162 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



to six tons of guano) per acre. This was a stock of wealth which would repay the most 

 active measures being taken for its release and distribution. British Farmer. 



In a lecture before the Massachusetts Legislative Agricultural Society, in the spring of 

 the present year, by Dr. A. A. Hayes, of Boston, substantially the same views were ex- 

 pressed. Dr. Hayes has found, by experiment, that the quantity of ammonia contained in 

 the majority of the soils of New England is very great, far beyond what is generally sup- 

 posed. In the state in which it exists, however, it is unavailable for fertilizing purposes, 

 being combined with vegetable and organic acids, and forming neutral and insoluble salts. 

 In applying manures, therefore, to lands in this state, the object sought for it is to produce 

 & fermentation, or a chemical action, which will break up the ammonia compounds in the 

 soil, and render them available for the support of vegetation. 



The type of manures best calculated to effect this is dried blood or animal matter, which, 

 under nearly all circumstances, when exposed to ordinary temperatures and moisture, fer- 

 ments most powerfully. Editor of Agricultural Year-Book. 



Use of Nitrate of Soda as a Fertilizer. 



THE Royal (English) Agricultural Society having offered a prize for a manure equal to 

 guano, at a cost of 5 a ton, Mr. Pusey has shown that the conditions are satisfied by nitrate 

 of soda, and at a charge less than that specified. He says, in illustration, that forty-six 

 acres of land, if cropped with barley, and dressed with seventeen hundredsweight of nitrate, 

 would yield an increase of eighty sacks beyond the quantity usually obtained. A cargo of 

 this fertilizer was brought to England in 1820, but for want of a purchaser, was thrown 

 overboard. A second importation took place in 1830; and from that date up to 1850, the 

 quantity brought from Peru, where the supply is inexhaustible, was two hundred and thirty- 

 nine thousand eight hundred and sixty tons; value, 5,000,000. With the price reduced to 

 8 a ton, Mr. Pusey observes " Our farmers might obtain from their own farms the whole 

 foreign supply of wheat, without labor, and with but a few months' outlay of capital. I do 

 not mean to say that no failures will yet occur before we obtain a complete mastery over this 

 powerful substance ; but I am confident that, as California has been explored in our day, so 

 vast a reservoir of nitrogen the main desideratum for the worn-out fields of Europe can- 

 not be left within a few miles of the sea, passed almost in sight by our steamers, yet still 

 nearly inaccessible, at the foot of the Andes." 



Experiments with Manures. 



FROM the Report of the Superintendent of the Model Farm of the Virginia and North 

 Carolina Union Agricultural Society, published in the ''Southern Farmer," we extract the 

 following results of some experiments on oats with various manures : 



200 pounds of Peruvian guano gave 2240 pounds of oats per acre, say 70 bushels. 



250 pounds of De Burg's superphosphate of lime gave 1712 pounds, say 53 bushels. 



227 pounds bone-dust gave 1676 pounds, say 52^ bushels. 



An acre without any manure gave 1140 pounds, say 35 bushels. 



On another portion of the field, which contained 30 acres, where the soil was of " a slightly 

 lighter texture," 100 pounds of Peruvian guano gave 1672 pounds per acre, say 52 bushels. 



183 pounds of Chilian guano gave 800 pounds, say 25 bushels. 



100 Bounds of Mexican guano gave 1225 pounds, say 38J bushels. 



Experiments made last season with artificial manures on carrots, on the State Farm of 

 Massachusetts, gave the following results. The manure was apportioned according to its 

 cost, each acre being dressed with twelve dollars' worth : 



Barn-yard manure 753 pounds per acre. 



Guano 660 " 



Potash....*. 628 



De Burg's superphosphate of lime 586 " 



Mapes's improved ditto 572 



Reservoir manure..., 540 " 



