26 TALKS OX MANURES. 



from this, that when only the grain is sold off the farm, it takes 

 more than thirteen crops to remove as much mineral matter from 

 the soil as is contained, in the whole of one crop. Again, the ash 

 of the grain contains less than 3 per cent of sulphuric acid, so 

 that the 46 Ibs. of ash, in 75 bushels of corn, contains less than 1| 

 Ibs. of sulphuric acid, and thus, if an acre of soil contains 2,000 

 Ibs. of sulphuric acid, we have sufficient for an annual crop of 75 

 bushels per acre for fifteen hundred years ! 



" As I said before," continued the Doctor, " intelligent farmers 

 seldom, sell their straw, and they frequently purchase and consume 

 on the farm nearly as much bran, shorts, etc., as is sent to market 

 with the grain they sell. In the ' Natural History of New York,' 

 it is stated that an acre of wheat in Western New York, of 30 

 bushels per acre, including straw, chaff, etc., removes from the 

 soil 144 Ibs. of mineral matter. Genesee wheat usually yields 

 about 80 per cent, of flour. This flour contains only 0.7 per cent 

 of mineral matter, while fine middlings contain 4 per cent ; coarse 

 middlings, 5 } per cent; shorts, 8 per cent, and bran 8 per cent 

 of mineral matter or ash. It follows from this, that out of the 144 

 Ibs. of mineral matter in the crop of wheat, less than 10 Ibs. is 

 contained in the flour. The remaining 134 Ibs. is found in the 

 straw, chaff, bran, shorts, etc., which a good farmer is almost sure 

 to feed out on his farm. But even if the farmer feeds out none of 

 his wheat-bran, but sells it all with his wheat, the 30 bushels of 

 wheat remove from the soil only 26 Ibs. of mineral matter; and it 

 would take more than five crops to remove as much mineral mat- 

 ter as one crop of wheat and straw contains. Allowing that half 

 the ash of wheat is phosphoric acid, 30 bushels remove only 13 

 Ibs. from the soil, and if the soil contains 4,000 Ibs., it will take 

 three hundred and seven crops, of 30 bushels each, to exhaust it." 



" That is to say," said Charley, " if all the straw and chaff is re- 

 tained on the farm, and is returned to the land without loss of 

 phosphoric acid." 



" Yes," said the Doctor, " and if all tlic bran and shorts, etc., 

 were retained on the farm, it would take eight hundred crops to 

 exhaust the soil of phosphoric acid; and it is admitted that of all 

 the elements of plant-food, phosphoric acid is the one first to be 

 exhausted from the soil." 



I have sold some timothy hay this winter, and propose to do so 

 whenever the price suits. But some of my neighbors, who do 

 not hesitate to sell their own hay, think I ought not to do so, 

 because I " write for the papers"! It ought to satisfy them to 

 know that I bring back 30 cwt. of bran for every ton of hay I 



