Note 245 — Chapter XXII · Socialism and Agriculture.

There is a recipe for the fertility of fields and the eternal duration of their crops; if properly applied it will prove more remunerative than any that has ever been resorted to by agriculture. It is the following: Every farmer who takes a bag of grain or a hundred-weight of rape, carrots, potatoes, etc. to market shall, like the Chinese coolie, bring back with him as much, if possible more, of the ingredients of his products of the soil and shall give them back to the field from which he has taken them. He shall not despise a potatoe peal or a blade of straw, but shall remember that one of his potatoes needs the peal and one of his ears of corn the blade. His expense for this import is slight and the investment is sure; no savings bank is safer, and no capital will bring a higher rate of interest. The surface of his field will bring forth the double amount in ten years. He will produce more corn, more meat and more cheese without spending more time or performing more labor, and he will not be in constant anxiety seeking new and unknown means to keep his field fertile by other methods. Old bones, soot and ashes, the blood of animals and all kinds of offal should be collected in establishments erected for this purpose and prepared for shipment. The administrative and police officials in the cities should see to it that by an appropriate arrangement of drains and cess-pools this waste of material is avoided. Liebig—“Chemical Letters,” Leipsic and Heidelberg, 1865.