362 



What Manures does my Soil want '. 



Vol. VIII. 



Manures are too frequently applied without 

 the slightest regard to the actual necessities 

 of the soil. Nitrate of soda is applied, and 

 because it fails in one case it is for ever 

 condemned. Precisely so is it with num- 

 berless others. This should not be so; men 

 should strive to make themselves as tho- 

 roughly acquainted with the constitution 

 and wants of their soil, as with those of 

 their anima s. What would be said of the 

 man who would give his cow or his horse 

 something to eat without previously satisfy- 

 ing himself that it was wholesome ! He 

 would be pronounced a simpleton! Then 

 how absurd to adopt this course with respect 

 to the soil. It perhaps contains already too 

 much of the sulphate of lime, but they apply 

 gypsum, and wonder that it proves to be 

 useless, nor can they imagine it will be 

 beneficial in any other case. This must 

 be altered before agriculturists can say they 

 have done all that is to be done. It is 411 

 very well to reply to the unthinking, that 

 this is a matter which only concerns agri- 

 culturists themselves, and that every man 

 should mind his own business ; but still it is 

 a matter of paramount importance to all; 

 whatsoever is inadvertently lost by any one 

 agiiculturist, — where»oever,he produces less 

 by ignorance than he might by knowledge, 

 tliis IS a national loss. 



" So also is it a national l®ss to use foreign 

 manures when home mauCT^es would suffice. 

 This is asserted advisedly, and notwithstand- 

 ing a strong recommendation of the use of 

 guano. Guano is certainly recommended in 

 the absence of any sufficient home manure; 

 but there are many sources of fertility at 

 home which are yet but partially resorted 

 to. We have imported large quantities of 

 guano from Peru; and we have recently 

 sent out an eminent scientific character to 

 ascertain if the phosphate of Lime, in Spain, 

 cannot be made available to the British agri- 

 culturist; but all this guano, and all this 

 phosphate of lime, must be paid for by Brit- 

 ish wealth. This theiefore is a national 

 loss, at least it is so if there are means of 

 obtaining efficient substitutes at home, and 

 that there are, to a great extent, none will 

 doubt. 



"Then let agriculturists learn to ask what 

 the soil requires, before they attempt 1o make 

 an application ; and let them ask also, if they 

 have no sources of fertility untouched at 

 home, before they resort to the indolent and 

 unwise expedient of drawing supplies from 

 abroad. Thus they will be benefitting them- 

 selves individually, and the nation at large; 

 and as ^Agriculture not only gives riches to 

 a nation, but the only riches she can call 



her own,^ they will be taking the necessary 

 steps to increase the real wealth of the em- 

 pire, and tp promote the happiness of its 

 people." J 



It has been further remarked by the au- f 

 thor I have just quoted, that "improvement 

 of machinery, perfection of animals, melio- 

 ration of vegetables, and economy of power, 

 all sink into insignificance compared with 

 the application of manures." If we know 

 not how to preserve the fertility of our 

 lands, we must of necessity, abandon their 

 cultivation, for we have every day's experi- 

 ence, that each crop more or less exhausts 

 them. But it will naturally be asked, how 

 are we to ascertain the adaptation of our 

 soils to the use of particular manures? The 

 chemist would reply, have them analyzed; 

 but every practical man knows that this is 

 out of the question as a general thing — it is 

 too expensive — and would require too tedi- 

 ous and multiplied a process; for on many 

 of our farms it is not unusual to find as 

 many different soils as there are fields. For 

 practical purposes, we would say then, in- 

 stitute judicious experiments, and be closely 

 observant of their results. Does your neigh- 

 bour use lime — plaster — nitrate of soda, — 

 common salt, to advantage '] and is his soil 

 similar to your own? Then the inference 

 is a fair one, that experiments with those 

 substances may be safely ventured on your 

 own lands. 1 have known individuals per- 

 sist in the use of lime, when they were un- 

 able to perceive that it did any good, merely 

 because their neighbours were benefitted by 

 it. They could not comprehend why it 

 should be, that it should be useful in one 

 place and not in another. On some soils 

 lime is invaluable as a manure — on others, 

 ashes have no equal : I have known plaster 

 on some soils, and in some seasons, to make 

 a ton of hay to the acre, while on others it 

 was useless; but let the farmer have no fear 

 in relation to the increase of his barn-yard 

 manure; he may haul in every ill weed that 

 he can find — and every refuse article that 

 his fhrm will afford him from his ditch banks 

 or the bottom of his ponds, or his marl beds, 

 to the leaves from his woods, and he need 

 apply to no chemist to analyze the soil in 

 his fields, before he ventures to haul out and 

 spread freely. j 



In the early part of my article I said I 

 something about the suitableness of certain 

 crops to particular soils, but I have already 

 trespassed so much on the columns of the 

 Cabinet, that I can only remark I am sensi- 

 ble of having frequently made mistakes in 

 my farming operations, by not sufficiently 

 adapting my crop to the character of the 



