who was well known as a good farmer. "Harrow as often as you think right and then 

 harrow once more," replied the father. The boy who told me this incident added 

 that father always grew big crops of oats. 



There is sound scientific knowledge behind each of these incidents and the know- 

 ledge is of a kind that every farmer should bear in mind in the year 1916 as never 

 before. Big crops are needed. Big crops we must have. Fertilizers, which are largely 

 used in the East, are from twenty to thirty per cent, higher than they were before the 

 war broke out, and while one fears that the high prices may lead to farmers using 

 less fertilizer than usual, yet the fact remains that better cultivation than usual with 

 a smaller application of fertilizer will give bigger results. 



The average of some two hundred soils of Nova Scotia recently analyzed in the 

 chemical laboratory at the Agricultural College shows that each acre of the depth of 

 six inches contains four thousand pounds of nitrogen, three thousand pounds of phos- 

 phoric acid and five thousands pounds of potash. In comparison, a 45 bushel crop of 

 oats plus straw will remove from the soil 52 lbs. of nitrogen, 19 lbs. of phosphoric 

 acid and 38 lbs. potash. This means that even in the first six inches of soil there is 

 enough plant food present to grow upwards of a hundred or more big crops; and then 

 there is the reservoir of the subsoil to draw upon. The trouble, however, is that these 

 vast stores of plant food exist in an insoluble or unavailable condition. Cultivation 

 is the tool with which the farmer can set this plant food free, and it is also the tool that 

 will enable him to get bigger returns from the manure and fertilizer which he adds to 

 the soil. 



In general, the fields of Eastern Canada are not big. Moreover, one more harrow- 

 ing or cultivating calls for horse labour to a greater extent than man labour. Let it 

 be the aim, therefore, of every farmer at least in Eastern Canada in the year 1916 to 

 cultivate just once more, and then, if he has time — once more. 



GROWING POTATOES ON SANDY SOILS 



A. L. GIBSON, B.S.A., Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph. 



Potatoes are an ideal crop to grow on soils of a sandy nature. Probably no crop 

 can be made to give more profitable returns on sandy soils than potatoes. Even our 

 poorest Ontario sands can usually be made to produce a very profitable crop. Such 

 soils will yield potatoes of the highest quality and practically free of disease. Had 

 all the available sandy soils of Ontario been devoted to potatoes where possible in the 

 season of 1915, the scarcity of potatoes would have been unknown; moreover a large 

 area of the heavier soils where potatoes were almost a complete failure,* could have 

 been devoted to a more successful purpose. 



Experiments with Potatoes on Norfolk Sands — During the past year the 

 Department of Chemistry at the Ontario Agricultural College commenced experiments 

 with potatoes on the poorest of Norfolk County sand. These experiments showed 

 that providing a sand is properly treated and fed, remarkable yields can be obtained 

 even in one year. In the case of the soil mentioned the ground was ploughed in the 

 fall and received a dressing of 10 tons fresh cow manure, containing very little straw. 



Effect of Lime on Sand — An application of lime to sandy soils invariably pays 

 even though the soil may not appear sour by the litmus paper test. Early in the 

 spring a dressing of two tons of limestone dust was given, followed by a thorough 

 cultivation of the disc cultivator and harrow. Besides permanently improving the 



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