334 



AGRICULTURAL DISCUSSION. 



called manure. It was on these poor soils that farm- 

 ers could not afford to draw manure one mile. But 

 he should be asked, "What will you do with the 

 manure? — throw it away?" Not at all. Apply it 

 to the land near the house, and, on the more distant 

 fields, use some concentrated fertilizer, in the fore 

 ranks of which he placed Peruvian guano! He 

 had seen 200 lbs. of Peruvian guano per acre increase 

 the wheat crop from four to seventeen bushels per 

 acre. Could any such results be obtained from barn- 

 yard manure? Could any farmer afford to draw it a 

 mile when he could get Peruvian guano at its pres- 

 ent price? Then there is salt. " Salt is worth more 

 as a manure than it sells for for other purposes. 

 Farmers can make money by going to Syracuse and 

 purchasing salt at market prices, and sowing it on 

 their land." One farmer had told him to-day, that 

 he hauled wet leached ashes 16 miles, and he consid- 

 ered the benefit sufficient to pay the expense. He, 

 Mr. R., asked him why he hauled ashes so far. He 

 replied, "For the good they do the land." Mr. R. 

 supposed the benefit was from the potash they con- 

 tained. Now, could not the potash be obtained in a 

 more concentrated form? Boats are now being load- 

 ed at Rochester, with leached ashes for the use of 

 Long Island farmers. The potash they contain could 

 be obtained in the market at a much cheaper rate. 

 The time is coming when the farmer will know what 

 to put on his land to produce wheat or any other 

 crop, as certainly as the housewife knows what to put 

 into the trough to make bread. It is just as easy 

 for liim to know. 



Judge Osborne would concede the question. The 

 fox for once had caught the trapper. The Judge 

 proceeded for some ten or fifteen minutes, and said 

 little. 



We could not perceive that Mr. Robinson had 

 touched the question — the comparative value of 

 guano and barn-yard manure. The question was 

 whether manure would piy for simply hauling a mile, 

 wnen guano could be bought at about $50 per ton. 



At this stage of the meeting we began to think we 

 were to be favored with an edition of the small talk 

 and nonsense served up every week by the JVew 

 York Farmers' Club ; but matters soon took a 

 favorable turn. 



Sanpord Howard, of the Boston Cultivator, 

 thought the benefit derived from leached ashes was 

 not from the potash they contained alone. He did 

 not know what gave leached ashes their peculiar 

 value. No matter if we do not, so long as experi- 

 ence proves their value. We know, however, that 



they contain some phosphates; and it is probable 

 that old leached ashes, that have been exposed to 

 the atmosphere, contain nitrogen, and would be val- 

 uable on that account. He had seen guano used 

 without any visible effect. He mentioned several 

 instances where salt had been applied to land with- 

 out any benefit. One gentleman who manufactured 

 salt, and had tried it on his land repeatedly, informed 

 him that he found the less salt he got on his soil, the 

 better. 



L. Wetherell stated that a farmer in Hampshire 

 county, Mass., informed him that " no farmer could 

 afford to move his manure at all, as long as he could 

 obtain guano at present prices." Another farmer 

 told him, that on poor land, where he could obtain 

 nothing — not even " poverty grass," by the use of 300 

 tbs. of guano per acre he succeeded in raising 30 

 bushels of wheat. Another gentleman had used 

 guano as a top-dressing on grass, and obtained good 

 results, but ever afterwards nothing would grow on 

 the land. 



Hon. Geo. Geddes, of Syracuse, had long time 

 ago given up the idea that agriculture is an exact 

 science. He had tried salt to his satisfactioa He 

 had staked out a rod of land in each of three differ- 

 ent fields, and carefully dressed them with salt, and 

 sowed them with barley, oats, and wheat ; and he 

 never could see the difference between them and 

 where no salt was applied. The President of the 

 Onondaga County Society called on him to visit a 

 field of wheat, where salt had been applied on a por- 

 tion of it, and where, he said, the exact line of de- 

 markation could be distinctly perceived; but his 

 [Mr. Geddes'] eyes were not sharp enough to dis- 

 tinguish it. 



Hugh T. Brooks, of Wyoming, thought a good 

 deal of barn-yard manure. When we speak of barn- 

 yard manure, we use an indefinite term. It may 

 mean something of great value, or a comparatively 

 worthless compound. He put a good dressing of 

 manure on his corn fields, and the census man stated 

 that it was the best corn he had seen. He [Mr. B.] 

 thought that farmers should husband their manures, 

 and return all animal and vegetable refuse to the 

 earth from whence it came. 



Sanford Howard said there was a gentleman 

 present who had had much experience in the use of 

 guano and other concentrated fertilizers, and who 

 had been for some years connected with an extensive 

 series of experiments in England, and he would like 

 to hear his opinion in regard to the subjects under 



