58 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE. 



February, 1921. 



able matter or best of all dried peat from swamps which 

 abounded all over the country and so he advises the 

 making of composts, in respect to which he further said 

 that the temperature should not be allowed to go above 

 100 degrees F. so that it was necessary to fork over these 

 eompo;st heaps whenever the temperature ran too high. 



In reference to these two points, namely, the building 

 of "duugpits" or as we now call them, manure cellars, 

 and the making of composts, Agricola's advice was 

 very widely adopted. The writer recently heard a New 

 York Agriculturist who visited Nova Scotia nearly 

 fifty years ago state that there were more manure 

 cellars in Nova Scotia at that time than in any other 

 part of America with which he was familiar, and the 

 writer himself distinctly rememl)ers that on nearly 

 every farm near his old home, composting, as described 

 in the foregoing, was the regular practice in the 80 s 

 and 90 's and no doubt long before that. 



In dealing with fossil manures Agricola says "They 

 are much more lasting in their effects than the putres- 

 cent and do not stand in need of the same constant and 

 periodical supply." He goes on to recommend the ap- 

 plication of clay to sand and sand to clay and then 

 deals with the application of lime, which he clearly 

 regards to be the most important fossil man- 

 ure with which to improve soil. To the writer 

 the most interesting letter in the whole series 

 is letter 27, in which he deals with the value 

 of lime in a most interesting and lucid manner. 

 While strongly recommending the application of 

 lime he says "Lime may be applied in such excessive 

 doses as to luxuriate on the very principles of life and 

 create a complete blank in vegetation. The first dress- 

 ing of lime, if in sufficient quantities, repays the hus- 

 bandman with tenfold interest: but the second and 

 third are more hazardous and seldom are profitable 

 speculations." In further discussing lime he refers to 

 lime made by burning the carbonated lime, to gypsum 

 or sulphate of lime and to phosphate of lime. Gypsum 

 he regards of little importance in Nova Scotia be- 

 cause it already exists in large quantities, but he de- 

 scribes its wonderful efficacy in t;ie United States, 

 in the cotton growing areas of which it has been used 

 right up to the present time, being largely imported 

 there from Nova Scotia. But one is particularly 

 struck with his failure to appreciate the value of 

 phosphate of lime which is now known to be by far 

 the most important lime combination, constituting as 

 it does a large proportion of all commercial fertilizers. 

 He .says "the phosphate of lime, which is another 

 eomhinatjon of calcareous earth with an acid, is of 

 much less importance, regarded as a manure, than the 

 carbonate and .«ulphate: but it occupies a place here 

 which cannot with any pro]irie.ty be left void." In 

 fui'ther discussing this, he refei-s to the presence of 

 phosphorous in bone of all kinds as well as in plants, 

 but he seems to consider that, in the main, sufficient 

 of this exists naturally in the soil. Upwards of fifty 

 years were yet to elapse before Lawes and Gilbert 

 taught the world ^low to use phasphate of lime to 

 advantage. 



Magnesia, which he describe as one of the fo\ir 

 primary earths, is stated to be somewhat interchange- 

 able with lime, but he adds that it must be used very 

 .sparingly. 



It seems evident that he had not planned to include 



potas;i and soda in his scheme of manures. In fact, 

 he says that Sir Humphrey Davy, his principal source 

 of authority, had not referred to them at all. He, 

 however, says "there can be no doubt that both of 

 these fixed alkalies enter very largely into the veget- 

 able organization and constitute an essential ingred- 

 ient." Later he add) "the power of potash to accel- 

 erate vegetation may be inferred from its abundance 

 in all parts of plants that grow on land." He ad- 

 vises the addition of potash to soils through the ap- 

 plication of wood ashes, and of sodimn through the 

 apjjlication ot common salt, l)ut concludes this discus- 

 sion with the following p,!nlo.sophic if not very .scien- 

 tific expression of his opinion: "The practical agri- 

 culturist will follow a safer course, in being satisfied 

 with that quantity of saline matter which exists m 

 liLs putrescible manui"es, as it is there skilfully com- 

 pounded by that Divine Chemist, who adjusts ail his 

 luitural operations by t/ie nicest results of measure 

 and weight." 



Such in the main is the essence of Agricola's pres- 

 entation of the chemical principles of soils, manures 

 and plant gi'owth, greatly elaborated of course, and 

 delightfully adorned from a literary .standpoint. In 

 adtliiion to the purely .scientific letters, other letters 

 contained advice in respect to the use of farm ma- 

 chinery, especially tlie plow, the harrow and the roller, 

 rotation of crops, drainage and general cultivation, 

 and, as stated in the opening paragraphs of this article, 

 strong recommendations in respect to the organization 

 of Agricultural Societies. The whole series is concluded 

 with a magiiiticent worded tribute to the dignity and 

 permanence ot the pursuit of agru-ulture. 



In comparing t;ie publication with a modern treatise 

 on agriculture, one is struck with three main differ- 

 ences. First of all, practically nothing is understood 

 in respect to the modern practice of using commercial 

 fertilizers and naturally the nature of the i-ecommen- 

 dations made would be somewhat modified, were Agri- 

 cola writing in the twentieth instead of the early 

 part of the nineteenth century. Second, little i.s said 

 about the relation of live .stock to the conservation of 

 soil fertility, in respect to w.hich it may be pointed 

 out that the greater part of our modern knowledge 

 of animal husbandry is the product of the pa.st half 

 century's work. And thirdly, and most striking of 

 all, is the fact that the now well recognized value of 

 clover is not referred to at all, for although some 

 knowledge of the advantage of clover dates back to 

 at least the opening of t.lie Christian era, yet all our 

 modern body of knowledge with its practical appli- 

 cations is another contribution of the last half of the 

 nineteenth century. 



Notwithstanding these omissions, the Ti'eatise is a 

 valuable one and will well repay any one who takes 

 the time to read it. Moreover, in i-espect to the care 

 of manure, the rotation of crops, and the cultivation of 

 the soil, the facts presented by Agricola produced an 

 effect on agricultural practice in Nova Scotia, partic- 

 ularly evident in the past century and still bearing 

 fruit today. But greatest of all his contributions was 

 his successful effort to establish Agricultural Societies 

 in Nova Seolia, a feature of organized agriculture in 

 the province in respect to which it is our opinion that 

 Nova Scotia stands foremost in the Dominion of 

 Canada. 



