94 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



cases, except Mr. Hough's and Wheeloek's, 80 lbs. is the basis of 

 ears for one of shelled corn. For three 3'ears with potatoes following 

 potatoes, treated to like fertilizers, my average crop has been, — no 

 fertilizer, 72 bushels ; 125 lbs. sulphate of ammonia, 73 lbs. dissolved 

 bone-black, and 68 lbs. muriate of potash, have given 163 bushels ; 

 cost, $7.72. Plat 3, with one-half ration of nitrogen, cost $5.29 ; 

 yield 155 bushels. Plat 4, no nitrogen, cost $2.80 ; j'ield 160 bush- 

 els. To corn, the average for $2.88 in potash salts has been 52 

 bushels of shelled corn. In the above cases I have given all the 

 cases that have been returned to me for this year, so that these are 

 not selections. I have more 3'et to come whose tenor I know noth- 

 ing of. 



Chemicals are efficacious plant food ; chemicals are profitable plant 

 food ; chemicals and yard manure are more efficacious and profitable 

 than either alone and should not be divorced in practice. With 

 stock feeding, and chemicals inteligently bought and handled, the 

 question of broad tillage is entirely in our own hands. 



TrLLAGE. 



r 



An anah'sis of good English wheat-soil b}' Dr. Anderson, showed 

 .354 per cent, of potash and .43 per cent, of phosphoric acid. Good 

 yard manure will contain but. 65 percent, of potash and but .33 per 

 per cent, of phosphoric acid. A ton of this soil will contain 8 lbs. 

 of potash, while a ton of yard manure will contain 13 lbs. This 

 sail has 8.6 lbs. phosphoric acid and the yard manure but 6.6 lbs. 

 Prof. Voelker in his celebrated analysis of clover roots and clover 

 soils, found to the depth of a foot, that the soil investigated con- 

 tained 5225 lbs. of nitrogen. Assuming 3,500.000 lbs. of soil to 

 the acre, then the soil investigated b}- Dr. Anderson would contain 

 15,050 lbs. phosphoric acid. If this amount were to be bought in 

 the market, at market rates of soluble acids, it would cost $1,881.25. 

 It would also contain 12,390 lbs. of potash. In round numbers it 

 would require 1000 loads of yard manure to furnish this potash to 

 an acre of soil, and over 2000 loads to furnish the pliosphoric acid. 

 This soil once existed as solid rock, and has been broken down into 

 soil by the forces of nature. Yet but a small part of it is avail- 

 able* as plant food. Man}' of the agencies that have made a part of 

 the soil available are still at work. By the art of tillage we may 

 intensify' or accelerate their work by opening the soil or producing a 

 condition in which the}' have freer or fuller play. That which 



