Manures and Manuring 139 



resorted to, and the conclusion is reached that the soil is exhausted, when 

 in reality it is suffering for the want of cultivation, for a dressing of lane 1 

 plaster, for farm manures, or for a change of crops. There is no question 

 but what better tillage, better care and use of farm manures, culture of 

 clover, and systematic rotation of crops would result in greatly reducing 

 the amount annually spent for commercial fertilizers without, reducing 

 the yield of crops, as well as securing larger returns for the fertilizers 

 used. In general, the better the cultivation the less the amount of com- 

 mercial fertilizer required for average farm crops. Cultivation cannot, 

 however, entirely take the place of fertilizers." 



The reader must not imagine that artificial manures are being abused. 

 From practical experience the writer knows their virtues very well, but 

 the point he wishes to drive home is that artificial manures, unless used 

 carefully and judiciously, are more likely to ruin a cultivator than to add 

 to his bank balance. They have their uses undoubtedly, and as adjuncts 

 to natural manures and cultivation they can be made to play a most 

 important part. Many experimenters and growers are beginning to realize 

 this now, and they take care to use a proper mixture of natural and arti- 

 ficial manures. 



Misleading* Experiments. Perhaps the most misleading thing about 

 the application of certain manures in experimental gardens is that what 

 is found to yield good results in one particular soil may prove to be quite 

 useless on another soil. If the increased yield in a crop could be really 

 attributed to the application of a certain manure, the experiments would 

 be of immense value. A reference to the article on the " Manuring of 

 Potatoes", in Vol. IV, will, however, convince any cultivator that no real 

 reliance can be placed on a particular manure applied to any soil. It will 

 be noticed from the figures that the very manures which are claimed to 

 yield large crops in one county are the very same that give results even 

 poorer than the soil to which no manure at all has been applied. If it 

 is fair to claim an increase in yield for certain manures in one place, it 

 is equally fair to attribute a decrease in yield to the same manure applied 

 in another locality. And yet all manurial experiments are carried out on 

 this illogical basis. The only reliable thing about the application of special 

 manures is that results are true only for the particular place in which they 

 are obtained. 



Another misleading method of applying manures is to assume, first 

 of all, that a certain crop requires certain manures, and must have them 

 at all costs. Take, for instance, such a crop as the Turnip, which is said 

 to take up 112 Ib. of nitrogen, 33 Ib. phosphoric acid, and 148 Ib. of potash 

 from an acre of soil. The uninitiated are apt to come to the conclusion 

 that large supplies of nitrates, phosphates, and potash must be applied to 

 the soil, no matter what its chemical or physical condition may be, when- 

 ever Turnips are to be grown. 



Some laboratory experimenters, indeed, make a difference between 

 "light" and "heavy" soils, and recommend a variation in quantity of 



