1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FAR:MER. 



213 



MAKING A POOB FABM RICH 



■WITHOUT MANURE. 



In our notice last week of the printed trans- 

 actions of the Essex County Agricultural So- 

 ciety we mentioned, among other valuable 

 papers which it contained, one by Dr. James 

 R. Nichols, of Haverhill, on concentrated 

 manures. Having been aware of the experi- 

 ments which Dr. Nichols has been conducting 

 on a run down f^rm, f jr the purpose of testing 

 the question whether such a farm can be eco- 

 nomically restored to fertility by the use of 

 "special fertilizers," or those outside of barn 

 yard or stable manure," we have waited with 

 some impatience for a statement of the results 

 of those experiments. From his well known 

 ability both as a chemist and as a business man 

 we have anticipated much practical information 

 in regard to a subject on which at present our 

 knowledge is vague and unsati.-factory. We 

 have had in this country no such systematic 

 and thorough tests of concentrated fertilizers 

 as he proposed, and as we believe has con- 

 ducted on his farm during the past five years. 

 Few men who have the ability and the means 

 of doing 60, possess the necessary persever- 

 ance and patience. Most experimenters wish 

 to reach their conclusions and write out their 

 reports at the end of the first season or year. 

 But jffcer five years, Dr. Nichols gives only a 

 general^ not a detailed, statement of his re- 

 sults. We are sorry to see that ill health is 

 assigned as a reason for not embodying, in this 

 paper, as was intended, these results and con- 

 clusions in detail. Still enough is given to 

 excite a general desire for a more detailed 

 report, which the Dr. intimates may soon be 

 given through another channel of communica- 

 tion. It may be proper to add that the firm 

 on which these experiments were made was 

 purchased in 1863, and consists of about eighty 

 acres, which is described as follows, in the 

 essay from which we copy : — 



The farm at the time of purchase was well suit- 

 ed to a trial of this kind, as it had l)een in admin- 

 istrators' hands for several years, and was cons-e- 

 quently nesilevted and unproductive. The soil is 

 , varied in iis character, with upland' and lowland, 

 a tine peat hog occupying a bas-in between the hills. 

 A portion is silicious, another portion loamy with 

 a clay ^ubs .il, and still another pait is rich in or- 

 ganic debris, a forest having until within a few 

 years dinj.ely covered it. Perhaps no tract of 

 land in our county presents a greater variety of 

 soils, of differences of exposure, or atfords the 

 gradiitions trom wet to dry, so desirable for fair 

 experiment. 

 The product at the time of purchase consisted 



entirel.v of hay — about twelve tons being produced, 

 of indifferent quality. The crops the present year 

 upon lands embraced in the oricinal purchase, 

 have been 30 tons of good hay, 100 bushels of po- 

 tatoes, 25 bu^hels of wheat, 150 bushels of corn, 

 75 bushels of turnips, and one and a half tons of 

 grapes, besides other fruits in consideraiile quan- 

 tities. There has been a steady iiurease in the 

 amount of crops each year, notwithstanding a se- 

 ries of most unfavorable seasons. The number 

 of acres in tillage is not far from twenty. 



No stable or barnyard manures, excepting a few 

 loads at the start,'have been purchas-ed during the 

 five years, and the amount made upon the prem- 

 ises has been small; the stock 'cons-isting until 

 within the past year of only three cows, a pig smd 

 one horse. At present the farm sn>tains eleven 

 cows and heifers, three horses, a pig, and, during 

 a part of the year, one yoke of oxen. 



The feitilizing substances used (of which an ac- 

 curate account has been kept, as al^o of crops, ex- 

 penses of labor, &c.,) embace the entire range of 

 those agents which chemistry suggests, and those 

 which have been brought to notice through the 

 recommendati ^n of farmers and experimenters — 

 l.ones, ashts, lime, salt, the nitrates of ijotassa and 

 soda, sulphate of ammonia, carbonate of ammonia, 

 plaster, potashes, fish pomniace, short*, muck, 

 horn shavings, and lastly, the refuse of the Maine 

 lobster factories. - The methods of appl jc-ation and 

 the conditions under which these have been em- 

 ployed, the conibinations produced, present de- 

 tails which although extremely interesting, are 

 too extensive to enter upon in this etsay. 



A definite end has been kept in vi> w — that of 

 securing practical facts Irom which safe general 

 conclusions could be reached. Of course many 

 ! experiments known to be empirical have been un- 

 dertaken, and the results noted. For example, a 

 half-acre of grass-land was divided into tighteen 

 equal parts, and eighteen different substances ap- 

 plied; the results were curious, but the expeii- 

 nient actually proved nothing, although a great 

 difference was observable in ihe crops of grass. 

 Mure than one-half of the experiments which we 

 find reported from year t ) year, are of this nature. 



The substances afibrding the highe.st satisfac- 

 tion have been those which furnish in largest 

 quantity and at the lowest rates, the great funda- 

 mentals of plant-food — phosphoric acid, lime, pot- 

 ash, nitrogen. These have been obtained from 

 bones, ashes, potashes, fish pomace, and nitrate 

 of soda, principally. Bones have I5een largely 

 dissolved in acid, and true phosphate and super- 

 phosphate of lime made upon the farm premises. 

 Bones ground and ungrounti have been dissolved 

 in the caustic lye of ashes, also in commercial 

 potashes, and fertilizing substances of the most 

 prompt and satisfacf ry character produced. I 

 doubt if better crops of wheat and corn have ever 

 been produced in the county, than have resulted 

 from the use of these agents, upon weak lands. 



I think it must be Conceded that the rtsiilis of 

 these labors go to prove that exhausted soils can 

 be brought and sustained in goed tilth by concen- 

 trated chemical agents, at an expense considerably 

 less than by the use of execrementitious manures 

 at present market prices in the more densely pop- 

 ulated parts of our country. 



In conclusion, I will briefly present some facts 

 regarding a special experiment upon a measured 

 acre of liill land, dry, and exhausted from repeat- 

 ed croppings. It has been continued through five 

 consecutive years. 



In the autumn of 1863 it was ploughed, and in 

 the succeeding spring dressed with 500 pounds of 

 pure fine bone, sown broadcast, and planted with 

 corn, a handful of home made superphosphate 

 mixed with ground nitrate of soda, placed in each 

 i hill. One hundred and tifty-seveu bushels of coru 



