries almost en tirely, what will the robin do then, poo thing?
 The third difficulty, that of restorin
 and maintaining fertility on worn-ou farms, is taken care of by Prof. Esten'
 New Agriculture" Let the bacteria d : 1t, assisted by a little cheap lime an rock phosphate.
 1 All the signs are suspicious for q re viving of New England agriculture When that time comes the local farmc l will always have one tremendous ad , vantage. He is, almost invariably, rigt next door to busy and hungry marke He can, almost always, deliver hi goods by his own truck and snap hi , fingers at railroad rates.
 , The New England farmers who ca read the signs of the times and are wil Z ing to follow them have a future 7 future which may be nearer to thea
 than some of them appreciate.
 THE FARMER