24 MODERN HIGH FARMIHG. 



On the one half of a completely exhausted field, plentifully man- 

 ured with nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilizers, he caused to be 

 sown a sufficiency of the finest quality grain. This sowing produced 

 a crop of extreme poverty. 



On the other half of the same field to which the same manure 

 had been applied, but with the addition of potash, he sowed exactly 

 the same quantity and quality of grain, and produced a crop of mag- 

 nificent appearance and extreme abundance. 



Exactly similar results have attended many experiments of our 

 own upon plants of the leguminous species, and it therefore seems 

 evident that due weight must be attached to the opinion of those 

 who affirm that putting back potash into the soil, is quite as necessary 

 in some cases as the addition in others of phosphate of lime. 



We must not overlook that we have not yet penetrated into all 

 the mysteries of plant life and plant feeding ; that many things daily 

 occur which overthrow or considerably shake the conclusions we had 

 already formed and the theories we had built upon them ; also that 

 results obtained in some regions and by some agencies are often dia- 

 metrically opposed in other places, although the surroundings appear 

 to be the same. 



We should, therefore, carefully guard ourselves against the adop- 

 tion of those extreme views which have prompted some excellent 

 chemists to teach us that potash has no merits as a manure, and 

 which have induced others to assert that no perfect crops can be pro- 

 duced without its active intervention. 



Joining our own experiences to those of many important agricul- 

 turists in France and England, with whom we have corresponded 

 on the subject, we are content to endorse the opinions of George 

 Ville ; and to look upon the use of potassic salts as highly beneficial, 

 if not indispensable. 



The principal commercial sources of our potash are the mines of 

 Stassfiirt, Germany, where in the various forms of sylvine, ktiinit, 

 and carnallite, it was discovered in 1858 in proximity to the beds of 

 chloride of sodium (common salt). We generally meet with it as a 



