COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 27 



proved that with one-quarter of the land "resting under grass more 

 profit can be got than if the whole were under culture. 



When the rotation, by placing a portion of the land under grass, 

 cannot be done, then it is absolutely necessary to use stable manure, 

 at least to some extent, if the best results are desired, for continuous 

 cropping of the soil. Where concentrated fertilizers only are used, 

 they will not continue to give satisfactory results after the grass roots 

 or other organic matter have passed from the soil, all of which will 

 usually be entirely gone by the third or fourth year after breaking up. 

 I have long held the opinion, that the idea of lands having been per- 

 manently exhausted by tobacco or other crops, is a fallacy. What 

 gives rise to this belief, I think, is the fact that, when lands are first 

 broken up from the forest or meadow lands, for three or four years 

 the organic matter in the soil, the roots of grasses, leaves, etc., not 

 only serves to feed the crops, but it keeps the soil in a better state 

 of pulverization, or what might be called aerated condition, than when, 

 in the course of cropping for a few years, it has passed away. Stable 

 manure best supplies this want ; but on farm lands away from towns, 

 it is not often that enough can be obtained to have any appreciable 

 effect on the soil, and hence artificial fertilizers are resorted to, which 

 often fail, not from any fault in themselves, but from the fact that, 

 exerting little mechanical influence on the land, it becomes compacted 

 or sodden, the air cannot get to the roots, and hence failure or partial 

 failure of crop. 



Thus we see that to have the best results from commercial fer- 

 tilizers, it is of great importance to have the land " rested " by a crop 

 of grain or grass every three or four years. 



The best known fertilizers of commerce are Peruvian guano and 

 bone dust, though there are numbers of others, such as fish 

 guano, dry blood fertilizer, blood and bone fertilizer, with the 

 various brands of superphosphates, all of more or less value for fer- 

 tilizing purposes. It is useless to go over the list, and we will con- 

 fine ourselves to the relative merits of pure Peruvian guano and pure 

 bone dust. Guano, at $65 per ton, we consider relatively equal in 

 value to bone dust at $40 per ton, for in the lower priced article we 

 find we have to increase the quantity to produce the same result. 

 Whatever kind of concentrated fertilizer is used, we find it well 

 repays the labor to prepare it in the following manner before it is 

 used on the land : 



To every bushel of guano or bone dust add three bushels of either 

 leaf mould (from the woods), well pulverized dry muck, sweepings 

 from a paved street, stable manure so rotted as to be like pulverized 

 muck, or, if neither of these can be obtained, any loamy soil will do ; 



