134 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



to England. We can purchase the bone or the pulverized' 

 rock nearly as chea'p as it is bought by the manufacturer of 

 fertilizers. 



The last of the three elements to be purchased is potash. 

 This may be bought in the form of wood ashes or the pot- 

 ash salts. It requires little knowledge of chemistry to go 

 into the market and purchase fine ground bone, or phos- 

 phatic rock, wood ashes or muriate of potash ; then any far- 

 mer can mix them on his barn floor, and use them according 

 to his judgment of his soil and the crop to be grown. This 

 judgment must be formed from experiments in the diflerent 

 fields of the farm, applying exact quantities of the fertilizers 

 to measured plots, and carefully noting the results upon a 

 variety of crops. But if we apply more of either of the 

 elements named than are demanded for the immediate crop 

 grown, they will not take to themselves wings and fly away, 

 but will remain a sure investment, ready to respond to future 

 drafts. But in our practice, it should ever be borne in mind 

 that these fertilizers should be made supplementary to the 

 barn-yard manure rather than a substitute for it. 



The large consumption of English hay in our cities and 

 large towns has given it a commercial value in excess of its 

 comparative nutritive value ; so, in my practice, I have con- 

 sidered it a profitable crop to sell, and should not buy it to 

 feed to young stock, but should purchase corn stover and 

 hay of the cheaper grades, making up the requisite ration 

 with corn and cotton-seed meal. I know of a company 

 manufacturing a fertilizer sold for $40.00 and $42.00 per 

 ton that is using vessel loads of cotton-seed meal that is 

 used in its composition. Is not this a hint to the farmers to 

 buy the meal for $30.00 or less per ton, utilize its milk and 

 fat-producing qualities, and still retain nearly all its manurial 

 value upon the farm? He who buys and judiciously feeds 

 corn or cotton-seed meal, especially the latter, will have 

 a heap of the very best manure, worth many tons of any fer- 

 tilizer in the market. I believe it is possible to select a stock 

 of cattle and swine, and so care for them that they shall 

 return to their owner a fair cash value for all they eat, leav- 

 ing the manure for the cost of care and incidentals. 



In the average year, with the means we have at hand^ 



