170 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[November, 



cesses of vital importauce to the suHtenauce of 

 the plant, which are continually going on in 

 the soil, but which the analysis does not re- 

 veal. 



Most of our artificial manures are only 

 special fertilizers. Guanos, phosphntes, fish 

 and bone manures and tlie like, contain more 

 or less nitrogen, phosphoric acid and lime ; the 

 super-phosphates contain sulphuric acid also. 

 With the exception of some to which tlie Ger- 

 man potash salts have been added, very few 

 of them contain any appreciable quantities of 

 magnesia or potash. Tliey supply part but 

 not all the materials wliich soils may lack. 



Many farmers find that guano, fish and 

 other special fertilizers whose action is quick 

 and stimulating, seem to leave their soil in a 

 more exhausted condition than before they 

 were ajjplied. And the complaint is not un- 

 common that such fertilizers do not bring the 

 same return as formerly. 



May we not at least question whether the 

 immediate effect of these special fertilizers has 

 not been, in many cases, to aid the plant to 

 use the more available stores of food in the 

 soil, mitil these latter have become so far ex- 

 hausted as no longer to respond to the stimula- 

 ting action of the special manures ? 



If the above supposition be correct, it is 

 clear that what such exhausted soils need, is 

 something to supply, not only the nitrogen 

 and pho.sphoric acid of the guano or fish, or 

 bone, or superphosphates, or other special 

 fertilizers, but also the jjotash and other min- 

 erals that these latter do not furnish. 



Ashes are, for many soils, a standard fer- 

 tilizer. Places where a tree or a brush-heap 

 has been burned often show the effects orthe 

 manuring for years. It is a trite saying, tliat 

 " the land never forgets aslies." Ashes sup- 

 ply directly all the soil ingredients of plant 

 food except nitrogen. Their indirect action 

 is also, very likely, not nnimiwrtant in render- 

 ing other materials in the soil available. In- 

 stead of wearing out soils, they strengthen 

 them. May not this difference be due, in part 

 at least, to the fact that they furnish the other 

 ingredients of plant food that the guano and 

 fish lack ? 



Stable manure furnishes all tlie ingredients 

 of plant food. It is a complete fertilizer. 

 Farmers do not complain that it helps to ex- 

 haust their land. 



There are soils which, by applications of 

 nitrogen and phosphric acid, in the fijrm of 

 guano, bone or nitrogenous superphosphates, 

 may be made to bear good crops year after year. 

 They supply of themselves the other materials 

 needed. They have abundant stores of mag- 

 nesia and potash, and so on, and by weather- 

 ing, tillage, and the action of the fertilizing 

 materials added, these are worked over from 

 unavailable forms into those wliich the plant 

 can use. 



But such is not always the case. Among 

 the exhausted and woru-ont soils of New 

 England there are a great many which lack 

 more than nitrogen, phoshoric acid, sulphuric 

 acid and lime. 



This is very strikingly illustrated in the 

 elaborate experiments of Prof. F. H. Storer, 

 at the Bussey Institution at Jamaica Plain, 

 Mass. These were made niion what Prof. 

 Storer calls "a very good representative of 

 the light, leachv soils that overlie gravelly 

 drift in New England." In these experi- 

 ments, which continued through a series of 

 years, different crops were raised with differ- 

 ent manures, the same crop being grown with 

 the same manure, on the same plot, year after 

 year. Those raised with fertilizers contain- 

 ing nitrogen and phosphoric acid only, .showed 

 very little good effect from the manuring, 

 while the potash compounds brought the most 

 satisfactory returns. As Prof Storer says, 

 the "crying want " of this land was for pot- 

 ash. There are doubtless many such soils in 

 Connecticut. 



Some time ago, an intelligent farmer asked 

 the writer which were the better fertilizers- 

 phosphates or potash salts ? Tlie reply was, 

 and I knew no better one, "potash salts where 

 potash is needed, phosphates where phosphoric 



acid is needed, and nitrogenous manures 

 where nitrogen is needed. But if you do not 

 know what your soil lacks, and want to make 

 sure of a crop, and enrich your. land at the 

 same time, use your nitrogenous superi)hos- 

 phates and German potash salts together. 

 The former will furnish nitrogen, phosphoric 

 acid, sulphuric acid and lime ; the latter, pot- 

 ash and magnesia. Thus you will have a fer- 

 tilizer with all that the plant needs — a com- 

 plete manure. At the same time, it is well to 

 remember that you may feed your crops, not 

 only directly by giving them these ingredients 

 in guanos, phosphates, potash salts, and so on, 

 but indirectly by rendering stores of plant 

 food, present in the soil or atmosphere, avail- 

 able through tillage and the use of cheaper 

 fertilizers. A little lime or plaster may some- 

 times be tlius more valuable than an amount 

 of phosphates or potash salts that would cost 

 several times as much." 



GOOD TILLAGE. 



In the head-line of one of our agricultural 

 papers may be seen every week the broad state- 

 ment that " good tillage is manure." There 

 is in tliis statement a good deal of truth very 

 concisely expressed. While good tillage is not 

 really manure, it is capable of greatly aiding 

 manure in its work, and, under certain condi- 

 tions, may be made in a great measure to take 

 its place. There is no doubt that with good 

 culture as large crops can be produced with a 

 small quantity of manure as can be obtained 

 with a mucli larger application of fertilizers 

 and inferior tillage. It is a well established 

 fact that very large crops have been grown on 

 ordinary land without manuring, and that the 

 only reason of this success was the thorough 

 tillage which was given. Even worn-out fields 

 have been made by extra culture to produce 

 fine crops. Many years ago we read of an 

 Irishman who bought a little patch of light 

 land, which had been so thoroughly exhausted 

 as to be considered incapable of producing a 

 paying crop. He determined to sow the piece 

 with rye, and long before the time for sowing 

 lie might have been seen almost every morn- 

 ing wliile the dew was on plowing the field. 

 After awhile lie stopped plowing, remarking 

 that if he should iilow it any more the rye 

 would lodge. The neighbors thought this was 

 a good specimen of Irish intelligence, and made 

 a great deal of sport over it. They were con- 

 fident that he would not get rye enough to pay 

 for his work. But the rye came up and grew, 

 and when a large yield was harvested the neigh- 

 bors concluded that the Irishman knew a great 

 deal more than they thought he did. They 

 could not account for it; but the fact was be- 

 fore them, and they could not deny it. Finally 

 they came to the conclusion that plowing when 

 the dew was on was the chief cause of the 

 large yield ; but it was not the dew so mnch as 

 it was the fining of the soil, which produced 

 the heavy crop. Under the ordinary system 

 of culture, the soil had become exhausted, but 

 considerable plant food still remained in clods 

 and lumps, which the rootlets of the plants 

 could not penetrate, and consequently could 

 not obtain. But the constant plowing and re- 

 plowing of the field pulverized these clods and 

 set the plant food free. The rye was able to 

 olrtain and utilize it, and consequently was 

 very productive. A case somewhat similar 

 once came under own observation. A man 

 leased a tract of land, which vras cold and wet 

 and produced nothing but sour grass and weeds. 

 He dug some ditches, plowed tb.e land and 

 harrowed it with a great deal of care, and 

 planted it with corn. He had but little ma- 

 nure, and on much of the iiiece no fertilizer 

 except plaster and ashes. But he finely ))nl- 

 verized the soil before planting, and cultivated 

 and hoed the crop very often during the sea- 

 son. The neighbors were confident that he 

 would not have any corn on that i)iece of land 

 without manuringit; but he did obtain a fine 

 crop, and when the piece was seeded down 

 grass came in nicely and a good crop of hay 

 was obtained. This was almost wholly owing 

 to good tillage, for without manure the laud 



would not with ordinary culture have produced 

 half a crop. Such cases are common enough 

 to prove beyond a doubt that good tillage is 

 capaljle of largely increasing the production of 

 the land, and farmers ought to take advantage 

 of this. Of course we do not advise any one 

 to neglect to manure liis land, and rely upon 

 good culture to produce good crops. All crops 

 are obtained at the expense of either manure 

 or soil, and if no fertilizer is a])plied they will 

 invariably injure the land. The true way is 

 to manure well and also thoroughly cultivate 

 the crop. Thus the advantages of manure 

 and culture may both be obtained. — Home- 

 stead. 



AMATEUR FARMERS. 



There are many men of means who follow 

 farming as a recreation, and who, while still 

 looking to profit and loss in some respect, still 

 love to try experiments regardless of any 

 immediate gain. These are called fancy farm- 

 ers, and are often laughed at by more practical 

 men. But they are a very useful class, and 

 we symiiathize with an exchange which thus 

 speaks of them : 



No class of men have been ridiculed so 

 much, and none have done so much good, as 

 those who are denominated fancy farmers. 

 They have been, in all times and countries, 

 the benefactors of the men who have treated 

 them with derision. They have been to 

 farmers what inventors have been to manu- 

 facturers. They have experimented for the 

 good of the world, while others have simply 

 worked for their own good. They tested the- 

 ories while others raised crops for market. 

 They have given a dignity and glory to the 

 occupation of farming it never had before. 



Fancy farmers have clianged the wild boar 

 into the Suffolk and Berkshire ; the wild bull 

 of Britain into the Short-horn ; the mountain 

 sheep, with its lean body and hair fleece, into 

 tjie Southdown and Merino. They brought 

 nil the milk of cows from pints to gallons. 

 They have lengthened the sirloin of the bullock, 

 deepened the udder of the cow, enlarged the 

 ham of the hog, given strength to the shoul- 

 ders of the ox, rendered finer the wool of the 

 sheep, added fleetness to the speed of the 

 horse, and made lieautiful every animal that is 

 kei)t in service of man. They have improved 

 and hastened the develoi>meut of all domestic 

 animals til! they hardly resemble the animals 

 from which they sprang. 



Fancy farmers introduced irrigation and 

 under-draining, grinding and cooking food 

 for stock. They have brought guano from 

 Peru and nitrate of soda from Chili. They 

 have introduced and domesticated all the 

 plants we have of foreign origin. They 

 iirought out tlie theory of the rotation of crops 

 as a natural means of keeping up and increas- 

 ing the fertility of the soil. They first ground 

 up gypsum and bones, and treated the latter 

 with acid to make manures of peculiar value. 

 They first analyzed soils as a means of deter- 

 mining wliat was wanted to increase their 

 fcrtilitv. They introduced the most approved 

 methods of raising and distributiniz water. 



Fancy farmers or fancy horticulturists have 

 given us all our varieties of fruits, veaetables, 

 and flowers. A fancy farmer in Vermont a 

 few years ago originated the Early Rose 

 potato, which added millions of dollars to the 

 wealth of the country, and jn'oved to be a most 

 important accession in every part of the world 

 where it was introduced. Another of these 

 same fancy men originated the Wilson straw- 

 berry, and another the Concord grape. It 

 was a fancy farmer that brought the Osage 

 from Texas to the Northern States. 



PLANTING LARGE TREES. 



We were astonished to read a pa|)er lately — 

 a paper which most of us are accustomed to 

 look to witli a good deal of respect — an article 

 against the planting of large trees. It was be- 

 cause people planted large trees that so many 

 trees died. There was barely the ghost of a 

 chance of success for any one who would plant 

 a large one. 



Then we are told what a large tree is in the 



