rowers are plowing less land, and are raising more
grass, and keeping more stock; and some of the dairymen, though not
keeping less stock, are plowing more land. The better farmers of both
sections are approaching each other.

At all events, it is certain that the wheat growers will keep more
stock. I wrote to the Hon. Geo. Geddes, of Onondaga Co., N.Y., well
known as a large wheat-grower, and as a life-long advocate of keeping up
the fertility of our farms by growing clover. He replies as follows:

"I regret that I have not time to give your letter the consideration it
deserves. The subject you have undertaken is truly a difficult one. The
circumstances of a grain-raiser and a dairyman are so unlike, that their
views in regard to the treatment of the manure produced on the farm
would vary as greatly as the lines of farming they follow.

"The grain-grower has straw in excess; he tries hard to get it into such
form that he can draw it to his fields, and get it at work, at the least
cost in labor. So he covers his barn-yards deep with straw, after each
snow-storm, and gets his cattle, sheep, and horses, to trample it under
foot; and he makes his pigs convert all he can into such form that it
will do to apply it to his pastures, etc., in winter or early spring.

"A load of such manure is large, perhaps, but of no very great value, as
compared with well-rotted stable-manure from grain-fed horses; but it is
as good as much that I have seen drawn from city stables, and carried
far, to restore the worn-out hay-fields on the shores of the North
River--in fact, quite like it.

"The dairyman, generally, has but little straw, and his manure is mostly
dung of cows, worth much more, per cord, than the straw-litter of the
grain-growers.

"The grain-grower will want no sheds for keeping off the rain, but,
rather, he will desire more water than will fall on an open yard. The
milkman will wish to protect his cow-dung from all rains, or even snows;
so he is a great advocate of manure-sheds. These two classes of farmers
will adopt quite unlike methods of applying their manure to crops.

"I have cited these two classes of farmers, simply to show the
difficulty of making any universal laws in regard to the treatment and
use of barn-yard manure. * * *

"I think you and I are fully agreed in regard to the farm being the true
source of the manure that is to make the land grow better with use, and
still produce crops--perhaps you will g