594 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



magnitude of the prospective calls for this article. In the 

 United States, its cost is about $40 per ton, or two cents per 

 pound, and three hundred and fifty pounds, or seven dollars 

 worth to the acre, will meet any calls for several crops to come. 

 Its pulverulent form makes it of easy application. 



The reclaiming of vast territories of worn out lands in Mary- 

 land and Virginia, by the application of lime and ashes, al- 

 though resulting from experiment, verifies chemistry. 



But we do not want for an abundance of proofs of the direct 

 chemical medications, so to speak, in which the accidental has 

 no possible admission; we have, perhaps, as many as could 

 have been looked for, considering the infancy of the science and 

 its yet few adepts. In New Jersey, near Morristown, (I am 

 indebted to Col. M. P. Wilder for these illustrations,) it was 

 desired to ascertain whether a crop of ruta-ba^a could be raised. 

 Prof. Mapes found that the soil was deficient in phosphate of 

 lime, potash and some of the organic elements. These were 

 supplied directly, and a crop of fourteen hundred bushels to 

 the acre resulted. A field was examined where the crop of 

 wheat had got down the preceding year to less than fifteen 

 bushels. The wanting elements were supplied and its next 

 year's product was fifty seven. In another example the surface 

 of the soil was exhausted of certain constituents, while the 

 subsoil was found to contain them in abundance. Of course 

 subsoiling and thorough incorporation of both spil^ was pre- 

 scribed. Crops of fifteen bushels of corn and sixty bushels of 

 potatoes, were followed by a yield of three hundred and fifty 

 bushels of potatoes and one hundred and fifty bushels of ears 

 of corn. A gentleman in Maryland, whose cornfield, says Mr. 

 Wilder, appeared in the last stages of consumption, applied to 

 a practical chemist for an analysis. It was found to contain 

 the essential ingredients of lime, potash, magnesia, silex, 

 alumina, and what is rarely wanting, oj-ganic matter or mould 

 in abundance. One thing was lacking. It was that same 

 phosphoric acid of which nature has furnished but a small sup- 

 ply. An article was purchased, whether bones, guano, or the 

 mineral phosphate of lime, is not mentioned, at an expense of 

 ten dollars per acre, and the result was a crop of twenty-nine 

 bushels of wheat to the acre. I will bring forward but one 

 more of the hundred of striking exemplifications of the direct 



