310 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



Plaster, for soils deficient in lime, is beneficial to corn, and wood-ashes are also excellent. 

 Chemical fertilizers are especially valuable for this crop, and are very reliable in securing 

 successful results, some of the largest crops having been grown by their application. They 

 are always soluble and available, hence, are a good substitute for barn-yard manure. They 

 should always be near the surface, consequently should be lightly harrowed in, in order to be 

 within reach of the roots of the young plants. It may be taken for granted, as a general 

 principle in raising corn, that unless the soil is exceptionally rich, like that in some sections 

 of Manitoba, for instance, where fertilizers are unnecessary, a large crop cannot be produced 

 without a liberal application of well-balanced manures or specially-prepared fertilizers suited 

 to the soil and crop; old soils require it. It should also be borne in mind that richly- 

 manured soil is more cheaply and easily worked, and large crops are more cheaply produced 

 from it than from lands that are less liberally fertilized ; in brief, that it pays the farmer 

 better to work one acre of good rich soil, than two or more of poor soil. The quantity of 

 fertilizers to be applied will, of course, vary with different soils, some requiring more than 

 others. The quality of the seed used should also largely modify the quantity applied. Where 

 the seed to be planted is very prolific, and capable of producing from eighty to a hundred 

 bushels per acre, a larger application of fertilizers will be required than where the seed used 

 is able to produce about half that amount. 



Where the soil is thoroughly cultivated, a larger amount can also be profitably used than 

 where only an indifferent cultivation is practiced. Dr. Sturtevant states that in his own 

 practice he finds five cords per acre of manure that has not been diluted with other substances 

 to be sufficient; but that the larger portion of his fields are enriched with artificial fertilizers, 

 which are applied according to the past history of the field, the quantity to be used being 

 varied according to circumstances. Mr. Stewart says that in producing a crop equal to one 

 hundred and fifty bushels and forty-eight pounds of shelled corn per acre, he used artificial 

 fertilizers alone (Mapes 1 Complete Corn Manure) at the rate of six hundred pounds per acre. 

 The quantity of artificial fertilizers applied when used without other manure varies from 

 three hundred to six or seven hundred pounds per acre, according to the condition of the 

 soil and the crop to be grown. 



When barn-yard manure is used in considerable quantity, it is noticeable that its effects 

 are seen for three or four years afterward, and each succeeding crop that follows in rotation 

 receives benefit from the fertility that remains in the soil. This is not because there was 

 more manure in the land than the corn crop could appropriate to its own use, but because 

 much of the manure that was applied was not in a suitable condition to be taken up by the 

 crop during the first year, and it required considerable time for it to become reduced to that 

 condition. The corn crop probably took all of the nourishment from the soil that was ready 

 for it to receive during the first year, and would have taken much more if it had been placed 

 there for its use. It being, then, a fact, that only a portion of barn-yard manure applied to 

 land will be in a condition for the crop to appropriate to its growth during the first year, a 

 liberal supply of it should always be given on this account, or some commercial fertilizer that 

 is quickly taken up by plants should be used in connection with it. 



Some farmers feed their soils as they do their animals, in a stinted manner, thinking 

 they are thereby practicing economy, and receive corresponding results; others feed liberally 

 and receive in return a liberal compensation. Some of our most successful farmers use forty 

 or more common cart-loads of manure or compost per acre; other consider from eight to 

 twelve sufficient; hence, the one obtains a fine crop, while the other only a moderate yield. 

 We know of no crop that responds more freely to liberal feeding than corn, although it is a 

 patient plant, and will often give very fair results with the most indifferent treatment. 



The manner in which manure is applied affects in a measure its efficiency. WThen placed 

 only in the hill, as was formerly the custom, the roots soon grow beyond it, and are not 



