NITROGEN IN AGRICULTURE. 187 



by the proper proportional qiiantit}' of potash and phosphoric acid 

 to correspond with the nitrogen. 



Fifty bushels of corn (the estimated crop of au acre), of fifty- 

 eight pounds to the bushel, weighs 2,900 pounds. This weight of 

 corn will require 3,000 pounds of stalk and cob when dry, and will 

 contain : — 



Ammonia .... 

 Phosphoric acid 

 Sulphuric " . 

 Lime .... 



Magnesia .... 

 Potash . . ... 



Silica .... 



If the quantity of potash and phosphoric acid is lessened, and 

 the ammonia increased, it tends to increase the fodder and lessen 

 the seed ; but, if the ammonia is left out, a good, flinty corn will 

 be the result. The stand would not look so well through June 

 and a part of July, but at the harvesting the crop would be good, 

 notwithstanding there was no ammonia. 



The fiost which often occurs about the tenth of September does 

 much damage to late corn unless it is cut up before the frost 

 and laid down or shocked, when it will harden and make fair 

 grinding corn. If allowed to stand in the hill and the leaves are 

 frozen, though not sufficiently to freeze the corn, the result will 

 be soft corn. All chemical changes in the stalk cease after the 

 leaves are frozen. 



Col. Henry W. Wilson said that, functionally, nitrogen is the 

 sack of the human S3-stem ; the husk, and never the filling. Nature 

 has provided pretty generally almost all the nitrogen wanted by 

 plants, if other elements are furnished and the land is well-tilled. 

 He believes that Nature replenishes her stores of nitrogen from 

 the air. Farmers will do well to cease from the wild hunt for 

 pure nitrogen. One great advantage of plaster is that it furnishes 

 the base for compounds with nitrogen. Cyanogen is the element 

 most in demand for peach trees. 



President Moore said that the subject of nitrogen had puzzled 

 him a good deal, but he had made up his mind in regard to it, and 

 now he does not pay a dollar specially for it, though he might get 

 some incidentally in bone, etc. He finds that with good cultivation 



