250 
[July, 
AMERICAN AGrRICULTURIST. 
help. No matter what we say, they will go ot> doctoring; 
themselves and trying one advertised thing after another. 
Every sensible physician knows that it is a comparatively 
easy matter to treat most kinds of disease, but that it 
often requires all his skill 
TO FIND OUT WHAT IS THE MATTER, 
or to make a proper diagnosis. Ail these secret reme¬ 
dies do harm, as they excite the imagination of the weak 
and nervous. Their circulars enumerate just the symp¬ 
toms and feelings that those who are “generally out of 
sorts 1 ' are sure to have. The reader finds that his “case 
Is described exactly,” and it follows, as a matter of 
course, that the stuff is taken. Lawyers have a maxim, 
that “ one who pleads his own case has a fool for a 
client; ” and this is equally applicable in medical mat¬ 
ters. We have known several eminent physicians who 
would never prescribe for their own families, but when¬ 
ever wife or children were seriously ill, would call in 
another physician—this for fear that their judgment as to 
what should be done, might be warped by their affec¬ 
tions, and that they might be restrained from using 
prompt remedies through sympathy with the sufferer. If 
those who know the most, are thus cautious, what 
recklessness for those who know nothing about sickness 
and remedies to undertake to treat themselves! We 
would say in all seriousness to those who 
ARE ILL, OR THINK THAT THEY ARE t 
If your ailment is such as attention to diet and abundant 
exercise—with, it maybe, some simple tonic, of which 
every family has its favorite kind, will not cure, don't— 
please don’t, write for our opinion 
about this or that advertised medi¬ 
cine. Medicine is of the least 
importance— the thing yon need to 
know is—what is the matter: that 
being ascertained, the question 
of medicine is easily settled. In¬ 
stead of writing ns, enclosing cir¬ 
culars of wonderful remedies, go 
to the nearest physician, who is a 
physician—not avoiding one who 
happens to be young— and find out 
what —if anything—is the matter. 
THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED. 
1st. That there is no sure cure 
for any disease. —2 d. That you 
can not possibly judge for- yourself ; 
or from what appear to be your 
symptoms, just what is the matter 
with you. — 3d. That any “ Doctor ” 
who attempts to prescribe for you 
from your own description of your 
symptoms, is surely an unreliable 
quack.—4th. That similar symp¬ 
toms are exhibited or- felt by you, so 
far as you can judge , for very 
different diseases, and those requir¬ 
ing very different treatment.—3th. 
That different conditions of the 
system, of temperament, etc., in 
different persons,require very differ¬ 
ent medicines or treatment for the same disease, and this 
applies to sight and hearing as well. — 3th. That medical 
advertisements, and circulars, and pamphlets, are mainly 
successful, by detailing certain signs and symptoms in such 
a way that the reader, if at all nervous or credulous, 
is quite apt to apply the descriptions to himself, or herself, 
and thus hundreds of thousands of people are led into dos¬ 
ing, and really making themselves sick, when they would 
have got well if they had let the medicines alone.—Hence, 
Ith '. Never read any medicial advertisements, or pamphlets, 
or circulars, whatever. You never find them advertised in 
this journal, though we could get tens of thousands of dol¬ 
lars every year if we would admit them. 
first row buckwheat was sown; in the second 
oats, and in the third beans. To fertilize these, 
several solutions were prepared by dissolving the 
proper chemical salts in water. One of these con¬ 
tained all the materials which plants require for 
their food from the soil. This “ normal solution ” 
was the same as is used in the experiments in 
“ water culture,” previously described, and was 
applied to No. V. of each series. Another solution, 
containing the same ingredients, except that nitro¬ 
gen was omitted, was used to water the plants in 
No. IV. A solution, with everything but phos¬ 
phoric acid, was applied to No. III. of each series. 
Potash was in like manner omitted from No. II. 
Finally each No. I. received only rain-water. The 
plants came up, and grew. Those supplied with 
the complete fertilizer, No. V., were healthy, did 
well, and gave a fair crop. Where potash was 
omitted, No. II., the plants were about as tall, but 
thinner, and the yield of seed was only about half 
as large. Without phosphoric acid, No. III., the 
plants looked about as well, but the amount of seed 
was extremely small. Where nitrogen was left out, 
everything else being supplied, the plants were 
stunted, spindling, and sickly. They yielded almost 
no seed, and were in fact no better than those 
which had nothing but rain-water. 
When the plants were ripe they were harvested, 
thing else was furnished, the growth was no better 
than with rain-water. This soil could supply con • 
siderable potash and some phosphoric acid, but 
its stock of available nitrogen was extremely low. 
This is exactly what was to be expected. This 
sand is composed of particles of stone of different 
kinds, which contain more or less of the mineral 
ingredients of plant-food: lime, potash, phos¬ 
phoric acid, etc., much more than most people 
suppose. But there is scarcely any vegetable mat¬ 
ter to supply nitrogen, or to hold it if it were sup¬ 
plied. What this soil wants first of all is water. 
Next to that it needs vegetable mould to hold the 
water it gets, to supply nitrogen, and to help it 
gather nitrogen from the air. Given moisture and 
the vegetable matter that muck, green crops 
plowed in, and roots could furnish, and it might 
supply a portion of the mineral elements of plant- 
food for a considerable period. 
The natural strength of a soil is what it has 
to fall back upon after being reduced by crop¬ 
ping. It is practically constant, and depends upon 
the chemical and physical processes, that with the 
aid of air and moisture, warmth and frost, and 
growing plants as well, are continually going on in 
every soil. These agencies are active whether the 
soil is cultivated or not. Proper tillage aids 
them wouderfully ; but still, without it, the availa¬ 
EXPEItlMENT WJT1I BUCKWHEAT AND OATS GROWN IN BARREN SAND, AND SUPPLIED WITH DIFFERENT FERTILIZING INGREDIENTS. 
Science Applied to Farming,—XLOT. 
Natural Strength of Solis, and Economy 
In Making Use of It. 
Every one who has traveled through that part of 
Connecticut will remember the barren plains just 
north of New Haven. Large portions of this soil, 
if such a dry, drifting sand may be called a soil, are 
entirely devoid of vegetation. It comes nearer my 
idea of a desert than any other territory I am familiar 
with in this part of the country. With the aid of 
Dr. J. W. Alsop, of this place, and Mr. W. Balen- 
tine, of the Experiment Station, the experiments 
referred to were made on portions of the poorest of 
this sand. Fifteen wooden boxes, each one foot 
square, were filled with the sand and arranged in 
three series of five each. The boxes of each 
series were numbered I., II., III., IV., V. In the 
the roots being freed from sand by careful washing, 
and the different parts measured and weighed. The 
picture represents buckwheat plants of average 
size, from each lot. The table belo w gives measure¬ 
ments and air-dry weights of buckwheat and oats : 
Plants Grown in Barren Sand, Fertilized 
with Different Solutions. 
Buckwheat. 
I. 
II. 
III. 
rv. 
V. 
Rain Wa¬ 
ter. 
Without 
Potash. 
I Without 
\ Phosphor- 
| ic Acid. 
If 
11 
Number of Plants. 
25 
25 
24 
24 
24 
Average height. Centi- 
meters.* . ... 
30 
60 
60 
30 
61 
Weightofseed. Grams.t 
1.2 
13 
4.4 
0.9 
20.4 
Weight of straw. “ 
4.9 
14.1 
8.7 
2.9 
25.4 
Weight of roots. “ 
4.6 
6.6 
2.4 
4.6 
5.4 
Oats. 
Number of plants 
25 
25 
24 
27 
27 
Average height. Centi- 
meters.*. 
20 
55 
50 
39 
61 
Weight,ofseed. Grams.t 
0.3 
4.5 
1.3 
1 3 
4.2 
Weight of straw. “ 
1.8 
14.9 
11.4 
5.5 
34.5 
Weight of roots. “ 
2.3 
7.7 
4.6 
3.9 
17.3 
* 2^ Centimet.ers=about 1 inch, t 1 Gram=:15.J4 grains. 
This sand evidently needed a complete fertilizer. 
The omission of each one of the more important in¬ 
gredients of plant-food brought the yield down, but 
in very unequal proportions. In lack of potash, 
everything else being supplied, the crop suffered 
badly. Leaving out phosphoric acid injured it still 
more; while, without nitrogen, even though every¬ 
ble stock of food accumulates so long as less is re¬ 
moved than is resupplied. It is in this way that 
fallow ground recuperates, and that virgin soils 
have acquired their richness. But what the soil 
will thus do slowly for itself, we may do for it 
much quicker by manuring. This strength is like 
a deposit in the bank, which we may draw upon 
slowly or rapidly as we will, but which will, sooner 
or later, he gone unless new deposits are made. 
Natural strength is like the interest on good bank 
stock. It comes gradually, uniformly ; can not be 
drawn in advance; and if not drawn will beheld 
in store for future use. 
How Crops are Dependent upon the 
Food-Supply in the Soil. 
The money we get from the bank, however, 
whether from checks on deposits, or dividends on 
stock, we can use to its full value without dis¬ 
count or restriction. But the crop can not make 
such unrestrained use of the plant-food in the soil. 
The crop has to do not merely with the supply of 
plant-food as a whole, but also with each of its in¬ 
gredients separately. It is, I believe, a principle of 
military science that a fortification is no stronger 
than its weakest point. The crop can not rise 
above the level of the lowest element in the food- 
supply. If all come up to the required standard, 
and other conditions are favorable, a good yield is 
certain ; but if any one falls below this standard, 
the crop must fall with it. Now this food-sup¬ 
ply varies in different soils. It varies, not only as 
a whole, but in its different parts. Sometimes one 
