WHEAT CULTURE. 31 



matter, until a decrease in the successive crops showed that this 

 culture had absorbed all the phosphate of lime and potassa. As 

 soon as a diminution in the crops manifests itself, we must return 

 to the complete manure, and proceed as before." 



" Suppose that, instead of an exclusive culture, it be desired to 

 introduce an alternate culture in a given field ; we commence with 

 the agent that has most influence on the plant with which we start. 

 If that be a leguminous plant, we at first administer only potassa. 

 For wheat we should add nitrogenous matters. If we conclude 

 ■ with turnips, we have recourse to phosphate of lime ; but when 

 we return to the point from which we started, all four elements 

 must be added." 



Although a thorough experimental trial of M. Ville's methods is 

 desirable, dependence upon it as a practicable substitute for 

 barn-yard manure is highly problematical ; and even if it proves 

 as eflective as is claimed, the expense of the materials may render 

 it too costly for general use. For the present, at least, I 

 apprehend that the uncertainty and the expense, and the difficulty 

 in procuring the artificial manures, will prevent their general use 

 — hence the farmer must look in some other direction for a supply 

 of fertilizers. The lack of barn-yard manure, so severely felt 

 everywhere, must be supplied in some way, and we know of no 

 plan so easy of excution, and so likely to succeed, as that of green 

 manuring. 



The practice of green manuring for wheat, so common in some 

 sections, has as yet received but little attention in this State. 

 Great merits are claimed for this method, by agricultural writers, 

 wherever it has been adopted. But the subject is so ably and 

 thoroughly discussed in a paper recently issued by the Secretary 

 of this Board, that I allude to it oi^ly to present a few items from 

 writers who have published essays on the subject. Mr. John 

 F. Wolfinger of Milton, Pa., ante-dates this practice to ancient 

 Greece and Rome, in a treatise on the subject, published in 1864. 

 He says : " The inhabitants of Flanders (now Belgium) in Europe, 

 were the first among modern nations to sow and grow suitable 

 plant and grass crops to be plowed down for manurial purposes, 

 to wit, such as red clover, spurry, sanfoin, &c. They were driven 

 to the use of this kind of manure through ' necessity the mother of 

 invention;' for their soil generally consisted of white, loose, and 

 porous sand, ill adapted to the growth of wheat — their soil was 

 naturally very much like the sandy district upon our sea coast in 



