FERTILIZERS. 87 



For rutabagas, to produce teu to eleven tons over the natural yield: One 

 hundred pounds ground bones, forty pounds oil of vitriol, two hundred and 

 seventy-five pounds sulphate of ammonia, six hundred pounds sulphate of 

 potash, one hundred and fifty pounds laud plaster, thirty-five pounds sul- 

 phate of soda. 



The above formulas are given in quantities for one acre of each kind of 

 crops. 



It requires one hundred pounds oil of vitriol to dissolve forty pounds 

 ground bones. Put the ground bones into a water-tight plank box and soak 

 the bone with water for two or three days, tnming on about twenty-five 

 pounds of water to each one hundred pounds of bone; then turn on your oil 

 of vitriol and stir it thoroughly with a wooden stick, two or three times a day 

 for five or six days, then mix in the sulphate of ammonia, next the muriate 

 if potash and sulphate of soda, and lastly the land plaster; thoroughly mix 

 he whole mass together. To dry it o!f and make it fit to handle, incor- 

 porate dry muck, fine charcoal or sawdust, but do not use lime or wood 

 ashes as a dryer. Sometimes farmers cau collect bones on their own or 

 neighboring farms, or get them very cheap from a butcher, in this case they 

 want to mash them up fine with a sledge, and about sixty pounds oil oi 

 vitriol used to one hundred pounds of coarse bones. 



FertUixers v.*. Plant Food. — The Fannei'^s Magazine aiid Patron's 

 (ritide says: Experiments are becoming continually reported by farmer* 

 that are misunderstood, and lead to conclusions, on the part of the experi- 

 menters at least, that are detrimental to agricultural progress. Take an 

 example now before us, that of a farmer who used Ume, superphosphate, 

 guano, salt, a chemical fertilizer, and no manure, on as many plots of wheat. 

 The yield in each case was good, varying from twelve bushels on the unma- 

 nured to twenty-six to thirty-five bushels for the manured plots. The lime 

 gave the greatest apparent projU per acre, though the yield was not so large 

 as where guano, chemical and superphosphates were used. Reasoning from 

 the figures alone, this experimenter thinks ho has a guide for future prac- 

 tice in wheat farming, and accordingly has now put seventy acres in winter 

 wheat manured only with lime. 



We shall be interested to learn the result of several years of this practice, 

 but predict that it will prove an unprofitable venture. The soil on which 

 this experiment was tried is naturally fertile clay wheat soil. Lime on such 

 land always has a good efiect for one or two applications — not as plant food, 

 however, but in acting upon the soil chemically to make available that 

 fertilitj- which is contained in the soil, but in an unavailable condition. Lime 

 arlds no element to the soil, but forces it to yield up its stores of fcrtihty. It 

 sheuld not be understood from this that lime is not plant food, for it is: but 

 the great majority of soils, if not all, contain so much of it already that there 

 is no necessity for supplying more. This lime, however, is in such a form 

 that it does not have the efifect upon the soil of newly appUed freshly slaked 

 lime. 



It is a wise economy to utilize whatever of fertility the soil contains, but 

 it must be done judiciously and not- wastefully. So soon as it is found that 

 the application of lime no longer produces adequate crops, the true reason 

 should be assigned to the result, and that reason is that the supply of plant 

 food is being exhausted, and outside sources must be called upon to make 

 up the deficiency. 



Jt is legitimate and Draper to draw upon our bank account, b\x\ 



