1875.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
11 
of Europe, to wit, Science and System. It is a spirit of 
careful economy, coupled witU an understanding of the 
whys and wherefures of thiuj:a. In agriculture it has 
manifested itself in the general diffusion of scientific 
knowledge among farmers, in tlie establishment of agri- 
cultural schools and Expeiinient Stations, where science 
and practical experience are so combined as to make 
them of the highest service to the community. 
These Experiment Stations consist of chemical la- 
boratories, connected with stables, fields, gardens, or 
greenhouses, where men of high scientific acquirements; 
as .well as practical skill, are engaged in studying and ex- 
perimenting on questions of special importance to culti- 
vators. Take, for example, the one at Halle, in the 
Province of Saxony, in Prussia. In this province, about 
as large as the State of Connecticut, tens of thousands of 
tons of artificial fertilizers are used every year. At the 
laboratory of the station at almost any time, but more 
especially in spring, yon will notice bottles, hags, and 
packages of various sorts and sizes, containing samples 
of fertilizers, brought there for analysis. Some of these 
come from dealers, who sell their fertilizers at prices 
based upon analyses made at the stations. Other samples 
are brought in by farmers, to ascertain if they are as good 
as warranted by the sellers. From 1.000 to 1.900 of these 
analyses are atinually made at this station. In 1S66 there 
was in the Province of Saxony a considerable excitement 
about poor fertilizers, which caused a much more vigilant 
control to be exercised ; the result was a great improve- 
ment in the general character of the articles sold there in 
1867. In Peruvian gnano, for instance, there was an in- 
crease in the amount of nitrogen of one percent, or twen- 
ty pounds to ihe ton. It is c.ilculated by the director of 
the experiment station at TIalle, that in this singk item 
there was a saving to the farmers of $20,000 gold in that 
province alone. Taking into account the increase in the 
other valuable elements, not only in guanos, but also in 
other fertilizers, the mving in Hint one small ptvvince 
must have amounted to over $100,000 gold. 
The experience in England has been similar to that in 
Germany. The condition of the fertilizer market there 
fifteen years ago was about wliat it is in America to-day. 
Now it is about the same as in Germany. Prof. Voelcker, 
chemist to th.- Royal Agricultural Society of England, 
said to the writer, in effect: "Years ago farmers in Eng- 
land used to buy their guanos and superphosphates with- 
out much reference to wliat chemical analysis would say 
to them, being influenced in their choice more by gen- 
eral recommendations and by the price jjer ion. This 
tempted manufacturers to make inferior articles and sell 
them at low prices. But farmers have learned that a 
guano with twelve per cent of nitrogen is worth more 
than one with only ten per cent, and that a real svper- 
phosphafe, containing soluble phosphoric acid, is worth 
more than one in which the phosphoric acid is in- 
soluble — questions readily solved by the chemist. They 
now give the preference to the better articles. There- 
suit is a competition based npon good qimlUij rather than 
low price. And, while a ton of superphosphate or bone- 
dust costs no more now than it used to, it is more valu- 
able by half. And further, by this means, the inferior 
articles and humbugs that formerly infested our markets 
are kept away." 
In the States on the Atlantic sea-board, from Maine to 
Georgia, arc sold, every year, several million dollars' 
worth of artificial fertilizers. Suppose that in a certain 
section, say in New England, one million dollars' worth 
Is used annually — a very small estimate. And suppose 
that, by the establishment of two or three Expei-inient 
Stations at small cost, a control-system like the German 
should be introduced, and the average value of the fer- 
tilizers raised ten per cent, which would doubtless be far 
below the real result. Ttiis would be a saving to the 
farmers of at least $100,000 per year. Further than 
this, when farmers find they are sure of getting good fer- 
tilizers, they will buy more of them. The produce of the 
farms and the profits will thus become greater, and the 
country be so much richer. 
But analyzing fertilizers is a very small part of the 
work of the European Experiment Stations. Their 
labor is largely devoted to investigating the effects of 
different fertilizers, and methods of manuring upon dif- 
ferent crops, as well as the function of the various in- 
gredients of the food and the best methods for the feed- 
ing of domestic animals. For example, a wheat field is 
divided into small plots. On one of these is put pot- 
ash; on another, a compoun I of ammonia, which con- 
tains nitrogen ; on another, a superphosphate, contain- 
ing lime and phosphoric acid ; on another, n mixture of 
these ; on another, stable -manure, etc., etc. The ma- 
nures are all carefully analyzed and weighed, and the 
crops measured. By such exact experiments the best 
fertilizers for various crops are accurately learned. 
The experimenters raise plants with the roots grown 
in jars of water, and having no soil at all. They dis- 
solve in the water potash, lime, phosphoric acid, and 
other substances that make up the food of the plant. 
They put different mixturL-s in tlie jars, and note in which 
of these the plants grow well, and in widch ones they do 
poorly. By such trials repeated many times, they learn 
what substunci-'S are necessary for plant-food, and of 
course indirectly what are best for different crups. Dr. 
Nobbe, Director of the Station at Tharandt, raised in 
this way a plant of Japanese Buckwheat nine feet higli, 
weighing 4, 7S6 fold the weight of the original seed, and 
bearing 796 ripe and lOS imperfect seeds. In another jar, 
containing the same materials, except that the potash was 
left out^ the plant grew only two or three inches, and bore 
no perfect seeds, This experiment, often repeated with 
the same result, proved that the plant could not flourish 
without potash. In the same way it was proved that the 
plant would not grow if there was no iron or no lime in 
the water. By such careful experiments chemists have 
shown that not only carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, which 
agricultural plants get from the air and from water, but 
also potash, lime, magnesia, iron and phosphoric acid, 
which they get from the soil, are indispensable to their 
health, if not their life. The necessity of chlorine and 
soda is doulitful. The experimenters have also proved 
what is the office of some of these substances in the 
plant. Ndbbe has learned that without potash no starch, 
can be formed in the leaves. Much of the material of all 
common plants is first formed in the leaves as starch, and 
this is one of the largest constituents of all our grains, 
and of many root fruits. So it is easy to sec why potash 
is so valuable as a manure, and why unleached ashes are 
so much better than those from which the potash has 
been leached out. 
Equally interesting and valuable are the experiments 
in cattle feeding, some account of which will be given 
another month. 
Ogden Farm Papers.— No. 59. 
BT OEORQB E. WABlHOf JB., 
Deep Cans for Milk. 
The following letter speaks for itself : 
"Coa Hill. McMinn Co., E. Tenn., Nov. 14th, '74. 
" Dear Sir : The report of experimeuts with deep 
cans, mentioned in your Ogden Farm Papers, No. 
57, induces me to write you a few lines. I have 
used shallow pans for several years past — or rather 
winters — making full cheese in summer, and skim 
cheese aud butter in winter. 
" Last spring I ffot a lot of deep cans made — not 
because I considered them superior for butter 
making (though I have read all your Papers for 
several years) — but only because I wanted to make 
both butter and cheese all summer, aud expected 
they "would keep the milk in better condition (free 
from taints) for cheese, and would retard the form- 
ing of cream to some extent, and thereby enable 
me to produce a lieher skim-cheese. In the first 
surmise I was quite correct, the milk was always 
sweet and pure after twenty-four hours, in the 
hottest weather, submersed in spring water of 60° ; 
but in the second I was badly disappointed. I have 
never worked as blue-looking milk into cheese 
before. Though I am unable, at present, to give 
figures, I am fully satisfied that I get more butter 
out of my milk with deep cans, than with shallow 
pans, simply because the milk gets thick in the 
latter before all the cream has time to rise. 
"I am sure there must be a mistake somewhere, 
in the experiment of the Solebury Farmers' Club, 
If they only got one inch of cream from the deep 
cans, they certainly did not skim deep enough. I 
suppose their cans are about the same size as mine, 
18 X 8 inches. As soon as I had read your paper, 
I measured the cream on one of my cans ; it was 
3i inches, and I believe my milk is poorer now, 
than any time of the year, mainly because most of 
the cows I am milking now have young calves. 
" I am highly pleased with the deep can system. 
It enabled me to make both butter and cheese in 
the hottest weather last summer, though working 
under great disadvantages in regard to arrangement 
of dairy house. (Signed) Wm. L. Raht." 
I hope that Mr. Raht will take the trouble to 
make some careful measurements, and send me 
hia results for publication. I have a pretty strong 
conviction that I am right, aud that the Solebury 
Club people are wron^^, but I am not so situated 
that I could assert the result of any experiment I 
might make, with absolute certainty ; this can only 
be done by one who can give his personal attention 
to the details of the dairy, every night aud morn- 
ing during the trial. Unfortunately this is not my ■ 
condition, and I shall be, for this reason, all the 
more thankful for assistance from others. So far 
as it goes, and it seems to go pretty far, Mr. Raht's 
results are just what I should expect to accomplish 
at Solebury, w«re I there to conduct the experi- 
ment for myself. 
As I write, I have a letter from Mr. L. S. Hardin, 
of Louisville, Ky. : " Tou will be interested, and 
perhaps amused, with the challenge I have sent the 
Practical Farmer, to the effect that I will bet a 
Registered Jersey cow calf, that milk set deep at 
49*, will raise more cream than the same milk set 
shallow at a higher temperature, such is my expe- 
rience. They only got about seven per cent of 
cream out of the milk, a miserably poor showing 
for either deep or shallow setting — one inch of 
cream out of a bucket sixteen inches deep ! " 
Dry Sarth in Stables. 
I am asked about the use of dry earth in a cow 
stable. The writer has seen it stated that earth 
which has been used in an earth-closet, is less 
valuable for manurial purposes than the manure 
itself would have been without the admixture ; he 
has planned to use dry earth in bis cow stable, but 
does not wish to do it to the detriment of his 
manure heap. I have tried to keep watch of the 
discussions here and in England, on this subject, 
and have never seen anything tending to so strong 
on argument against the use of the earth-closet 
earth, as the objection above indicated. ' Dr. 
Voelcker, who is a very high authority, published 
the results of his investigations as to the value of 
earth-closet manure, showing that it was very much 
less than the advocates of the system had claimed. 
When I saw him in London, I asked him how he 
accounted for the small amount of fertilizing mat- 
ter in the samples analyzed. His reply was that 
thfere is but a small amount in the manure itself, 
nearly the whole of all animal fseces consisting of 
water and refuse matter of little fertilizing value ; 
the nitrogen and fertilizing manurial matter, though 
large in the aggregate when large populations are 
considered, are small when compared with the 
large amount of earth used in the closet. 1 espec- 
ially asked him whether there was, through oxyda- 
tion or otherwise, any actual destruction of fertiliz- 
ing parts ; this he distinctly disclaimed, and said 
that the only bearing of hie criticism was that his 
analyses showed the same small proportion of 
material, that a mathematical calculation of tbo 
quantity and character of the fasces, and the quan- 
tity of the earth would indicate. I should say that 
unquestionably the use of earth in a cow stable, 
must be produciive of the very best results, not 
only as saving all of the fertilizing matter present, 
but also, and very largely, by reason of the develop- 
ment of available plant food in the earth itself, in 
consequence of the chemical action going on in the 
manure it contains. In addition to this, the mere 
increase of bulj^, enabling us to spread the manure 
more evenly over the ground, and the increased 
effect of the manure as a mulch or covering, when 
used as a top-dressing, constitute a sufficient reason 
for the use of earth in very liberal quantities. 
I have little doubt that my coiTcspondent's experi- 
ments in this direction, will result satisfactorily. 
Cookinti: Food for Covra. 
The following question comes from Canada : 
" I read your papers in the Agriculturist^ but havo 
not had the whole since they first appeared. I 
remember your description of your bam and steam- 
ing arrangement. Now I think your opinion as to 
whether steaming feed for cows pays or not, would 
be valuable, as you have had some years' experience. 
"Will you be kind enough to give it in the next 
paper, and oblige one who wishes to make the most 
of his feed ? I have forty cows ; sell milk the year 
round, (at 4 cents per quart in summer, and 5 cents 
per quart in winter). To commence this winter, 
have plenty of clover and timothy hay, and for 
slop shall use ground oats and wheat bran ; have 
horse-power and straw-cutter, and plenty of water ; 
