1877.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
171 
ter and recording the results. So much depends on 
the effect of the season, whether wet or dry, hot or 
cool, that such experiments, to be reliable, should 
be continued for many years, and should be con- 
ducted under the exact methods of an agricultural 
Experiment Station. I hare watched the matter 
pretty closely at Ogden Farm, and do not see any 
very material difference between ordinary early and 
late cutting, so far as the subsequent growth is con- 
cerned ; but there have been so many circumstances 
to be considered, that the observation has no es- 
pecial value. Where we have cut very early, be- 
fore blossoming (dried grass), there has always 
been a good subsequent crop, apparently only less 
than an original uncut crop, because the time for 
its growth was tlu-own into dry weather. The ex- 
perience of those who irrigate suitable grasses with 
sewage throughout the season, shows that the sec- 
ond, and even the third cutting are as large as the 
first. Grass cut long before blossoming seems to 
make less valuable hay than that which is cut at 
just the right time — in full flower or in early seed. 
In a certain sense, the rowen cut late in the sum- 
mer, may be called dried grass, but it is much firmer 
and richer than would be a corresponding growth 
in May and early June, when there is more rain. 
I am asked whether cotton-seed meal is a better 
fodder for milch cows than Indian meal. Decided- 
ly, no. It is very nutritious, very fattening, and 
very rich in constituents which add value to ma- 
nure. It is largelyused in stall feedingin England, 
and it is used to a considerable extent in this State, 
(.B. I.) For beef cattle to be sold alive, it is very 
good, but it does not make very good meat, and is 
decidedly objectionable for dairy cows, being tal- 
lowy in its effect. I have found it to give butter a 
crumbling or flaky consistency, and have been 
obliged to give up its use. The fat that it pro- 
duces, when fed to beef cattle, is of an undesirable 
character. So far as meat and butter are con- 
cerned, Indian-corn meal is vastly better. 
Science Applied to Farming.— XXTX, 
A Fann Experiment ivltll Commercial Per- 
tilizri's, and its Lessons, 
In the vineyard regions of the Rhine, in Germany, 
there are many farms in which nearly or quite all 
of the stable manure produced is used for the 
grape, which is the most important crop. For the 
rest of the crops it is necessary to rely upon other 
fertilizing materials. On one of these estates, 
which contains the famous Johannisberg vineyard, 
a series of experiments has been going on for sev- 
eral years, which illustrates very pointedly some of 
the principles that I have been trying to enforce in 
previous articles. Starting with the entirely cor- 
rect idea that the results of field experiments are, 
In most cases, only applicable to the place and cir- 
cumstances in which they are performed. Hen* 
Czeh, the manager of the farm, propounded a 
question, in substance, as follows: 
Under the special circumst-mces of soil and crops 
which obtain here, what fertilizers (that is, which 
ones of the more important ingredients of i>lant- 
food and in what forms) will be most profitable? 
Knowing that, to answer this question fully, 
would require repeated trials, Mr. Czoh planned a 
scries of experimeuts to run through an ordinary 
course of rotation. On one field a ten year's course 
was begun in 1872, and was to be : 
1st year, Oats. 4th year. Hoed Crops. 
2n(l ** Fodtler Vntches. 5th " Barley with Lucem. 
3d " Winter Grain. 6th to lOlh year. Lncern. 
The soil experimented upon is a loamy sand, with 
a good many coarse 8t<raes. About one foot below 
the surface comes a compact subsoil. The field 
selected had borne potatoes for two years, and was 
pretty well worn down, and hence just adapted to 
the experiments. The plan of the latter was one 
suggested by Ville and consisted in applying to 
one plot a complete fertilizer, to another the same 
with the omission of nitrogen, while from a third 
phosphoric acid, and from a fourth potash was 
emitted, and so on, the last of. the plots, seven b) 
number, being left unmanured. The amounts of 
the different fertilizing materials used on each plot 
are shown in the table below : 
KIXD OF FeeTILIZEB. 
Pounds per acre on each plot. 
I n III]IV ! T j VIjYlI 
Superphosphate 
lbs. libs. 
357 35- 
173 ISi 
568 '.'.'.'. 
312 312 
fts. n«. 
.... 357 
lis. 
357 
ns. 
lbs. 
Vitrate of Potash .... 
ITS .... 
383 &57 
312 178 
178 
223 
Salpliate of Ammonia 
Salnhate of Lime (Plaster;.. 
357 
which Herr Czeh has made for comparing the 
crops of the two years. Reckoning the un- 
manured crops as 100, the amounts of the others 
would be as in the first two columns of figures 
below. The averages for the two years are given 
in the third column, while the last column shows 
how much the crops, where the different ingredi- 
ents were omitted, fell below the maximiuu that 
obtained with the complete fertilizer. 
The land was carefully prepared (by plowing, 
harrowing, etc.), the fertilizers mixed with four 
times their amount of earth, and spread uniformly 
over the plots, the seed sown broadcast and har- 
rowed in with the fertilizers. The results the first 
year with oats are given in the table below, which, 
with the notes, deserves careful study. 
mmis & 
moxf) S, 
^Ja pjOtsn /o S9}vs 
5 
mv.i)S 
laiug .§ 
■moj; 
i2 :r T( Ci Tf t- 
— i3 O O O I- 
C CO XtT o ^ 
++-t 
+ I ++-H- : 
CI CI Ct 5* Ct 5 
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t- CO -r t-i -r Ci o 
CC T» L- X ■?* -f i- 
c; cc »a -J" o t- o 
IS C: 1:5 CO O 00 t- 
:S -S- GO t- :2 O 1= 
^ CT Cl iQ Cl tr CT 
-3" T( 7^ ;3 c* :o -r 
>^-s 
Sl/IDIS/O piBpi lSi)mx^ .= CO ^ -3. TT <ri 1 
■tuossofl O) mi£3s 2 
■ gS.HS3 = 
Slips 
I ■= 1=^3 a 
3: : ac = « 
- ii C== *- 
^ cj £ N ej o 
=■=' " l^v 
>^c c ti— - 
eS -C ct-i^ 
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— 2 ^"Z- >- ^ aj 
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■joid/o udqmnx: 
:=>>S= 
From this first trial the author infers " that this 
soil, which had not been manured since the memory 
of man, shows, first of all, a need of nitrogen. * * * 
By the application of chemical manures ih^ total 
crop was increased about 53 per cent. * * * With 
the complete fertilizer, contrary to all expectation, 
the yield was not particularly better, either in ([uali- 
ty or in quantity, (than tliose obtained when some 
of the ingredients, as phosphoric acid, was omit- 
ted.) * * * In absence of nitrogen the other materi- 
als affected the specific gravity of the grain, but 
made little difference with the straw. * * * For 
some unexplained reason, there was less grain from 
the fertilizer without nitrogen, that where no ma- 
nure was used ** *." But these and other observa- 
tions based on one year's experiments were not en- 
tirely conclusive. The next year vetches, or more 
accurately, a green-fodder crop of vetches, oats, peas 
and maize, mixed together, was to be grown. Ni- 
trogen in the form of sulphate of ammonia, was 
applied to all the manured plots. The season was 
very dry, and the crop proved a failure. The 
third year, 1S7-1, winter grain came in the regular 
course of rotation. Probsteier rye was sown with 
the same fertilizers as were used for the oats in 
18?2, and with similar results. 
The details, though very interesting aud in- 
structive, and in some respects puzzling, would, 
I fear, be a bit too tedious for this place. I 
giye, therefore, In their etead, some calculations 
? 
Fertaber. 
P 
?1 
I 
II 
III 
IV 
V 
VI 
VII 
Complete Fertilizer 
132 
130 
149 
141 
1.33 
143 
100 
162 157 
Witltout Phoaplioric Acid 
Without Foiiisli.. . 
VA 
152 
161 
99 
100 
156 
146 
157 
121 
100 
1 
u 
Without Sulphate of Lime 
Sulpijiite of Ammonia alone... 
No ni.iiiti n- 
none 
36 
5- 
That is to say, counting the average of the total 
yields for the two years on the unmanured plots as 
100, that with the complete manure was 157. 
Where the nitrogen was left out, the yield fell to 
134, a loss of 23, without potash it was 146, a loss 
of 11. But without phosphoric acid, the yield was 
136, almost the same, and without sulphate of lime 
it was 157, exactly the same as with the complete 
fertilizer. The inference is clear. The phosphoric 
acid and the plaster did no good. 
From these experiments Herr Czeh infers that the 
phosphoric acid and sulphate of lime have no spe- 
cial value in fertilizers for this particular field. 
In citing these experiments, I have had two ob- 
jects in view, first, to give an Ulnstration of one of 
the ways in which an enterprising farmer may 
study the needs of his soil and crops, and second, 
to illustrate the principle, too little understood 
by farmers, and not enough appreciated by many 
who claim to stand in advance of most farmers in 
knowledge of such matters ; that soils vary in their 
needs of plant-food, and that, it we are going to 
buy fertilizers to put on them, we should select 
the ones that furnish the needed materials, rather 
than to pay our money for ingredients that are not 
needed. Phosphates and bone manures, which 
make up the larger part of the commercial manures 
in ordinary use, furnish varying, but generally 
small quantities of nitrogen, and little or no potash. 
Their most important ingredient is phosphoric 
acid ; they all contain lime, of which, in the super- 
phosphates, a considerable is in the form of sul- 
phate. In a vast number of cases these are just 
what is wanted. But in the one just described, the 
phosphoric acid and sulphate of Ume did very little 
good. It certainly would have been poor economy 
for Herr Czeh to buy phosphates and bone manures 
for the land and crops he experimented on. Peru- 
vian guano, wliich is rich in nitrogen, and furnishes 
a little potash, would have been better, but a large 
part of its value is in phosphoric acid, which was 
not wanted, at least not for present use. Of course, 
after long cropping, the conditions might be 
changed. But most of us can not afford to store 
up large excess of costly material iu our soils, to be 
drawn upon, perhaps, a decade or a generation 
hence, and perhaps, never. We want our invest- 
ments to bring the best return in the quickest 
time, and we ought to try to apply such fertilizers 
as will do this, and at the same time bring the 
plant-food in the soil into equilibrium with the 
needs of our crops. To learn how to do this, Is 
the object of such experiments as I have been 
recommending. W. O. Atwater, 
Conn. AgricuHural Erprrimait Sladori, JliddMown. 
Country or Village Cottage, Costing $1,000. 
BT B. B. WCSD, ABCmTECT, CORONA, LONO ISLAJtl), K. T. 
This plan is designed to answer many requests 
for a '• cosev and homelike Cottage, suited to the 
wants of Jlcchanics and Laboring people, costing 
from $700 to $1,000." It is best adapted to a west- 
ward frontage — with the hall, entrances, and porch- 
es protected from the north, but may be casQj 
adapted to an opposite frontage by reversing the 
plan— placing the hall, etc., on the opposite eWe ot 
