10 FERTILIZERS. 



soda, 1 pound ; sulphuric acid, 1 pound ; phosphoric acid, 

 5 J pounds ; chlorine, 1 pound. 



Now, while you are urging on the faithful old horse, 

 sweating and tugging at his load through the mud, into 

 the soft ploughed ground, where the wheels sink nearly 

 to the hubs, put on your thinking-cap, and consider that 

 in that load you are teaming 802 pounds of water on youi 

 land ; and what in the world do we want to do that for, 

 with the ground already so wet that we don't dare stick a 

 plough into it, and are waiting anxiously for the sun to 

 look out with power, and dry it up ? You are teaming 14 

 pounds of silica, which is another name for sand, carrying 

 coals to Newcastle ; for, nine cases out of ten, the soil has 

 already a good deal more sand in its composition than you 

 want there. Of the iron, lime, soda, and chlorine, already, 

 as a rule, the soil has all it needs ; leaving but the nitrogen, 

 the potash, and the phosphoric acid as the only parts oi 

 the big load that are really needed by the crop, no mattei 

 what that is to be. And the 5i pounds of nitrogen, as fax 

 as weight goes, would not be a heavy load for one^ coat- 

 pocket, nor the 5i pounds of phosphoric acid for UP other, 

 nor the 4i pounds of potash for the third. liowerer, there 

 is a little of fiction in this ; for though it is literally true thai 

 all there is of value in that horse-load of manure for the pro- 

 duction of whatever crop you intend to plant, is the nitro 

 gen, potash, and phosphoric acid, which altogethr weigh but 

 15i pounds, still, it is practically not possible to carry them 

 to the field in a pure form : yet in the form of sulphate of 

 ammonia for nitrogen, phosphate of lime from bones, and 

 muriate of potash for potash, they would altogether weigh 

 52 pounds, and might easily be carried in a bushel-basket, 

 which they would but little more than half fill, and yet 

 have in them all the manure value contained in that two 

 feet of manure which the old horse is tugging at. 



