I876.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



107 



liills, ;iii(l so went on tli*?ir daily caiPR with a 

 liillitir licarl and a more hoiicful spirit. IJiit 

 whrii the suniiiur was ■joiic, ami tlie lirown, 

 willuMcd leavi's fell dead u|i(iii tlu' lartli, tliey 

 stoit^d away tlic rijie fruit, and tlie S(>n;;s of 

 birds were liuslied, and llic iK'aiity and tlic 

 gladness Wen; no more ! ]!ul an artist poet, 

 who loved whativer was hri^^htly akin to his 

 own glowing visions, painted a basket of the 

 golden apples, with their clieeks Unshed like 

 tlio crimson sunset, and whoever looked upon 

 the artist's work with the heart's true love of 

 nature, saw tlurein the blossoming tree, with 

 the suidight shimmering through its branehes, 

 and beard onee more the voices of (be birds, 

 and the evening lireezes, and the sporting oi' 

 the happy little children. Then, deep in their 

 imnost souls, tbey thanked (lod for tlu' per- 

 fecting of the beautiful proiihecy of the Sjiring 

 time, and also for the revealing of the trutli 

 that whatever is lovely jiasses away only to 

 give (ilace to somcUiing noliler and more en- 

 during: "First the blade, then the ear, then 

 the ripe coru iu the ear." 



BARNYARD MANURE AND CHEMICAL 

 FERTILIZERS. 



Prof. Stockbridgc, pf: the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural College, who is, by the l)y, an in- 

 terested witness, being a patentee of some 

 chemical formulas for fertilizers, thus writes in 

 relation to chemical fertilizing : 



" Plants are not uouri.shed by the soil or the 

 manures we mingle with it as sudi, but 1/y 

 certain substances contained iu soils and ma- 

 nures after they have been freed fiom those 

 compounds by chemical change. On an un- 

 decomposed soil, in the pi'esenee of uudecom- 

 posed manures, tlie plant waits or starves for 

 nutritiou, until the ' weather ' develops it. If, 

 now, the season is cold and wet, and the in- 

 terspaces of the soil closed with water, so that 

 the air, witli its warm inlluence to give vigor 

 to roots, with its carbonic acid, ammonia, 

 oxygen and ozone to hasten decomposition, 

 cannot penetrate it ; or if, by severe drought, 

 water in sntlicient quantity for the same piu-- 

 pose is not jiresent, we have just the condition 

 of weather and results of which the fanners 

 complain, though it is such that if absolute 

 plant footl were present, the plant would grow 

 on unimpeded by the influence. [The Profes- 

 sor might explain how the plants could appro- 

 priate the food in the al)sence of water to 

 dissolve it.] Cannot the farmer, to a great 

 extent, manure his land with plant-food, 

 rather than the raw, coarse, undecomposed 

 compounds more generally used V If he can, 

 and does not, he should cease complaining, 

 and acknowledge that his ordinary 'weather' 

 crops are the result of his omission. TTis 

 course of action should be controlled by the 

 rule that only decomiiosed fertilizers, whether 

 stable manures or the substances used in these 

 exiterimeuts, fe(>d plants. 



"Now, allow me to drawsome conclusions ; 

 and I would draw no conclusion any further 

 than my experiments have gone. I would 

 stand exactly on them ; I would be taught by 

 them ; I would advance no theory that the 

 facts do not sustain. The fn'st conclusion at 

 wliicli I arrive, as the result of these experi- 

 ments, is this : that it is im[)osi(ible to make 

 these. poor, worn-out lields of old Ma,ssachu- 

 setts flourish with waving grain, corn and 

 grass, by the use of the chemical elements of 

 plant nutrition. My next conclusion is this : 

 that in order to do tliis it is absolutely neces- 

 sary — and I want to put it stronger than tliat 

 — it is not (lesirabk, to keep cattle for the sake 

 of making barn-yard manure to do that work 

 with. Now some men will dissent from this. 

 I say that it is not desirable to keej) cattle /or 

 the n-prcas inirpoxe. — mark the language— of 

 making barn-yard manure to renovate these 

 fields with. I know some of my brother 

 farmers will say : ' Well, you are going back 

 on tlie bara-yard manure, ain't you V You 

 are going to sny barn-yard manure isn't worth 

 having ; that you wouldn't cart barn-yard 

 manure a mile if anybody would give it to 

 you.' Not at all, gentlemen. I tell you this : 



barn-yard manure is the waste product of cer- 

 tain industries. 



"There are horn and bone waste, the wa.ste 

 of the woolen manufactories, and the waste of 

 every kind of manufactures that have ele- 

 ments of fertility in them. Never waste, tliem. 

 Barn-yard manuie i.s simply a waste product, 

 for We must keep cattle ami horse.t to do our 

 Work on oiu- farms. We must make milk and 

 butler and cheese ; and in this biisiiiess of 

 making butter and cheese, and in keeping 

 stock of any kind to nui oui' fiuins, we nmst 

 make barn-yard manure. Then you comndt a 

 sin if you waste it. Husband your re.souices 

 of every kind ; husband your waste material, 

 whetlu'r barn-yard nianuiv, wool, wastt? horn, 

 waste hair, or whatever it is, U-cause they all 

 contain elements of nutrition; but I venture 

 ti> prophesy that the comnu'rcial value of 

 barn-yard manure iu futuic is to be deter- 

 mined by the commercial value of the elieini- 

 cal elements of plant nulrition. I5ut do not 

 understand me a« saying that barn-yard ma- 

 nure is not valuable, and should not l)e saved, 

 or that all your resources of this kind should 

 not be husfcanded the same as ever." 



KEEPING UP THE FERTILITY. 



It is well known to eveiy observing man 

 w'lro has reached middle age, that our soil has 

 deteriorated in fertility, very much, within the 

 last thirty or forty years. I'eople are awaken- 

 ing to this fact, and 'the subject of restoring 

 and keeping up the fertility now occupies a 

 in'ominent place in agricultural discussions. 

 It can"t l>e too fully discussed, for the welfare 

 of the farmer. 



I'.arnyard manure seems to be sulllcieMt 

 when the stock is larg* enougli. IJut with 

 many of us it falls short of the object to be 

 accomplished. The (pie.stion is, how shall we 

 augment the manure heai>, or find a substi- 

 tute ? Som(? resort to lime, plaster, etc., and 

 for a time, with marked benefit, but they soon 

 awaken to tlK^ fact that thev are oidy increas- 

 ing the crop without benefiting tlie land. 

 Hence, this mode is not reliable. We must 

 keep up the fertility of land, or find, in a few 

 years, that we have sold our cnliital. We 

 must adopt some other method than simply 

 applying substances that develop and utilize 

 the plant food already in the soil, for this will 

 eventually impoverisli it. 



The i)roflts of farming depend largely on 

 the labor performed in jiroducing a given 

 amount of products. If we have to turn ovrv 

 two to five times the soil to produce fwenty- 

 five or thirty bushels of wlu'at, the profits de- 

 crease in a corresponding ratio. The solution 

 of both problems — fertility and profit — is 

 found just here. We have tweii farming too 

 much. We have been plowing and sowing 

 and overstocking for years, until we find that 

 fertility and profit are disapiiearing together. 

 The remedy is plain. Concentrate our opera- 

 tions, do well what is done. We must sow 

 less grain and produ(!C more to the acre ; keep 

 less stock, and make one steer weigh as much 

 as two ; let more grass grow and turn under 

 more of it than we have been doing. This is 

 the way to supply the defi('ieney of barnyard 

 manure. Let those who are incredulous 

 about the great fertilizing qiialitii'S of .crass, 

 observe the dillerence between the growth of 

 vegetation on old fence rows that iiave been 

 undisturbed for years, and that on fields that 

 have long been cropped. The fa<'t is, sod is 

 the cream of our soil, and by permilting it to 

 attain some growth and then idowiuLT it un- 

 der, we are pla<'ing something there that will 

 add to the ferlilily. We can do this by crop- 

 l)ing less, keeping less stock, and doing every- 

 thing thoroughly. 



A neighboring farmer had a field that was 

 hopelessly worn out, almost. He .izotit seeded 

 to English cloverand let it lay two years with- 

 out removing anythimr. He then plowed it 

 and planted in corn, and the, croii was an ex- 

 cellent one. It hardly .seems necessary for 

 laiiil to remain poor, even in the absence of 

 barnyard manure, when nature has furnislied 

 us so cheap a fertilizer ; and it need not, were 



it not fm- the mistaken gn^ed of the cultivator. 



A .system of rotation is too common among 

 us. It is about ;us follows: Corn, freiiuently 

 two an<l three crops ; oats, wheat, gra.s», 

 which is mowed or jiastured for a year or two, 

 all the growth removed clean until the roots 

 are destroyed and the grass run out. Thi'U it is 

 plowed u)) again and the draining process re- 

 peated. It is a mistake to suppose grass can 

 cmich land when not a spire is left to grow or 

 .sod to form. 



Whi'ii we leaui to add as much to oiir ^oil 

 a.s we ab.stract from it in crops, we shall hear 

 less complain about hard tiuies- -le».s aiioiit 

 quitting the liusiue.ss and going at something 

 elije— less about selling our farms and moving 

 West to iijjd a virglxi .soil that cannot. lie ex- 

 hausted. — Cm'rcspondenve Z'rocttcaJ Fanner. 



SURFACE-STIRRING THE SOIL. 



Everyone knows by this lime tliivt wet soil 

 is a great injury to growing crops. And yet 

 a regular sujuily of moisture in the soil during 

 the season, is one ipf the- most important ob- 

 jects to accomplish. If soil, es|«-eially wet 

 soil, is left undisturbed, it becomes hard ; 

 technically it "bfiken," and the inniKtare es- 

 capes with marvelous rapidity. It is there- 

 fore an object to keep the surfiu'o loose. 

 Moisture doe-s not escaiie as nipidly througli 

 a loose surface a,s through a compact solid one. 



In imrsnit of this object, however, cultiva- 

 tors often make a great mistake, and much 

 injury results to corn, potatoes, and other 

 things. The cultivator is kitjit running ail 

 summer, the te<'lh tiften peiielr.iting Several 

 inches deep, exposing the upturned .surfa«! to 

 the sun. and in this way a vast amount of 

 moisture evaporalt^ that is really needed by 

 the plants. It is of course much Letter than 

 to have a liaked surface ; but there is a loss 

 for all, and a loss that might be easily saved 

 by a little thought. 



The first stirring in spring should be deep, in 

 order to break nj) the compact earth, especi- 

 ally if the ground was plowed in the fall ; but 

 after this the working should be as .shallow as 

 liossible. Firm .soil — soil crushed anil jiressed 

 when dry — holds moisture iH-tter than in any 

 other (M)iidition, anil is a vei-y dilTerent thing 

 to a merely loose soil through which the cx- 

 teriial air easily goes, and dries the moisture 

 out. The more such iiartially dried soil is 

 pressed, the firmer therefore il becomes, and 

 the more moisture it contains. This is the 

 princnple on which the t;ood elTects of tlu; roller 

 dejiends, and which has so often been ex- 

 lilained in the 2\leiiraph. Rolling and iiress- 

 ing while the soil is somewhat dry is indeed* 

 the whole science of pulverization, the good 

 elTeets of which are so well known. 



While, therefore, the first stirring .should be 

 done with deisp and narrow teeth, so iis to 

 penetrate as deeply as possible, all subsequent 

 workings should be with cultivators having 

 short and broad ti^'lh, just skimming tln' sur- 

 face and cutting ofl instead of tearing iMit (he 

 weeds ; anil this ailvice is good for the one 

 who uses the hoe in the garden, as for he who 

 uses a horse-cultivator iu the fields. 



In any case, the hoe should be starleil early. 

 Hoeing" and ciittivaliiig ha,s now iK-conie 

 among the most laborious of farm and garden 

 ta.sks; and. if the weeds once get ahead, it is 

 terribly hard work to keep them down. The 

 best farmers do not wait for the weeds to ap- 

 jiear, if they can po.ssibly spare the time from 

 other work ; but jiut the cultivator through 

 as soon as the, first spring sun cakes a little the 

 exiiosed earth. The sprouting weeds are thus 

 destroyed in the germ, and the work is com- 

 paratively eii.sy all the sejuson afterward.s. 

 Spring work is generally so i>rissim; that it is 

 not olteii that one can be so foiebanded in 

 the matter of early weeding. Happy is the 

 man who can do it ; all .should aim to gel as 

 near this happiness as possible. — II, rtn'nU'niyn 

 lelegraph. 



The suqilus of wheat inC'alifoniiafor ship- 

 ment this sea.son, is stated to be 7r)(l,(K»0 

 short tons, exceeding by 21X»,(XHJ the surplus 

 of 1875. 



