70 



In light lands of more torrid temperature tbe cow-pea performs quickly 

 and inexpensively the work of amelioration assigned to red clover iu 

 argillaceous soils. It is a plant literally worth millions to tlie 3outh; 

 possibly as good an ammonia-gatherer as clover ; perhaps equally as 

 good for fattening swine, and grown with greater facility in poorer 

 soils. This investigation presents prominently three suggestive points : 

 First, the use of fertilizers is becoming more general and more discrim- 

 inating; second, few, if any, soils in the country are so rich that they 

 cannot be made more productive by judicious fertilization; third, farm- 

 yard manures are the best for general use ; green-manuring is the 

 cheapest means of soil renovation, and commercial fertilizers are useful 

 for quick results and for specific purposes. 



Farm- YARD manure. — Except near large centers of population, where 

 the fertility of the soil carried to market in cereal and vegetable product8 

 can easily be returned iu purchased manures, the main reliance for 

 soil-restoration in every system of prosperous agriculture, is the ma- 

 nure made on the farm. The certainty of its adaptation to the wants of 

 the soil from which it has been extracted, the practicability of securing 

 it, and that without paying out cash or incurring debt, and the gain in 

 utilizing much that would otherwise be worthless, must ever give it pre- 

 cedence for general farming-purposes, over all other fertilizers. Among 

 the many advantages resulting to the farmer from having manufactur- 

 ing or mining industries in his own neighborhood, prominent is that of 

 being able to market for ready cash, hay, straw, and other coarse pro- 

 ducts, and at the same time cheaply replace the fertility taken from the 

 soil iu their production. The accumulations of manures in manufac- 

 turing and commercial cities and in the mining districts of Pennsylva- 

 nia are taken at high prices, often $8 to $10 per cord, not only by gar- 

 deners and tobacco-growers, but by farmers, and their judicious use is 

 found to be remunerative to such a degree that he who buys the most 

 is usually found the most prosperous. 



Commercial fertilizers. — A majority of our returns indicate a 

 growing preference on the score of comparative results and relative 

 cheapness of home-made manures, over the manipulated compounds 

 known popularly as commercial fertilizers. In many sections the use 

 of this class of fertilizers is becoming more and more limited to garden 

 productions, in the cultivation of which, hastening growth and maturity 

 is an important element, and to special crops upon which the profitable 

 effects of commercial compounds of established reputation have been 

 l)roved by trial for a series of years. Repeated experiments with com- 

 mercial compounds, which have ultimately proved unprofitable, have 

 created a prevalent antipathy to new experiments. On the other hand, 

 returns generally indicate that the use of unmixed organic or mineral 

 fertilizers is on the increase. Adulteration in these is more easily de- 

 tected, and the eifects on like soils are comparatively uniform and well 

 established. In the Eastern, Middle, and older of the Northwestern 

 States neither commercial fertilizers nor home-made composts are used, 

 to the neglect of farm-yard manure, but only as additions, after that has 

 been exhausted. 



A majority of returns from New England, including all from New 

 Hampshire, report that commercial fertilizers are deemed unprofitable. 

 But in Oxford, Me., superphosphates are considered almost indispensa- 

 ble, especially on corn, and in Penobscot and Cumberland they are used 

 to some extent witli favorable results, particularly gypsum on grass in 

 the spring; gypsum is also popular in Franklin, Vt., and phosphates in 

 Caledonia, on buckwheat and turnips, but not for general farming. The 



