36 HANDY-BOOK OP HUSBANDRY. • 



" dences of exhaustion, and prey upon the soil in proportion to its 

 ** deterioration. * ''• '^ '" '•• The average yield of wheat in 

 *' England is stated at twenty-eight bushels per acre, never less 

 " than twenty-six, unless in a year of unusually bad harvests. 

 *' The average in this country, is less than half of the lowest of 

 " of these figures. Why is it.? Certainly not because our soil is 

 *■*■ naturally poorer than theirs, neither because our climate is so 

 " much worse for wheat culture. It is mainly for want of a 

 " suitable rotation of crops, of a more careful husbandry of 

 '' resources of fertilization, of a more thorough and careful cul- 

 " ture." 



To show to what extent the element under consideration 

 enters into the composition of the crops that we raise, and the 

 various farm products that we sell, attention is asked to the 

 following table : — 



Amount cf Phosphoric Act J contained i:i l,ooo lbs. of the Ashes of each of the folloiv- 

 iug substances : — 



Grain of Wheat (average of six analyses) 498 lbs. 



" Indian Corn 501 " 



" Rye (average of tvi-o analyses) 490 " 



« Oats (with shell) 149 " 



" Buckwheat 500 " 



" Beans 357 " 



Hay 1 20 " 



Clover 63 " 



Potatoes 113 '* 



Beets 60 " 



Milk 217 « 



Bones 3 90 *' 



Lean Meat (about) 300 * 



It may be true that farmers generally do not know much 

 about phosphoric acid, but it is equally true that it is high time 

 they learned. 



In England they have got this knowledge to a certain degree — 

 as we are getting it now, — at great cost, — and they are putting 

 their knowledge to such eager account that they even ransack 

 the battle-fields of Europe for human bones, and quarry the phos- 

 phatic rocks of the whole world to replenish their soils. We are 



