No. 105.] m 



duced the 40 bushels of oats, in the form of manure, would make 20 

 bushels of oats, and straw enough to bear them, if applied to his poor 

 field 1 The question is eminently a practical one : 



" Will the matter in straw that yields 40 bushels of oats, form both 

 the st7'aw and the seed equal to 20 bushels per acre ?" 



As plows and cultivators, as well as many other things, must be 

 bought and paid for in oats, or some other product of the soil, every 

 fanner should know what substances are taken from each field in the 

 crop harvested. 



To answer the question of ray Genesee friend, I remarked that half 

 of the minerals in his straw, (provided he lost none in the dung and 

 urine of his domestic animals,) would be used up in supplying the ma- 

 terials for straw equal to the production of 20 bushels of oats. This 

 would leave about two pounds of straw to make one of seed, which 

 must fill the straw, in order to give a gain of 20 bushels per acre on 

 his poor field. It must be borne in mind that all the available elements 

 In the soil which enter into the composition of this plant, are consumed 

 in the crop of 20 bushels per acre; so that the gain of 20 bushels to 

 make 40 per acre, must all be acquired by artificial means. One hun- 

 dred pounds of oats must have 2fjf pounds of azote or nitrogen. It 

 will take 440 pounds of oat straw to furnishthis elementof the seed — the 

 straw having only the half of one per cent, of nitrogen. In 100 pounds 

 of the ash of oats there is 34 ,^jj pounds of phosphoric acid. In a like 

 quantity of the ash of oat straw there is but 3 pounds. Without the addi- 

 tion of phosphoric acid in some form, it would take Jive pounds of the 

 minerals in oat straw to form one of the minerals contained in oats. 

 Every observing farmer knows that it is far easier to produce a large 

 growth of straw than a great yield of grain. This comes from a lack 

 of knowledge of the things which form the seeds of cereal plants. 



Phosphorus and ammonia, or available nitrogen and phosphoric acid 

 — the things wanting in oat straw to make the seeds of this plant — are 

 not very cheap, nor abundant. Guano contains more of them than 

 any other fertilizer now in the market. Bones also abound in these 

 elements. Limestone that contains the remains of shells and animals, 

 also possesses more or less phosphoric acid. But where a field is so 

 badly worn that it will not bear over 20 bushels of oats, it had better 

 be seeded with clover, and limed, salted, plastered and ashed, as well 

 as manured, to a moderate extent. This, with subsoil plowing, will 

 -soon bring it up, while the crop of clover will pay all the expenses. 



