24 SUPPLEMENT. 



proper physical condition of the soil increases its disposition to 

 a'»sorb atmospheric plant food, we find that stable manure, and 

 green crops turned under, are the best fertilizers ; tlie only 

 precaution recommended consisting in the advice to apply them 

 in time to have tiiem disintegrated before the beets are planted. 

 The successful sugar-beet cultivator adheres to the rule to sell 

 nothing without replacing it in some form or other, except what 

 he has drawn from the atmosphere, the sugar, — considering 

 almost everytiiing else part of his real estate, which he cannot 

 dispose of without injuring its value. Whatever he sells, be- 

 sides sugar, is merely a matter of exchange ; the mineral con- 

 stituents, and to a certain extent the nitrogen, which the articles 

 sold contain, whether in the form of milk, grain, or live stock, 

 produced upon his farm, he brings carefully back, either by buy- 

 ing fertilizers, or better, by buying hay to manufacture the 

 manure on his grounds. 



We find no definite relation between the organic portion of 

 plants and their mineral constituents ; yet we know that aa 

 abundant supply of both nitrogenous and mineral substances 

 controls the amount of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, absorbed 

 for the formation of the organic constituents of plants, and that 

 the available amount of these substances thus manifestly decides 

 their final annual growth. It is thought best for this reason 

 to calculate the amount of manure required for the production 

 of a satisfactory crop from the quantity of nitrogen and mineral 

 constituents, which a full crop contains. The form in which we 

 apply the manures usually varies widely. They are rarely of a 

 homogeneous nature, and require, therefore, more or less time 

 for disintegration and final absorption ; larger quantities of 

 manure are consequently applied in starting a crop than it actu- 

 ally requires. It may be of interest to some to notice a few of 

 those figures, which are commonly used as bases for the calcu- 

 lations of the time required to reap the full benefit of various 

 kinds of manure. 



