54 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



acid, which they must have in order to mature perfect crops 

 to pay for cultivation ; although it is known that the bulk 

 of crops (ninety -five to ninety-nine per cent.) comes from 

 the air. Nitrogen we have from sulphate ammonia, Peruvian 

 guano, common saltpetre, nitrate soda and fish guano ; potash 

 from muriate potash, sulphate potash, wood ashes, common 

 saltpetre and carbonate potash, and phosphoric acid from 

 dissolved bones, dissolved bone black, dissolved burnt bone, 

 dissolved South Carolina rock and dissolved Canadian apatite. 

 Experience and observation teaches us that if we wish to 

 keep up our farm to a paying standard and to its virgin state, 

 and grow good paying crops, we must return to it full interest 

 in the elements composing the plant food, and the richer the 

 elements the better ; you need have no fear in this direction, 

 for plants seldom if ever take any more than they require, 

 while they do require all the elements essential to their 

 growth. 



From a statement made by Samuel L. Dana, after a careful 

 and elaborate experiment : It appears that an average cow, 

 kept on a daily feed of 24 lbs. of hay and 12^ lbs. of pota- 

 toes, will yield, in addition to her liquid evacuation, over 

 31,000 lbs. of solid manure per year, containing 180 lbs. of 

 ammonia, which, with other included chemical elements, 

 amounts in value to more than $40. And, by the same 

 authority it also appears, that the liquid manure amounts to 

 over 7,000 lbs. per year, surpassing the solid manure in value 

 in the ratio of more than two to one, making the value of the 

 manure more than the entire cost of feeding. He further 

 says, that 100 lbs. of cattle urine affords about 8 lbs. of the 

 most powerful salts ever used by farmers ; this is equivalent 

 to about 600 lbs. per year of the salts referred to for each 

 animal. 



In the estimation by Prof. Johnson, one ton of clover con- 

 tains potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen, sufficient to make 

 it worth $17.57 for manures, while one ton of bran or peas is 

 worth by the same standard over $22.00, while some other 

 feeds have still a higher manural value. In the foregoing 



