CHEMICAL CORN-GROWING. 



79 



A bushel of grain, with its corresponding cob and stover, 

 would therefore renaove from the soil, according to the 

 analyses and proportions given above, on an average * : — 



The conclusion is therefore irresistible, that if this table 

 represents the amount of these constituents removed from the 

 soil by our crop, then this table represents the actual exhaus- 

 tion of the soil by the removal of our crop ; and the inquiry 

 may well be pressed further, and the question broadly put. 

 Why will not the application of these amounts of these 

 constituents on any land favored by temperature and moisture, 

 produce a bushel of grain? 



Before answering this query in the affirmative, as does 

 Professor Stockbridge, of the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College at Amherst, and whose success in practical experi- 

 ments, carried out under this theory, for the past two or three 

 years, entitles it to respectful consideration, let us consider 

 whether there is any loss of material during the growth of 

 the crop, or in other words, whether a greater quantity of 

 fertile elements must needs be applied, during the growth 

 of the crop, than is to be found in the crop at maturity. 



The first essential of an agricultural experiment is, that it 

 shall be so carried out as to eliminate all possible sources of 

 error, and that the result may be given in terms which are 

 unmistakable, — a definite reply to a definite interrogation of 

 nature. Fortunately for our purpose, Ave have in water- 

 culture a means for arriving at a knowledge of the elements 

 and proportions requisite for maturing a corn-plant. 



According to the experiments of Stohmann, the maize-plant 

 grows to full maturity, if, in the beginning of May, the seed 



* As the analyses of the roots, and the quantity of root is unknowTi to me, I omit 

 this portion of the plant from consideration ; and this is of less consequence, as the 

 roots are never removed with the crop. 



