78 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



will, consequently, give the best results with one kind of fertilizer, and others with 

 another kind, while others still will not respond to any application whatever, until the condi 

 tions are changed, which can only be effected by suitable drainage, irrigation, the use of 

 lime, or proper tillage. 



In order to attain the highest results in agriculture, as with everything else, we must 

 make use of the right materials in the right place; and if artificial fertilizers are thus used 

 they cannot bring results otherwise than satisfactory, providing the season and other circum 

 stances be favorable. The world-renowned experiments at Rothamsted, England, by Mr. 

 Lawes, embracing a period of over forty years, besides those from other noted scientific agri 

 culturists covering a more limited space of time, all prove conclusively that artificial fertilizers, 

 when rightly used, will prove the most potent aids in agriculture, and that the only means of 

 determining what a soil needs is to study it by careful observation and experiment. 



In making this statement favorable to artificial fertilizers, we do not wish to be under 

 stood as recommending them as substituting entirely the various farm manures that the 

 farmer has recourse to in improving his lands and crops; we do not recommend them as 

 supplanting, but supplementing the farm manure. 



We think it would be a very poor policy indeed for any farmer to allow the farm 

 manures to go to waste, and expend money for commercial fertilizers. We believe in using 

 all the available wastes of the farm possible, for manure the compost heap, cess-pool, privy- vault, 

 ashes, old bones, and everything that can add to that best of all the fertilizers, stable manure 

 to aid in furnishing plant-food to crops. It would be very poor economy for a farmer to 

 neglect tc gather his own crops and buy of his neighbor, and it would be equally poor 

 economy for him to neglect to make use of his farm manure, and buy commercial manures to 

 take their place. The poor farm management in the one case would be equal to that of the 

 other. 



We simply advise that the farmer use the artificial fertilizers to supplement or help out, 

 as it were, the farm manure, as most farms require more manure than the farm furnishes for 

 keeping them up in their best condition in soil, and giving the best results in crops. It is 

 thought by many of our leading agriculturists, that a liberal supply of barn-yard manure 

 increases the effect of the commercial fertilizers, and vice versa, when the two are used 

 together. 



Mr. Wood of Mt. Kisco, N. Y., recently stated at an agricultural meeting that, as a 

 result of his experience in commercial fertilizers, he would warn farmers against their use in 

 small quantities, or without the application of sufficient plant-food to support the growth of 

 the plant after the fertilizers have started it vigorously; that, by the use of phosphates, he 

 can raise one hundred bushels or more per acre of southern white Dent corn, and it will be 

 sufficiently ripe to be cut by the first of September. His lands are made very rich otherwise 

 by the use of barn-yard manures, and the phosphates force the growth of his crops so rapidly 

 that the effect is to give him the results of a climate like that of southern New Jersey. 



Prof. Atwater, in giving the result of farm experiments with fertilizers, in connection 

 with the Connecticut Experiment Station, also says: 



&quot; 17. The common impression among farmers that the best use of artificial fertilizers is 

 to supplement farm manures is, doubtless, in ordinary circumstances, correct.&quot; 



With respect to the requirements of different crops, a very accurate estimate can be 

 obtained from a table giving their analyses by a competent chemist. Much can also be 

 learned by the experience of the most successful farmers in the country, given in the best 

 agricultural works and newspapers, which will render valuable assistance to the farmer in all 

 the departments of agriculture; but since soils vary so widely in their constituents, the best 

 and surest test in determining the needs of certain soils is found only by careful study and 

 experiment, which each farmer can accomplish for himself in a small way very easily. Having 



