170 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



The average rate of increase per head per week 

 was: 



Ootswolds, 31b8. 2j< OE- 



Hampsbire, 2 " 12 " 



Sussex, 2 " 1% " 



Leicesters, '. 2 " 1 " 



Hall-breed welhers, 1 '' 14 " 



Do. ewes, 1 " 13J£ " 



By ascertaining how much water there was in 

 the quantity of food consumed by the different 

 breeds, we are enabled to see exactly how much 

 dty food was eaten. This was done. Then, by 

 taking tlie weight of the sheep at the commence- 

 ment and at the end of the experiment, we ai'o 

 enabled to determine their mean weight. Thus, if 

 a sheep weighed 100 lbs. at the commencement of 

 the experiment and 150 lbs. at the conclusion, we 

 should call its mean weight 125 lbs. Now, if this 

 sheep eat 3 lbs. of dry food per day, we say that 

 the amount of food consumed by 100 lbs. of live 

 weight would be 2.4 lbs. per day. (If 125 lbs. eats 

 S lbs., 100 lbs. will eat 2.4 lbs.) Knowing the 

 weight of the sheep, then, at the commencement 

 and at the end of the experiment, and also the 

 quantity of total , food consumed (and the exact 

 quantity of dry matter which it contained), we are 

 enabled to calculate how much 100 lbs. of live 

 weight of the different breeds consumed of dry 

 food per head per day. The result was as follows: 



Oolswoliis, 2.16 lbs. 



lliiinpshire, 2 01 " 



SUBBrX 2.01 " 



Lcic.'sUir 2.15 " 



HiiK-hreed welbers, 2.02 '• 



Dii. ewes, 2.03" 



In commenting on these figures, Mr. Lawes 

 remarks; "Although there is a general impression 

 among agriculturists that large sheep eat propor- 

 tionally less tliau small sheep, it is evident that 

 equiil weights of sheep consume equal amounts of 

 food.:'' . 



MAPES' "PROGRESSIVE PRIMAEIES." 



In the June number of the Genesee Farmer for 

 last year, we alluded to a new and strange doctrine 

 of Mr. Mapks in regard to what he calls *' the Pro- 

 gression of Primaries." He asserts that an atom 

 of jX)tash, or any other element of plants, is of no 

 value as a numure till it has been taken up by a 

 plant and organized ; and that the oftener it has 

 beeu organized or "progressed" in plants or ani- 

 mals the more valuable it becomes as manure. At 

 that time we mentioned facts that clearl}-- disproved 

 the truth of his assertions; but he has never re- 

 plied to them. 



Mr. Mapes is a manufacturer of artificial man- 

 ures, an agricultural editor, and an advocate of 

 soil-analyses and twenty-five dollar "letters of 



advice," The best chemists are now of opinion that 

 soil-anftly.ses are of little practical utility, from the 

 fact that the elements of plants exist in soils in 

 such small quantity that analysis cannot determine 

 the amount with suflicient accuracy to render the 

 results reliable; but on the other hand, tliese ele- 

 ments exist in manures in so much greater quantity 

 that ordiiuiry analysis is sufficiently accurate to de- 

 termine precisely their value. 



Prof. S. W. Johnson has made several analyse^ of 

 Mapes' manures, and finds them very inferior aiti- 

 cles. Mapes, while still advocating soil-analyses, 

 now denies the ability of a chemist to tell from an- 

 alysis the value of a manure; and in order to sus- 

 tain this position, he has invented the doctrine of 

 "progressive primaries!" While admitting that 

 chemists can determine the amount of ammonia, 

 plKjsphate, potash, etc., in a manure, he asserts that 

 they are unable to tell whether these substances 

 have been "progressed" or not, and therefore, he 

 says, the analysis is useless. 



If Mr. Mapes' views were confined to his own 

 paper, we should not deem it worth our while to 

 discuss this subject; but a respectable agricultural 

 journal has recently published an account of a visit 

 to Mapes' farm and factory, in which this doctrine 

 is set forth in a manner calculated to lead farmers 

 to think that it may not be altogether destitute of 

 truth. This, then, is our apology for again alluding 

 to a doctrine which every intelligent chemist must 

 deem unworthy of serious consideration. 



The article to which we have alluded, after stat- 

 ing Mapes' doctrine, says : 



"The question now i.s, what led to this discoveiy, 

 and what are the facts which support it? I will 

 endeavor to give them. It is well known that for 

 a number of years Prof. Mapes has been engaged 

 in the manufacture of what is called the super- 

 phosphate of lime. This he makes from tlie phos- 

 phate of lime found in bones, by treating it with 

 sulphuric acid, which changes it to a superphos- 

 phate. A few years ago, at Dover, New Jersey, 

 was discovered a great amount of the mineral phos- 

 phate of lime. Tiie best chemists of the country 

 examined it, and found it to contain 98 per cent, of 

 this material, or purer than it exists in bones. Here 

 was a chance to ju-ocure an inexhaustible supj>ly 

 of the very substance chemistry said would nuike 

 our wheat fields tliree times as productive as now,, 

 at a tririin^ expense, as well as make a fortime for 

 those who should prepare and sell it. Pi'of. Mapei 

 had a quantity shi[)ped to his factory, treated it 

 with acid, aud experimented with it by the side of 

 his bone phosphate. The result was, after repeated 

 experiments, that while the bone i)liosphate pro 

 duced good result*, this either produced no result, 

 or a positive injury. Upon an.-ilyzing the soil after 

 a crop had been grown, he found the plant had ii. 

 all cases taken up the bone phosphate, but had left 



