GRAINS. 155 



years, bear good crops of wheat without manures, or additions 

 of any sort, but to crop lands in this way is ruinous in the end, 

 and the prairie farmers have often found it out to their cost. 

 Nor does it help the matter much to put back the straw or to 

 feed it out and return the manure to the land. Somethino- 



o 



richer must be added, Eitlier a portion of tlie grain must be 

 fed with the straw to the stock or some substitute must be found. 

 Ashes, lime, plaster, etc., applied to green crops and plowed 

 under, form the substitutes. The relative value of these fertili- 

 zers is given in Chajdcr III. Ashes and lime should be com- 

 posted with straw, leaves, stalks, and muck. Gypsum, li.ne, etc., 

 should be sown on clover or buckwheat, and the crop plowed 

 in green. An acre of whi*at requires one thousand four hun- 

 dred and eighty-seven pounds carbon, one tnousand two hun- 

 dred and sixty-two pounds oxygen, one hundred and seventy- 

 one pounds hydrogen, and thirty-two jiounds nitrogen; an acre 

 of clover, well set and plowed under in blossom, yields 

 one thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds carbon, oae 

 thou.sand three hundred and ninety-six pounds oxj'-gen, one 

 hundred and eighty-five pounds hydrogen, and seventy-eight 

 pounds of nitrogen. It will be seen by the above that there 

 can be no better preparation for the wheat crop than a clover 

 lay turned under. Wheat will not perfect without nitrogen, 

 and one gallon of the urine of a cow, or one quart of the urine 

 of a hiirse, when they are fed on grain, contains nitrogen enough 

 for sixty pounds of wheat. One pint of human urine contains 

 the same amount. Read Chapter III., and learn how to econo- 

 mise this product more precious than gold. Pulverized char- 

 coal will retain a large amount of urine, and is a most valuable 

 fertilizer for wheat, especially on a worn .soil. Other applica- 

 tion^ for renovating such lands are, first, ten cords well rotted 

 stable manure, twenty bushels leached ashes, five bushels bone 



