SOMETHING ABOUT PLANT-FOOD. 21 



CHAPTER III. 

 SOMETHING ABOUT PLANT-FOOD. 



" The Doctor is in the main correct," said I; "but he does not 

 fully answer the question, * What is manure ? ' To say that manure 

 is plant-food, does not cover the whole ground. All soils on which 

 plants grow, contain more or less plant-food. A plant can not 

 create an atom of potash. It can not get it from the atmosphere. 

 We find potash in the plant, and we know that it got it from the 

 soil, and we are certain, therefore, that the soil contains potash. 

 And so of all the other mineral elements of plants. A soil that 

 will produce a thistle, or a pig-weed, contains plant-food. And so 

 the definition of the Doctor is defective, inasmuch as it makes no 

 distinction between soil and manure. Both contain plant-food." 



" What is your definition of manure ? " asked Charley ; " it 

 would seem as though we all knew what manure was. We have 

 got a great heap of it in the yard, and it is fermenting nicely." 



" Yes," I replied, " we are making more manure on the farm this 

 winter than ever before. Two hundred pigs, 120 large sheep, 8 

 horses, 11 cows, and a hundred head of poultry make considerable 

 manure ; and it is a good deal of work to clean out the pens, pile the 

 manure, draw it to the field, and apply it to the crops. We ought 

 to know something about it ; but we might work among manure 

 all our lives, and not know what manure is. At any rate, we 

 might not be able to define it accurately. I will, however, try my 

 hand at a definition. 



" Let us assume that we have a field that is free from stagnant 

 water at all seasons of the year ; that the soil is clean, mellow, 

 and well worked seven inches deep, and in good order for putting 

 in a crop. What the coming 'season' will be we know not. It 

 may be what we call a hot, dry summer, or it may be cool and 

 moist, or it may be partly one and partly the other. The * season' 

 is a great element of uncertainty in all our farming calculations ; 

 but we know that we shall have a season of some kind. We have 

 the promise of seed-time and harvest, and we liave never known 

 the promise to fail us. Crops, however, vary very much, accord- 

 ing to the season ; and it is necessary to bear this fact in mind. 

 Let us say that the sun and heat, and rain and dews, or what we 

 call ' the season,' is capable of producing 50 bushels of wheat per 

 acre, but that the soil I have described above, does not produce 

 over 20 bushels per acre. There is no mechanical defect in the 

 soil. The seed is good, it is put in properly, and at the right time, 



