122 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



ten thousand miles for this stimulant, when this or 

 any other great city annually poisons its own atmos- 

 phere and the adjacent waters with excretions which 

 are of very similar character and value, and which 

 Science and Capital might combine to utilize at less 

 than half the cost of like elements in the form of 

 Guano. 



My object in this paper is to incite experiment and 

 careful observation. 'No farmer should absolutely 

 trust aught but his own senses. A Rhode Islander 

 once assured m that he applied to four acres of thin, 

 slaty gravel one hundred pounds per acre of Nitrate 

 of Soda which cost him $4 per hundred, and obtain- 

 ed therefrom . four additional tuns of good Hay, 

 worth $15 per tun : Net profit (after allowing for the 

 cost of making the Hay), say $30. He might not be 

 so fortunate on a second trial, and there may not be 

 another four acres of the earth's surface where 

 Nitrate of Soda would do so well ; but, should I ever 

 have a fair opportunity, I mean to see what a little 

 of that Nitrate will do for me. And I hope farmers 

 may more and more be induced to conform in prac- 

 tice to the Apostolic precept, "Prove all things: 

 Hold fast that which is good." No one's success or 

 failure in a particular instance should be conclusive 

 with others, because of the infinite diversity of ante- 

 cedent and attendant circumstances ; but if every 

 thrifty farmer would give to each of the commercial 

 fertilizers Lime, Gypsum, Guano, Raw Bone, Phos- 

 phates, Ashes, Salt, Marl, etc. such a careful trial 



