OF AGRICULTURE. 53 



which should bo applied to the successful cultivation 

 of this important crop. 



A crop of twenty bushels of corn to the acre will take 

 away from the soil a considerable quantity of the 

 "phosphate of lime;" hence at least one hundred 

 pounds of bone dust should be applied to the land 

 where this important ingredient has been partially 

 exhausted. If cotton seed is applied to corn in the 

 hill, no bone dust will be needed as the cotton seed 

 contains a large percentage of the phosphate of lime, 

 and is in itself a rich manure. The sulphate of lime, 

 or plaster, ought to be applied to corn ; it is a cheap 

 fertilizer, and acts with wonderful effect. This salt 

 is composed of: lime, thirty- three per cent. ; sulphuric 

 acid, forty-four per cent. Ashes, plaster, and cotton 

 seed, composted at the rate of two bushels of ashes, 

 one bushel of plaster, and five bushels of cotton seed per 

 acre, one handful to be applied in the hill, will have a 

 marked effect. 



Of course it is not to bo understood that we recom- 

 mend mineral manures, to the exclusion of barn-yard 

 and stable manures. These valuable fertilizers con- 

 tain all the mineral ingredients in the ashes of plants, 

 and in the very best form to be taken up by growing 

 plants. But with all the care and labor the farmer 

 may bestow, he can manure annually but a small 

 portion of his land with stable or barn-yard manure; 

 hence these mineral fertilizers become a necessity, to 

 enable him to make a general and extensive appli- 

 cation. 



Lime, plaster, and ashes, composted with swamp 

 mud or mold from the woods, and scrapings from the 

 ditch and creek banks, at the rate of one bushel of 



