S02 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



In other words, the whole field was dressed 

 •wiffe the sanp 'mineral manure. Some plots 

 ?iad stal lerdung, and some forest soil with and 

 without' -an additional quantity of the S&tye 

 mineral manure. No purely ammoniacal. 

 matter was used. The poor impoverished soil* 

 of Maryland, Virginia, &e., have been made 

 to vield an excellent crop by the application 

 *of a small quantity of ammoniacal guano. 



Who knows whether such would not have 

 •been the case with " Liebig's Heights 'r 5 ' 



"turned out so 

 no details are gi 



iibkd;iiifi 

 viehlof tin 



■r] n, 



CO! 



[id not suffice foi 

 tse, however, w. 



manures containing ammonia were used, the 

 -crons u were heavier than' elsewhere.'" The 

 wheat manured with 11 stable dang and mine- 

 rals was equal to any in the neighborhood." 

 Why not have tried a plot with stable dung, 

 -without any minerals ? 



It must be evident to ail that the first 

 year's results of Liebig's experiments are 

 strongly in favour of organic or ammoniacal 

 manures. We are told that in the second, 

 .third, and fourth years the soil* increased in 

 Productiveness, though no details at all are 

 given. In 1849, Liebig's gardener "pur- 

 chased the whole field, and the industrious 

 man, who could not afford to buy manure, 

 manages with profit the now well-conditioned 

 little ° farm ; "assisted, during the summer 

 months, by a little business, in selling re- 

 freshments, he is able to support himself and 

 family, keeping two cows, and annually rais- 

 ing several head of cattle; arid he has ac- 

 quired enough to enable him to enlarge his 

 iuildings; and all this without ammonia or 

 hnmus, and only by help of mineral 

 manures." 



This is certainly a very gratifying result 

 After expending on ten acres of land $3,200 

 for mineral manures, &c., an industrious 

 Dutchman, by tne a ^ °^ a ^le business, in 

 which probably his wife and children engaged, 

 • was enabled to support himself ; and all this 

 without the aid of ammonia! .Was it ever 

 heard before that a man could get a living 

 from ten acres of land, in close proximity to 

 a large city ? But let us see whether this 

 was accomplished without the aid of ammonia 

 The forest muck, saw-dust, and stable-manure 

 used the first year, all contained ammonia, 

 and the crops were much the best where they 

 were used. Liebig says : 



Since the preient owner came Info possession, 



the stable-manure and ail the animal excrements 



proluced on the premises, and especially the urine, 

 have been collected with the greatest care, and of 

 course have been incorporated with the soil." 



In other words, great care lias been used 

 to save all the ammonia and incorporate it 

 with the soil, and fair crops, after a period of 

 eight years, have rewarded the care and fkill 

 of the cultivator. Who knows but this same 

 result might have been attained in one year, 

 lioation of ammonia,'? K the atr- 

 is capable of supplying all the 

 that plants require, why was it 

 eld, which had been 

 all the mineral de- 

 al! the dung and 

 nd incorp orate them 

 Purely, the garckiur evidenced 

 ngs of his great master ! 

 ti'wve any thine:, it is the 



aosDii 



•y o 



•SO lavishly ui'cos'.iu 

 monts of plants, to 

 " especially t.lu vrin 

 with the sod! 

 Sittle faith in t* 



If these exper^vu^ pre*.? wy<^ 

 very reverse of what Liebig intended they 

 should prove ; and they arc the only experi- 

 ments brought forward to sustain his position. 



After disparaging Mr. Lawes experiments 

 Liebig says : 



'• .IVie single proitkvi worthy of scientific agriciU- 

 l%r Q at the- present time, js to establish in place of 

 a change of crops, a change or succession of ma- 

 nures, which shall enable the farmer to grow on 

 his fields that crop, which, under the circumstances, 

 will be most profitable. How simple a form would 

 the labors of a farm assume, could he continuous- 

 ly cultivate the same plant on the same field." 



This is certainly a good idea, though an old 

 one ; but how shall we ascertain what manures 

 ire best adapted for the same crops? Liebig 

 himself took out a patent for " a preparation 

 of compounds, based upon analysis of plants, 

 which were estimated to provide a given species 

 of plants with a nourishment it would need 

 throughout a series of years 51 That these 

 compounds utterly failed in Germany, En- 

 gland, and America, is notorious. The idea 

 was a splendid deduction, but, unfortunately 

 for the farmer, so far from revolutionizing 

 agriculture, as was predicted, it proved what 

 might have been foreseen, that deduction is 

 not a safe guide in scientific agriculture. We 

 shall probably incur Liebig's displeasure by 

 referring to this unfortunate manure specula- 

 tion. He has brought forward a number of 

 sentences from his various works to show that 

 he did not teach " the pure mineral - theory ;" 

 but this patent mineral manure, which is a 

 practical embodiment of the theory, is not so 

 easily disposed of; hence the bitterness man- 

 ifested on the subject. 



Liebig's patent mineral manures have con- 

 fessedly failed to solve . ." the single problem 

 worthy of scientiae agriculture " We can- 

 not, by their use, " continuously cultivate the 



