550 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



MISTAKE IN THE USE OF CONCEN- 

 TRATED rERTIIilZEKS. 



There has never been a doubt in our mind, 

 that pure, concentrated fertilizers, or com- 

 mercial manures, as they are called, may be 

 made profitable to the common farmer. We 

 have used Coe's superi)hosphate of lime with 

 marked elfects, and portions of the same lot 

 distributed among neighbors were equally effi- 

 cacious. The objection to them is, that they 

 are compounded of several articles, a large 

 portion of which are not worth or.e-tenth of 

 the price paid for them. 



Another cause of failure in them, is in the 



manner of their application. The reader will 



find below, from that excellent paper, 'Hie 



Boston Journal of Chemistry, a clear state 



ment of how many failures occur : 



"The cause of failure in the use of concentrated 

 fertilizers," the Journal says, "is often due to the 

 manner in which they arc applied. It is difficult 

 for those wlio have been acaistomed to use bulky 

 manures, to realize that the full fertilizing potency 

 of a bushel of animal excrenicnt may lie held in a 

 large-sized tal)Iespoon, and that a handful of one 

 adds to plant structures as decidedly as several 

 shovelfuls of the other. A full dose of opium 

 given to patients furnishes cjuite a dark, bulky 

 powder, or pill ; but if we separate the alkaloidal 

 principle upon which its hypnotic power depends, 

 we have onlv a little delicate white powder whicli 

 a breath of wind will blow away. The one-eighth 

 grain ])owder will affect the human organism as 

 powerfully as ten times the weight of opium. If 

 we were so forgetful of 'potencies' as to adminis- 

 ter as much, or even one quarter as much, of the 

 white concentrated powder as of the bulky dark 

 one, we should destroy our patient's life, or at 

 least do great injury to his health. So if, in the 

 use of genuine superphosphate, or guano, or ground 

 bones and ashes, we forget their power, and apply 

 too much, or apply them too directly, we endanger 

 the life of our pl-ants. 



An experiment made upon corn affords an illus- 

 trative case in point. At the time of planting, 

 upon a lield divided by a narrow strip of sward 

 land, wx' directed that on one side a tal^lespixjnful 

 of the mixed bone and ashes should he placed in 

 each hill, and well covered with soil; upon the 

 other, four rows were to l)e treated similarly, and 

 upon the remainder the hills should receive a 

 double ([uantity. It is curious to observe the ef- 

 fects. I he (irst field and the four rows are re- 

 markabl>- thrifty. The corn came up well, and 

 has manifested remarkable vigor from the start. 

 On the other hand, the over-dosed corn a))i)cared 

 for a long while as if it had been jiaralyzed by 

 some wasting disease. It could not bear up under 

 so much of a good thing. More free aiumoiiia was 

 formed at the start than could be apiirojiriated l)y 

 the tender plants, and numy of tliem perished 

 from over-stimulation anil heat, producecl by the 

 fermentative changes of the active Iwdies in con- 

 tact. The corn that survived, is at present growing 

 finely, and will no doubt afford a large yield. 



Now, if this had hapiiened in the course of oin- 

 regular agricultural lalnjrs, and without any lui- 

 derstanding cjf the luuure of tiie fertilizing sul)- 

 stancc used, it is prol)al)le it would have been con- 

 demned as a worthless or dangerous article. This 

 has been the case with hundreds of expcrunents. 



and is indeed a perfectly natural conclusion to 

 reach. But we must learn to reason, learn to have 

 ])atit'ncc, learn the character of the substances we 

 employ upon our lauds. We must be careful how 

 we reach conclusions; we must examine closely to 

 see if they arc based upon correct grounds. There 

 are well established principles in agriculture; let 

 us cling to them, and when we get results that are 

 puzzling or paradoxical, we must study causes, 

 and not judge hastily." 



FARMING AND GARDENING. 



Most farmers confess that a good kitchen 

 garden is a very profitable thing. But many 

 of them have none. Ask them why they do 

 not, and the reply will be, "Oh, I can't 

 stop to fuss with a garden ; pulling weeds, and 

 thinning and hoeing all the time." But why 

 not, if a garden is profitable ? 



One leading cause of unprofitable farming 



is that too much poor land is employed. If 



less land were used, and that used made richer, 



more like a garden, more profit would be 



found in farming. 



In a late numlier of the North British Agricul- 

 turist, Mr. J. J. Mechi says :— "I could never un- 

 derstand why there should l)e any dillerence be- 

 tween gardening and farming as regards draining, 

 deep cultivation, and abundance of manure and 

 produce. I have asked why there should l)e any 

 ditference, and I am told by farmers : 1. That it 

 would not pay to treat the garden as they do the 

 farm— they would not grow enough. 2. When I 

 say that is the strongest argument for gardening 

 the land, I am told by the same parties that they 

 have neither manure or capital enough ; they don't 

 mean acreable capital enough, but, in jilain Eng- 

 lish, they admit that they hold too much land in 

 proportion to their capital. Now there is nothing 

 so easy as to double a farmer's acreable capital. I 

 often say to my farming friends who have 600 acres 

 of land, and complain of want of capital, 'take a 

 farm of only 300 acres, and you will at once double 

 voiu- acreable capital, and from my practical expe- 

 rience I can assure you that you will thus consid- 

 erably increase your percentage of protit.' " 



"WINE AND TEMPERANCE, 

 A good well ripened grape is a most delicious 

 fruit. And sometimes when we have had to con- 

 tent ourselves with the immature, perhaps frost- 

 l)itten berries of our own vines, we have almost en- 

 vied those who live in climates which are mild 

 enough to ripen the grape,— to perfect its rich ex- 

 cellencies. But the perusal of a paper which was 

 read before the Wisconsin Horticultural Society and 

 pul)lishedin its Transactions for 1871, makes us feel 

 more like giving expression to our gratitude that 

 our lives have fallen in pleasant places where the 

 fruit of the vine is not a success. The author of 

 the paper alluded to is Hon. Samuel D. Hastings of 

 Madison. He shows most conclusively the fallacy 

 of the idea that light wines or any other wines pro- 

 mote temperance. The testimony of such Ameri- 

 can travelers in Europe as J. Femiimore Cooper, 

 the novelist, Henry Greenough, the Sculptor, E. C. 



