MARSHALL P. WILDER'S ADDRESS. 585 



sired to raise ruta baga turnips. It was found deficient of the 

 following constituents of that crop, phosphate of lime, potash, 

 organic substances, including a slight quantity of animal or ni- 

 trogeneous matter. These being supplied, the result was four- 

 teen hundred bushels to the acre, as per certificate to the Leg- 

 islature. He also analyzed the soil of a field for Dr. John 

 Woodhull, which he had appropriated to the growth of wheat, 

 and from which he obtained on the preceding year less than 

 fifteen bushels to the acre. After supplying the deficient 

 constituents, he obtained the succeeding year fifty-seven bush- 

 els to the acre. Another instance was on the farm of Robert 

 Rennie, certified to before the committee of the Legislature, 

 showing the great advantage of subsoiling and thorough culti- 

 vation. It was discovered by chemical analysis, that the 

 surface soil was deficient in constituents which abounded in 

 the subsoil. He prescribed subsoiling and a thorough mixture 

 of the upper and lower soils. Some gentlemen who came to. 

 witness the operation, went away in disgust at the great depth 

 of the ploughing, but the success of the experiment at length 

 changed their disgust to admiration. The preceding crops 

 were fifteen bushels of corn and sixty bushels of potatoes to 

 the acre ; but the succeeding, one hundred and fifty bushels 

 of cars of corn, and three hundred and fifty bushels of pota- 

 toes. Such facts have been obtained by other scientific men,, 

 both in America and Europe. They might be multiplied in- 

 definitely. We have space for only one more. 



A gentleman in Maryland, whose cornfield appeared to be in- 

 the last stages of consumption, yielding less than one bushel to 

 the acre, applied to a distinguished chemist, who, upon an 

 analysis of the soil, discovered that it contained sufiicient lime, 

 potash, magnesia, and organic matter duly mixed with alumina 

 and sand. One requisite for fertility only was wanting. This was 

 phosphoric acid, which was supplied at an expense of ten dol- 

 lars per acre, and the result was a crop of twenty-nine bushels 

 of wheat to the acre. 



Thus science teaches the secret of successful farming, the 

 multiplication of products, without the increasing expense of 

 adding field to field ; in other words, the importance of scien- 

 74 



