PRINCIPLES OF MANURING. 



63 



The pvinci{)lc imderlyiug these formulas is ■ scientifically and 

 practicall}- wrong. The assumption that a universal .system of 

 manuring can be made most profitable, is of the barest kind, and is 

 not supported by facts of any sort. "Why apply 72 pounds of nitro- 

 gen to an acre of corn, as Prof. Stockbridge's formula demands, 

 when in no case out of over ninety accurate trials, has such a 

 proceeding failed to result in loss ? The Stockbridge manures were 

 at first compounded according to the theory that we must applj- to 

 the soil all the nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, that the 

 expected increase of crops would contain. What a theory by which 

 to manure clover, a plant that contains a large percentage of nitrogen, 

 but does not trouble the farmer to furnish any of it. 



The Production of Farm Manures. 

 No one will dispute me when I state that it is an essential thins: 

 for each farmer to see that his manure heap attains the maximum 

 in quantity and quality. There should be as much as possible, as 

 good as possible. Farm manures still constitute the basis of suc- 

 cessful farming in Maine. 



The relation of Manure to the Food producing it. — I wish first to 

 impress the fact that primarily' the value of a manure heap depends 

 upon the food from which it was produced. It is not enough to say 

 that the more food the more manure. The difl^erences in the ma- 

 nure made from two kinds of cattle food are as broad as the diflfer- 

 ences in the foods themselves. This is a fact that I believe farmers 

 have generally ftiiled to appreciate. Let us consider the matter 

 more in detail. 



We have seen that any substance called manure has a value that 

 corresponds to its contents of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, 

 so that it is easy to understand that the manurial value of an}' cattle 

 food must depend upon what that food is able to contribute to the ma- 

 nure heap of one, two or all of the above named valuable ingredients. 

 Now the materials in common use as food for cattle vary greatly in 

 the amounts of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash they contain, 

 as can be seen from the following table :* 



Taken from Wolff's Praktische Dungerlehre. 



