No. 4.] EXHAUSTED FARMS. 393 



of carbohydrates are fed a loss is incurred, while if tlie diet 

 be largely of albuminoids the health of the animal will be 

 impaired, and that the nutritive ratio of the diet must be 

 changed to correspond somewhat with the season as well as 

 the age and requirements of the animal. Is it less essential 

 that we should study the requirements of our crops and 

 furnish their food in the proportions required ? 



Right here we must look again to our experiment stations 

 and to the scientist for those general rules that may start us 

 in our field of investigation. Yet there are many important 

 truths, facts essential to success, purely local, it may be, in 

 their character ; these must be learned by individual experi- 

 ment. 



It is a mistaken idea that the chemist can tell us all about 

 our own farms or how much of certain elements are to be 

 applied to any particular soil to produce a given crop. The 

 small sample of soil that a chemist would undertake to an- 

 alize could not lairly represent the field or farm from which 

 it was taken. So we say the farmer must go forth upon his 

 fields as a student of nature, to be taught by observation and 

 actual experiment. He must apply each of the essential ele- 

 ments of plant food, simple and in combinations, in different 

 portions of his fields, as he may discover a difference in the 

 wants of the soil. He must note with the greatest care all 

 the influences that may affect his experiment. He may select 

 certain square rods in different parts of his cultivated field 

 and apply upon one and thoroughly incorporate in the soil a 

 certain amount of nitrate of soda, upon another an equal 

 amount of fine ground bone, a third should receive the same 

 of muriate of potash, and so on through various combina- 

 tions of these elements, always keeping strict account of 

 weight or cost. Another method of applying these elements, 

 we have found very convenient among crops planted in rows, 

 is, after the plants are large enough to be seen, to commence 

 at a certain bound and thoroughly fork in a certain amount 

 of one of the elements between three rows for a certain dis- 

 tance, then skip three rows and take another element, and so 

 on through all the combinations, making a careful record 

 where each is located. Another and sometimes more con- 

 venient method is by tub culture. A number of large tubs, 



