Vol. «. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



131 



In addition to the above, there was removed in the 

 crop ', -21 lbs. of sulphuiic acid ; 16 of chlorine; 

 114 of lime : 56 of magnesia, and 310 of silica, or 

 sand. Of the latter, 242 lbs. were taken off in the 

 two crop-! of wheat straw. To secure the above 

 substances to the growing plants, no less than 758'2 

 lbs. of mineral matter was applied in the manure and 

 peat ashes in five vears — being over 8 lbs. to one in 

 the aggregate. The principal excess was in silica. 

 Of this the quantity applied was 5049 lbs. The quan- 

 tity removed 310 lbs. Excess, 4736. The difficulty 

 seems to be in the fact that, to secure as much of a 

 few things in thp manure which the crops of wheat 

 and pot itoes must have, one must apply a great deal 

 more of others than are really needed. Thus the si- 

 Ica restored in the manure was seventeen times 

 lirger than the amount taken in the crops, while 

 the phosphoric a<'id given back in the whole 

 five years, only exceeded the quantity removed 

 by 13J lbs. As this substance is used mainly in nature 

 to farm the seeds of grains, which are usually sold ofT 

 the faimer, particularly wheat, there is great difficul- 

 ty in keeping up the supply — for human urine is ev- 

 ery where wasted except in China and Flanders. — 

 Two crops of wheat take from the soil 35 lbs. ol 

 phosphoric acid. If ycu carefully put back every straw 

 where it grew, you will restore just 1 1 lbs. of this 

 val'iable substance, leaving 24 lbs. taken up in the 

 see 1 still unprovided for. How are you to supply 

 this ? Every acre wants its own mineral elenif-nts 

 given back to it, that have been furnished to it,«f 

 straw or grass. It would be folly to rob one field 

 to enrich another. Besides, it would require every 

 grain of the phosphorus in eio;ht good crops of oal 

 fctraw, whether fed to cattle, or applied directly to 

 the field, to make one acre of wheat, exclusive of the 

 wants of wheat straw itself. As an acre of oat 

 straw will weigh twice as much as 20 bushels of 

 wheat, it will take 16 lbs of oat straw made into ma- 

 nure, to yield phosphorus enough to form one 

 of seed wheat. 



Every body knows that there would be some dif- 

 ference in a loaf of bread, whether it was made out 

 of a pound of good wheat flour, or a pound of oat 

 straw ! We are wonderful nice about our own food, 

 b It we expect our wheat plants to elaborate fat, mus- 

 cle, brain and bone for us, and use materials as for- 

 eign from human flesh and blood, as copper, arsenic, 

 an I lead ! We are all exceedingly fond of good 

 bread, milk, and potatoes, while we heartily despise 

 the patient study that will inform us what are the 

 simple elementary bodies that unite to mike these 

 articles of food. We greatly magnify the imf>or- 

 tance of blind hard work, as though man had tht 

 power to create a bushel of corn out of nothing, by 

 dint of protracted and intense muscular toil. To 

 study the nature and properties of the snbstances 

 that Nature must have to form 80 binshels of this 

 grain on an acre, is a perfect waste of time ! A 

 knowledge of these things can bo of no possible use 

 to the practical farmer! Who cares to know what 

 there is in a kernel of corn, or a sound, mealy pota- 

 toe? These things can be made out of nothin«r, on!y 

 u-orkhardenovgh! A gallon of human sweat, spread 

 evenly over an acre of land, is better than all the ag- 

 ricultural science in the world, because it can be sold 

 anv day in August {or fifty cents'. 



If it were not for the indifference of farmers t<^ 

 the spread of agricultural knowledge, rural industry 

 would raise at once 50 per cent in productivenesV 

 and value. So long as the tillers of the earth shall 



work 12 or 15 hours in 24, to make something out 

 of nothing, the balance of the world will ^ive them 

 but a precious little for their service. And why 

 . hould they? If a farmer gives as much labor for 

 one bushel of corn or wheat as he should for t'lree, 

 ought he not to exchange his badly directed in ius- 

 try, by giving three day's work for one with tho^e 

 that study their business, and make every houi's work 

 tell to the best advantage ? We can not blind our 

 reasoning faculties, and then plead ignorance of the 

 things that form our annual crops, as a reason why 

 we should have more than the market value for our 

 produce. There is no alternative but to lessen the 

 hard work now expended in growing all our agri- 

 cultural staples, by the aid of knovvleJge. If we 

 cruelly withold this knowledge from our sons, we in- 

 directly give a bond that they shall be the hewers of 

 wood and drawers of water for the better informed, 

 and that too, at the smallest wages, all their days. 



Kind reader, if you have a son, and believe with 

 us, that the study of the laws of Nature will do h m 

 no harm, purchase for him Mr. Jas. F. W. John- 

 ston's '• Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry," latest 

 >dition, which will cost you but $1,25. Let him 

 buy as soon as he has thoroughly studied Johnston, 

 Boussingault's *' Rural Economy," which will cost 

 1 dollar and a quarter more. These invaluable works 

 should be in every common school library ir the state. 

 We commend them to the attention of all teachers 

 of young men in academies, and other seminaries. 

 As Text Books, they may be regarded as stan !ard 

 works in all debates ; although they differ in their 

 respective analyses of certain plants, such as wheat, 

 DOtatoes. and a few others. But plants differ in the 

 proportion of their elements in different soils. The 

 malyses of both are doubtless correct in the partic- 

 ular cases to which thev refer. 



There is scarcely ten firmers in the whole State 

 that feed all their cultivated plants, including fruit 

 trees, grane-vines, and straw berries as they shi d I 

 be fed. The same is true, to some extent, in regar I 

 to feeding, with the most appropriate and econom'cal 

 food, all domestic aniu als. How important, as well as 

 interesting, is the study of the organic structure of 

 dl the living things kept on the farm! These or- 

 ganized vegetable and animal beings possess many 

 organs, and each organ has its peculiar office to per- 

 form. 



Do we work with or against the purpose of Na- 

 ture, in our treatment of all these vital functions ? 

 Are we sure that we obtain ;he largest possible 

 crops of peas, potatoes and corn, from any given 

 amount of land and labor ? or the largest return in 

 good pork, for the corn, peas, and potatoes consum- 

 ed by our swine ? H )W is it in regard to the produc- 

 tion of grass, carrots, beets, beef, butter, cheese 

 and wool ? Whose wo(d, worth 30 cents a r>ound, 

 costs him the Ipast money in land and labor ? Whose 

 cheese and butter yield him the largest profit or 

 compensation for his industry 1 When we export 

 1000 tons of cheese to England this fall, how much 

 truly valuable mat' er have we drawn from our pas- 

 tures ? Where are the precise things in boundless 

 quantity, that make cheese, wheat, and wool ? 



What madnene to resist the studt of these things. 

 The great " Empire StatV' with its five hundred 

 thousand field laborers, can not support one agricul- 

 tural school ! 



"O shame, where is thy blush ?" 



Qy** Arrangements for State Fair, see page 142. 



