FERTILIZERS. 63 



land. If wheat ia to be grown care must be taken to anpply the necessary 

 amount of phosphates. Wheat, oata, barley, and rye each require a large 

 per cent, of ammonia, which accounts in part for the excellent results that 

 follow the use of ammoniated superphosphates. If a crop of seven hundred 

 and fifty pounds of seed cotton is grown upon an acre of land, about six and 

 one third pounds of phosphoric acid and seven and a half of potash will be 

 taken from the soil. In growing tobacco the soil is qtiiekly exhausted of 

 potash; for this reason excellent results foUow the planting of this crop on 

 newly cleared lands. Manures of all kinds should be carefully saved and 

 appUed to suit the needs of the crop to be grown. Cabbage grows luxuriantly 

 when supplied with green manure. The bean plant, on the contrary, 

 requires that which is thoroughly rotted. Nitrogenous manures greatly in- 

 crease the yield of wheat and other grains, and when used with phosphates 

 on soils of average fertiUty, give a visible increase of root crops also. An- 

 other important factor in enriching the soil is a judicious rotation of crops, to 

 l>e determined to some extent by the soil, climate, and the leading crops to 

 he grown. In the North clover is indispensable, but in the South the com- 

 tield pea answers an excellent purpose, especially for green manuring. In 

 this section^where the soil is clay, and wheat and c«:>m are the leading crops, 

 red clover is indispensable. Soil exhaustion may be measurably prevented 

 by even the simplest of all rotations, that of wheat, followed by clover, and 

 this by com. Such a rotation may be begun by sowing red clover in March 

 upon the fields now seeded with wheat. Sow three pecks of red clover and 

 one peck of mammoth clover, and one peck of timothy seed upon each six 

 acres. The clover should not be pastured for the first year, except far a 

 sufficient time for the hogs to pick up the scattered grain after hani-est. 

 After the Ist of June of the second year the clover can be pastured, but a 

 sufficient quantity of that in which the most timothy grows should be 

 reserved to cut for hay. This system provides for the accumulation of 

 manure in a level yard with raised sides, so that the liqtuds will keep the 

 entire crop of wheat straw and refuse cornstalks and other matter in a moist 

 condition, and the decomposition of these materials is much hastened. After 

 the haying and harvesting season is over, twenty-two horse loads of manure 

 are appUed to the acre on the clover field; that is to be plowed to a depth of 

 eight to ten inches very early the following spring, where the com corp is to 

 be planted. Each load \a divided into eight piles, placed five and one-half 

 yards apart. Before seeding to wheat the com is cut and shocked, and a 

 heavy, sharp-toothed harrow precedes the drill. The high-cut stalks, when 

 harrowed down, act as a mulch for the wheat plants during the winter, and 

 measurably prevent washing even upon high ridges. A great advantage in 

 iliis method of rotation is that the labor required to bring up the land ia 

 April is not half as great as in midsummer, and the com, by t)eing planted 

 lully a week earUer than it can be on similar soils where there is no sod, 

 yields abundantly and matures early, so that there is no delay in seeding 

 with wheat early in the fall. As may be inferred from what has already 

 been said, the prime factors for cheaply enriching the soil and increasing its 

 tertility annually, are the Uberal application of properly-cared-for barnyard 

 manure, and a systematic rotation of crops, of which red clover is the basis. 



Coinpostliig Muunre. — ilixiug manure or fertilizers is laborious work, 

 and if nothing is gained by it, it is labor lost. But something may be gained 

 by it when the condition of the material can be changed for the better, and 

 at the same time something may be lost when anything can be changed for 



