THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



417 



cessai'y constituents of any particular crop — and 

 thus we may be guided in the application of 

 manures to any soil, and for any rrop, with some 

 degree of certainty, instead of blindly and em- 

 pirically applying this or that kind of manure, 

 which we may have lieard or read was a successful 

 appUcation to the crop in question. "What proved 

 successful on one soil might be quite useless on 

 another^ where a different element of plant food is 

 deficient. This will explain the very contradictory 

 accounts which we receive from sources equally 

 reliable in our agricultural publications, and in the 

 experience of farmers. 



We sometimes find that the richest soils, as we 

 call them, rich in humus or vegetable mould, will 

 produce enormous crops of one kind of plant, 

 but fail to produce an adequate return, if sown 

 with other crops. This has been satisfactorily 

 explained by Liebig, to whom we are indebted 

 for much of our knowledge on true agricultural 

 chemistry at the present day, for the clearest 

 views and the safest, because the soundest postu- 

 lates. He tells us that wheat does not flourish 

 on soils that are rich in pure vegetable mould, be- 

 cause this plant needs silex as an element ne- 

 cessary to its healthy constitution, and without 

 which indeed it cannot exist. This substance it 

 does not find in vegetable mould. Liebig dis- 

 covered this by burning plants ; in this process the 

 organic elements were dissipated by forming 

 gaseous compounds that escaped, while a certain 

 portion remained fixed, as ashes — composed of 

 lime, silex, soda and potash, salt, bone-earth, 

 gypsum, &c. — substances which could not be 

 volatilized. His investigations further proved, that 

 any given plant generally yields nearly the same 

 proportion of ash, composed of almost exactly 

 the same substances, and also that different plants 

 furnished ashes for very different composition. 



Theo. de Saussure, in his " Researches on Vecjeta- 

 tion " was the first to point out the constant oc- 

 currence of determinate mineral constituents in 

 determinate plants— (Schleiden), 



Upon which Liebig takes this position : " Since 

 the organic nutriment stands everywhere in equal 

 abundance at the service of all plants, the cause of 

 the great difference of vegetation cannot be sought 

 therein, consequently it must lie in the inorganic 

 constituents, and it is essentially indifferent whether 

 we convey manure to the field, or burn it first and 

 strew the ashes on the soil, since its eflScacy is de- 

 pendent solely on the constitution of the ashes :" 

 a position which is rather startling in its first 

 enunciation, but one which is founded in fact and 

 which is incontrovertible, if we admit that manure 

 is plant-food, though the mechanical effect of some 

 kinds of manure would not be had by their ashes 

 alone. 



Now it is a fair inference that all of these 

 several substances are intentionally introduced into 

 theplantsfor somewisepurpose, notmerelyforman's 

 use, but for the well-being of the plants themselves, 

 to which, indeed, they are necessary parts, and 

 that if a plant cannot procure all of the various 

 substances needed for its perfect devlopraent, it 

 must fail to produce its highest result, as we in- 

 variably find to be the case.. 



The farmers about Philadelphia, Pa., (many 

 years ago) thought they were doing the very best 

 practice, when they purchased, and brought back 

 to their farms a large load of manure, for every 

 load of produce which they sold and took away 

 from the soil ; they also thought it was best to 

 feed as many animals as they could supply on the 

 farm, for the sake of making as much barn-yard 

 manure as jiossible. In this they were right : they 

 had a just appreciation of that most valuable 

 material, but in their apphcation of this manure 

 they did not act so wisely as they might now do — 

 they were guided by Silim\ted a.nd erring experience, 

 not by science. The wheat crop was looked upon 

 as the source of revenue in consequence of the 

 nature of their lands ; and a long continued course 

 of bad farming robbing the soil of some of its 

 necessary elements, this crop had been reduced to 

 the minimum amount of profitable culture, often 

 below this ; hence the very natural conclusion of 

 these improving agriculturists was to manure their 

 wheat crops. They were delighted with the results; 

 the yield went on steadily increasing to a certain 

 point ; but they found at the same time that the 

 amount of grain was increased, they were having a 

 larger growth of straw, which did not stand up 

 well, and they were subjected to losses from many 

 diseases not before incident to the crop, and thus 

 their hopes were often blasted. Somebody sug- 

 gested that as he had observed this effect did not 

 occur in a place where lime abounded in the soil, 

 this substance might exert a beneficial influence. 

 It was used with the happiest results, but they 

 continued the bad practice of applying manure to 

 the wheat crop — bad for two reasons. 



1st. — The wheat was sold oflF the farm and did 

 not yield any return, as would have been the case 

 with other crops, and from this observation was 

 deduced the axiom and practice of a few best 

 farmers : never apply yard manure to niati crops, 

 but always to the caitle crops ; the latter, being in- 

 creased in amount, enable the farmer to feed more 

 largely, and thus to produce more of the fertilizing 

 material for the renovation of the soil. 



2nd. — It was bad pohcy to apply manure to the 

 wheat crop, because the best portions of the mass 

 were generally dissipated into the air, lost to the 

 owner, l)y means of the fermentation that occurred 

 in the manure heaps that were piled up to wait all 

 through the summer, until the proper season of 

 applying to the wheat in the autumn. From 

 observations of the loss that thus ensued, and in 

 consideration of the axiom above referred to, a 

 few of the most intelligent farmers learned to apply 

 their manure exclusively to the cattle crops, and 

 to apply it fresh from the yards, in a partially de- 

 composed state, instead of waiting until much of 

 the most valuable portions had escaped. Those 

 also who looked further, and observed the absorb- 

 ing power of certain substances, and who also 

 learned that this volatile ammonia which was 

 wasted from the manure could be chemically ^a;£?rf 

 or rendered non-volatile, still continued to heap 

 their manures, but at the same time to compost 

 them with suitable materials, loam, sods, road 

 scrapings, swamp muck, &c., &c., and to apply 

 gypsum to the mass, whenever they could detect 



