74<> 



contains all the plant food necessary tor the crop and is in Mich a state 

 that it can be easily assimilated by tin-crop. He should not accept 

 the word of the vendor in too great faith, for the majority of the mer- 

 chants \\ ho sell manures, though honest enough, kno\v nothing about 

 their composition themselves, and have to accept the statements of 

 the manufacturers. The former should have the manure analysed, 

 and find out definitely \vhetherit does or does not contain all that is 

 said to be in it. No merchant can object to have his merchandise 

 analysed and give a guarantee of its composition. Very often the 

 percentage is given irom so much to so much, and one may safely 

 reckon on the lowest percentage when calculating out the value. 

 It is the experience of almost every agricultural chemist that there 

 is scarcely any class of goods so much adulterated and sold under 

 so much misrepresentation as manures. Supposing the manure 

 does possess the good qualities claimed for it, are the different 

 elements of plant food combined in sufficient quantities and in the 

 best proportions ? This should be ascertained before purchas- 

 ing. 



What I have already stated in these pages I will reiterate : 

 That unless one knows thoroughly what a compound manure is 

 composed of, it is best to buy the different elements of food for the 

 crops separately, and mix them on the farm ; one has then some 

 definite idea of what is going into the ground, and can expect a 

 return from it. When one buys sulphate of ammonia, nitrate of 

 soda, phosphates or potash salts, one should always obtain a 

 guarantee of the percentages and have them analysed. It generally 

 pays to do so. 



I have said that every farmer should find out what plant food 

 his land has in sufficiency, and what it is deficient in. Chemical 

 analysis will tell a great deal about the soil, but it will not tell all, 

 as there are a great many things regarding the assimilation of the 

 food by the plants that the chemist has not yet solved. By field 

 experiments or analysis we can obtain the knowledge of what the 

 soil is deficient in and what it has sufficient of. Every farmer 

 should not only be able to analyse his land by field-plot experi- 

 ments, but should make a point of doing it, and thus acquire the 

 knowledge as to how to get his land into a complete fertile state, 

 and then maintain it in that state. Until he does so, it is generally 

 a process of plough, harrow, and guess. Guess stands for 

 manuring. 



These field- plot experiments are conducted in the following 

 manner : In the field, whether rich or poor land, that is to be 

 tested, a spot should be chosen as nearly level as can be found, 

 with as uniform a depth and quality of soil as possible. The plots 

 may be six in number, one-tenth of an acre each, with a small path 

 dividing each, as shown in the sketch. At every corner of each plot a 

 post is placed to mark the boundary. The plots are best square, 

 but they may be parallelograms, but it is absolutely necessary they 



