362 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



the demands of tlie plants, since, in all cases, a larger 

 quantity of these elements were fonnd in the crops 

 than in the manure supplied to the land. 



We in\ite particular attention to the fact that this 

 hectare of ground increased in fertility while it gave 

 the cultivator G2,034 pounds of carbon in crops more 

 than ho applied to it in manure, in twenty-one years. 

 Of organized oxygen, the excess in the crops over 

 that contained in the manure was C.5,160 pounds ; 

 excess of hydrogen, 7,372 pounds ; excess of nitro- 

 gen, .")97 pounds. Most of our readers need not be 

 told that carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen 

 abound in the atmosphere and in rain water. 



In reference to the incombustible, earthy part of 

 the ci'ops grown in twenty-one years, the case is the 

 reverse of that of their combustible elements. M. 

 BoussiNG.iULT gave the land an excess of minerals in 

 the manures over those in the crops of 4,522 pounds 

 in the first period ; of 4,413 in the second period; of 

 5,14.5 in the the third period ; of 1,753 in the fourth 

 period ; and of 3,564 in the fifth period. Thus, du- 

 ring the twenty-one years while these experiments 

 were in progress, a surplus of no less than 19,397 

 pounds of mineral substances was supplied to the 

 land in manures. If we now knew how much of simi- 

 lar earthy constituents the disintegration of minute 

 fragments of rocks and stones yielded in twenty-one 

 years' tillage and cropping, and how much w^ashed oif 

 the surface in surface water and sunk with the water 

 into the deep subsoil, our data would be complete. 



Unfortunately, no one in Europe appears to have 

 thought of determining the loss of the elements of 

 fertility by tillage, and the M-ashiug and leaching 

 of the soil. They all look to the substances removed 

 in the crops, and no further, for the impoverishment 

 of arated land. During th? last ten years we have 

 steadily called pul^lic attention to this important de- 

 fect in all transatlantic cx))eriments to test the intrin- 

 sic value of mineral and other manures. It is obvious 

 that some soils possess far greater latent resources in 

 potash, soda, magnesia, lime, phosphoric and .sulphuric 

 acids, locked up in an insoluble condition, than others. 

 Some are so rich in these elements that tillage sufSces 

 for many years to bring out enough to meet the an- 

 nual wants of agricultural plants without the aid of 

 manure. Other soils are so open, porous, and ill- 

 supplied with the mineral constituents of crops, that 

 the farmer finds it necessary to give two pounds of 

 potash in his manure for every one contained in his 

 grain and other staples. For sandy, leachy ground, 

 no fertilizers pay better than spent wood ashes, ap- 

 plied in liberal doses; for they tend to render the soil 

 more compact, and retentive of manure, while sup- 

 plying all the earthy constituents needed in vegetable 

 organization. Every body knows that lime and sand 

 form an adhesive mortar; and where marl is available, 

 it improves poor sterile sands, such as abound in 

 Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Caro- 

 lina, in a wonderful degree. 



These rem-arks are not intended to lessen the good 

 opinion any reader may entertain of stable manure, 

 such as 'M. BoT'ssixcrAiTLT used ; but merely to indi- 

 cate whit part of such manure is most needed, as 

 developed by long experience and careful analyses. 



Speaking of mineral manures, Boussixsault has 

 • these pregnant remarlis: 



" IMineral maniires, saline or alkaline, which are par- 

 ticularly designated under the name of siimulants, 

 thus ascribing to them the faculty, purely gratuitous, 

 of facilitating the assimilation of the nutriment which 

 plants find in dung, and of stimulating and exciting 

 their organ?. Such a distinction has no real founda- 

 tion ; and nothing shows so much how scanty our 

 knowledge upon this subject has been as this ten- 

 dency in the ablest minds to connect vegetable nutri- 

 tion with the feeling of animals." 



TVe have often taken occasion to point out the 

 error, both in practice and science, of regarding cer- 

 tain manures as stimulants. The idea suggested by 

 the word stimulant, used in reference to the growth 

 of plants, is false, and the first step toward a defective 

 system of farm economy. Plants have no nerves, like 

 animals, no feeling, and nothing for stimulants to 

 operate upon. Vegetable and animal vitality have 

 little or nothing in common, except the fact that both 

 dwell in analogous systems of cells, which grow 

 alike by the progressive development of new ones. 

 To plants, all substances stand in the relation of neu- 

 tral bodies, of poisons, or of aliment. Any elemen- 

 tary body or compound which enters into the struc- 

 tural formation of a plant, may he regarded as a part 

 of its natural food, and a manure in reference to its 

 production. Viewed in this light, manure is simply 

 the raw material from which crops are made, and is 

 valuable only so far as it supplies ingredients needed 

 to form the plants cultivated. 



HINTS FOR DECEMBER. 



Whatever has been neglected in preparing for 

 winter should now receive immediate attention. Cel- 

 lars should be banked up to protect vegetables, ap- 

 ples, and other perishable articles from injury by 

 freezing-. Stables, barns and dwellings that need 

 some slight repairs, ought to command both the time 

 and means necessary to remedy the defects. A mul- 

 titude of little things make up nearly all the elements 

 of rural economy and domestic comfort; and these 

 little things are too often disregarded at the times 

 and seasons when neglect is mo.st prejudi. ial to the 

 farmer's interest, and disagreeable to his family. 



Carelessness in not providing a pnod stock of fire- 

 wood is a fruitful source of ann< jaice, leading to the 

 necessity of burning fuel so green as to require a 

 double quantity to boil a tea-kettle or dinner-pot, 

 and then make every meal a half hour behind time, 

 to the delay of all farm work. 



AVise facilities for doing every thing that has to be 

 done should be provided beforehand, so far a> prac- 

 ticable. This renders all the operations to be per- 

 formed, whether in the house or out doors, by woman 

 or man, girl or boy, pleasant to the cheerful and 

 happy laborer. To work is one of our chief duties ; 

 but this duty need not be converted into a penance, 

 nor a curse, by discharging it in a painful manner. 



Apples, properly buried in the ground, are less 

 liable to rot than potatoes, and usually sell at two 

 prices in the spring compared with what they fetch 

 in the fall. A liank of firm earth excludes th.e air 

 from them better than a common banxl or box in a 

 cellar; and they are less liable to dry, rot, or mold. 



