128 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



potash, and because the natural means of improvement are 

 a|)t to be neglected, it will be necessary, in order to meet 

 the immediate requirements, to api)ly the kinds which act 

 quickly and distribute readily, as the active agents in the 

 soil would not assist to so great an extent in making plant 

 food available. When a scheme of fertilization is adopted in 

 extensive systems, which takes into consideration these va- 

 rious factors, it is possible not only to encourage and provide 

 for a larger growth, but to enable the plant itself to accumu- 

 late from soil sources a much larger supply of the needed 

 elements than would otherwise be the case. 



In the use of fertilizers for general farming, or for ex- 

 tensive systems of practice, two points must be carefully 

 observed : — 



First, it must be remembered that the crops included in 

 such systems are, as a rule, those which belong to the class 

 that may be regarded as low in commercial value and high 

 in fertility value ; they are exhaustive crops, removing a 

 large proportion of fertility per unit of value. That is, 

 in the selling of wheat, corn, oats, rye, buckwheat, etc., a 

 larger proportionate amount of fertility is sold, and at a 

 lower price, than in such crops as potatoes, market-garden 

 crops and fruit. The fertilizing, therefore, should be of such 

 a character as to supply the general needs of the crop, while 

 at the same time providing residues which shall accumulate 

 in such a way as to result in the improvement of the soil 

 in these respects. 



Second, in general farming, as a rule, the condition of the 

 soil is not such as to enable a large application of fertilizers to 

 be as proportionately helpful as in the case of soils more in- 

 tensively cultivated, and thus in better physical and chemical 

 condition. In the use of fertilizers for these crops, therefore, 

 the aim should be to decrease the initial expense for fertiliz- 

 ers, while at the same time providing for a maximum sup- 

 ply of minerals. This would seem to be difficult, as analyses 

 of the crops thus grown, as, for example, corn, oats, wheat, 

 rye, barley and hay, show that the proportion of nitrogen 

 contained in them is much greater than is either of the 

 minerals, phosphoric acid and potash ; besides, nitrogen is 



