29 



tive, and satisfactory results will not be realized until radical 

 changes are made. 



SCIENCE AND THE CORN CROP. 



The relations of science to agriculture are indeed very close 

 and intimate, but we must not conclude that it is capable of 

 removing all obstacles or of helping us out of all our difficul- 

 ties. In advocating a higher education for soil cultivators, I 

 attach far more importance to its general influence in elevating 

 mind and thought, (thus increasing the powers of induction 

 and analysis), than I do any specific helps, great as those may 

 be. Applying it to the special department of soil fertilization, 

 a field in which it has perhaps conferred its most marked bene- 

 fits, it is manifest that the horizon is not cloudless in that 

 direction, and that many important questions are still involved 

 in doubt. We have a curious illustration of tliis, in the fact 

 that the proper or best form of plant food required by a crop of 

 Indian corn still remains unknown. Messrs. Lawes and Gil- 

 bert, the distinguished experimenters in England, say that a 

 " mixture of nitrate of soda and superphosphate is the best 

 possible manure for corn." Prof. George Yillo, director of 

 the Government farm at Vincennes, France, says, " that 

 nitrate of potash affording 24 pounds of nitrogen and 79 

 pounds of potash ; and acid phosphate of Unie affording 81 

 pounds of acid and 360 of sulphate of lime, are necessary for 

 one acre of corn." Mr. Stockbridge, of the college at Am- 

 herst, gives a formula, which affords 64 pounds of nitrogen, 

 31 of acid, and 77 of potash, for an acre. 



It will be noticed that Lawes and Gilbert omit potash entire- 

 ly, and Prof. Yille and Stockbridge supply it in their formulas. 

 All include nitrogen ; Mr. Lawes specifying no quantity, Mr. 

 Ville nsiqg but little, and Stockbridge a very large amount. 



