turnips, and other root
crops. Superphosphate will be found admirably adapted for this purpose,
and two, three, or four hundred pounds of cheap potash salts, per acre,
can frequently be used on fodder crops, in connection with two or three
hundred pounds of superphosphate, with considerable profit. The whole
subject is well worthy of careful study. Never in the history of the
world has there been a grander opportunity for the application of
science to the improvement of agriculture than now.

On the richer lands, the aim of the farmer will be to convert the plant
food lying dormant in the soil into profitable crops. The main point is
_good tillage_. In many cases weeds now run away with half our crops and
all our profits. The weeds which spring up after the grain crops are
harvested, are not an unmixed evil. They retain the nitrogen and other
plant food, and when turned under make manure for the succeeding crops.
But weeds among the growing crop are evil, and only an evil. Thorough
plowing is the remedy, accompanied by drainage where needed.

We have an immense number of farms on which there are both good and poor
land. In such cases we must adopt a combined system. We must grow large
crops on the rich land and use them, at least in part, to make manure
for the poorer portions of the farm. Drainage and good tillage will
convert much of our low, alluvial lands into a perfect mine of wealth.
And much of our high, rolling land consists of strong loam, abounding in
plant food. Such land requires little more than thorough tillage, with
perhaps two hundred pounds of superphosphate per acre, to enable it to
produce good grain crops.

After all is said and done, farming is a business that requires not
merely science, but industry, economy, and common sense. The real basis
of success is faith, accompanied with good works. I cannot illustrate
this better than by alluding to one of my neighbors, a strong, healthy,
intelligent, observing and enterprising German, who commenced life as a
farm laborer, and is to-day worth at least one hundred thousand dollars,
that he has made, not by the advance of suburban property, but by
farming, pure and simple. He first rented a farm, and then bought it,
and in a few years he bought another farm adjoining the first one, and
would to-day buy another if he found one that suited him. He has faith
in farming. Some people think he "runs his land," and, in fact, such is
the case. He keeps good teams