CHEMICAL MANURES. 49 



This succession of cultures, treated as I show, always gives mag- 

 nificent harvests. 



I will end these tables with the two fertilizers which I now consider 

 the best for lucerne and the vine : 



Fertilizer for Lucerne for One Year. 



The acre. 

 Quantity. Price. 



Acid phosphate of lime 355 Ibs. $ 5.40 



Nitrate of potash 177 " 10.47 



Sulphate of lime 355 " .67 



Expense $16.54 



Fertilizer for the Vine for Two Years. 

 Complete fertilizer, No. 4, 1332 pounds. 

 Composition : 



Acid phosphate of lime 532 Ibs. $ 8.10 



Nitrate of potash 444 " 26.17 



Sulphate of lime 355 " .67 



Expense $34.94 



Annual expense $17.47 



There is one point, gentlemen, to which I cannot too strictly call 

 your attention : it is the manner of employing the chemical fertilizers. 



It is not injurious to spread manure unequally, provided the in- 

 equality is not too great. 



With the chemical fertilizers, on the contrary, inequality in spread- 

 ing may compromise the success of the harvest. This part of the 

 work needs particular attention. There is an excellent machine for 

 the purpose. When one has not a machine, the best method is to 

 mix the chemical fertilizer with three times its volume of earth, and 

 spread it broadcast after the last ploughing and before harrowing. 

 The addition of the earth corrects the ill effects of irregularity in 

 spreading. This mode of spreading, it is true, involves some addi- 

 tional expense, but it is fully compensated, for if well spread the yield 

 is increased by two to four bushels the acre that is to say, $5 in- 

 crease at a cost of from 40 to 50 cents the ax3re. Here the care is 

 well repaid. 



Another question now presents itself, gentlemen (which I have 

 treated in detail in my discourses of 1864), which need not detain us, 

 but on which I must say a few words, to answer certain fears against 

 which I wish to warn you. 



Not able to deny the results which I have just shown you, because 

 too many agriculturists have verified their exactitude, the following 

 objection is made : 



" The chemical fertilizers are but a precariou s reliance : when their 

 use becomes general the price will become so n lised it will be impos- 

 sible to employ them." 



Some few explanations will suffice, I belie ve, to overthrow this 

 objection. 



Let us take the four terms of the complete fertilizer separately, 

 and balance the sources of each which nature 3ffers. 



