ECONOMY OF FARMING. 61 



The proportion of ashes and of potash in a variety of substances are thus given by 

 Burger : 



Of Ashes. Potash. 



100 lbs. of Elm or Maple gave . 2.4 lb. 0.39 lb. 







Oak, 

 Poplar, 

 Box, 

 Fir, 



« •' Vine, 

 « " Fern, 



(( u 

 U (( 



1.35 " 0.155 



1.23 « 0.075" 



0.584 « 0.145 " 

 0.341 « 



3.379" 0.55 " 



5 « 0.626" 



Maize stalks. 

 Wheat straw, 

 *' Oat straw, ... . 5.6 « 0.87 ♦' 



8.3 " 3.6 « 



4.3 « 0.39 « 



Ib Thaer and Schwertz are also many valuable remarks, most of which must be 

 omitted for want of room ; and they are less necessary since the publication and more 

 extensive circulation of the works of Liebig, Johnston, Dana and others, on this 

 subject. Thaer defines the object of all manures to be twofold: to nourish plants, 

 and to help decompose other nutriment for them. — Tr.] 



3. Because the fertility of fields in most farms depends on the manure 

 from the stalls, and other substances used as manures, must be considered 

 as extraordinary ; therefore, the present remarks will relate more particu- 

 larly to manure of the stalls ; and in case other kinds of manure are used, 

 they must be reduced to their value according to the same. 



4. As stall-manure consists of the dung of animals and different 

 vegetable substances mixed therewith, so it is the product of beasts kept on 

 the farm for labor and other uses, of the fodder furnished them, and of the 

 litter laid for them to lie upon. 



5. The nourishment of beasts and men depends on the culture of 

 plants, and the culture of plants on the labor of beasts, and the quantity 

 and quality of manure they produce. The production of beasts and plants 

 is therefore reciprocal. 



6. To bring the cultivation of land into a convenient proportion with the 

 rearing of cattle, in any given case, the husbandman must know : 



1.) How much manure he needs, in order to retain a given amount of 

 field in a fruitful state, and in what proportions the manure is taken from 

 the fields by the production of plants? 



2.) What beasts will produce manure in any given case at the cheapest 

 rate? 



3.) How great must be the number of these beasts ? 



4.) What is the proportion of the weight of fodder consumed, together 

 with the litter employed, to the weight of the manure? 



5.) In what proportions the production of plants for fodder, and materials 

 for litter, must stand to the grains and plants for the purposes of trade ? 



6.) How the different plants cultivated on the fields must follow one 

 another, so that the necessary supply of fodder and litter may be produced, 

 and be coupled with the greatest possible production of plants for grain, oi 

 for trade, without the fields being thereby over-worked, or run to waste, oi 

 any extraordinary improvement being required ? 



7. In the solution of these questions consists the greatest and most 

 essential part of the doctrine of the organization of Land Husbandry ; and 

 a correct tsystem of farming adapted to the nature of the soil, the climate 

 and other local respects, can then first be established, if one knows what 



