APPENDIX. 



I. 



THE CULTURE OF CORN". 



BY J. B. LAWES, LL.D., F.B.S. 



The Eighth Annual Report of the New Jersey State Board 

 of Agriculture contains a paper by Mr. Henry Stewart, upon 

 a subject which has occupied my attention for a great number 

 of years, and which is now coming to the front as a great 

 question of economy in commercial agriculture. It may be 

 described briefly as " Freight versus Artificial Fertility." 



Mr. Stewart says, " It has been the fashion to believe, or 

 at least to say, that the farms in the eastern parts of the 

 country are exhausted, that agriculture here is in danger of 

 ruinous competition from the newer lands of the West, and 

 that it is cheaper to buy Western corn than to grow it in the 

 East." And he goes on to " show the fallacy of such an idea 

 as this " by the following figures : — 



Cents.. 

 Freight on a bushel of corn from Chicago to New York . . .30 

 Cost of fertilizer to produce a bushel of corn .... 9 



The question here raised is not only one of importance 

 with reference to the East and West of the United States, 

 but also as regards the United States and Great Britain ; for, 

 though it is true that we do not grow corn, it is also true 

 that our wheat is gradually being displaced by the cheaper- 

 grown wheat of the States. 



Mr. Stewart goes on to say, "Recent investigation and 

 past experience have shown, that while wheat requires from 

 one-half to full quantity of all the nitrogen to be supplied 

 in a fertilizer, depending upon condition of the soil, corn, 

 on the contrary, requires, even on comparatively poor soils, 

 only about one-fourth the nitrogen to be supplied, as com- 

 pared to what the crop contains." 



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