1878.1 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
251 
element, sometimes several may be lacking. A 
soil may have a proper texture, amount of moisture, 
and a full supply of everything the crop needs, ex¬ 
cept phosphoric acid, for example. Add phosphate 
in available forms, and the yield will be bountiful. 
If I have made my meaning clear, it will be seen 
that the main poiut in economical manuring must 
be to economize what the soil can supply, and to 
add what it can not. The proper use of special 
fertilizers is to fill up these deficiencies, to bring the 
food supply into equilibrium. As Mr. Lawes says, 
“ Soils were meant to be exhausted.” That is, the 
material they furnish was meant to be used. The 
point is to utilize it most economically, apd add 
what is needed to bring the most largely and per¬ 
manently profitable results. W. O. Atwater. 
[It seems to us that the most valuable fact indi¬ 
cated by this experiment is, that by far the best 
results were obtained from the box where the com¬ 
plete fertilizer was applied : results which corrobo¬ 
rate the experiments carried on for 8 years by 
Professor Stockbridge at Amherst. The results 
indicate that a portion only of the potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid might be omitted from a fertilizer for 
such land ; how much, and whether an addition of 
organic matter would help to render available the 
mineral ingredients of fertility in the soil, are ques¬ 
tions worthy of further investigation.—E d.] 
An American Agriculturist Experimental 
Farm. 
Devoted to tlie Testing of New Theories, 
Methods of Practice, New Crops, Fer¬ 
tilizers, and Implements.—An Impor¬ 
tant Enterprise for the Benefit of 
Agriculture. 
The Editors of the American Agriculturist have al¬ 
ways been experienced farmers, gardeners, etc.; and 
their work and their farms have been largely ex¬ 
perimental, for the good of their readers. “The 
Pines,” especially, is a place well known to the 
public, as the source of much valuable informa¬ 
tion, derived from Dr. Thurber’s trials of new 
ornamental and flowering plants, and small fruits, 
and his experience in cultivating the old as well 
as new varieties; which work will be continued 
with ever increasing benefit to our subscribers. 
Recently a gentleman connected with the business 
of the Orange Judd Company, out of his interest 
in the cause of good husbandry, has devoted a large 
farm in Orange County, N. Y., to experimental 
purposes, for the benefit of American Agriculture ; 
the experimental work to be under the direction of 
one of the editors of the American Agriculturist. 
This Experimental Farm is located in a charming 
valley, running north and south, between two low 
mountains—Skunnemonk and Lawyer’s Hill—ex¬ 
tending from the ridge of one to the summit of the 
other. The soil therefore varies from gravelly 
mountain-top and loamy hill-side, to alluvial 
meadows—thus offering an ample variety of condi¬ 
tions. There novelties in field crops and vegetables 
will be tested and their value reported ; new theo¬ 
ries as to methods of practice will be severely tried, 
and their virtues set forth or worthlessness ex¬ 
posed ; systems of fertilization, manuring, or feed¬ 
ing crops will be thoroughly investigated, and re¬ 
sults reported ; various methods in the management 
and feeding of animals will be compared, and the 
results given our readers ; new implements, which 
manufacturers may place in our hands for trial, will 
be carefully tried, and their merits—for the crops 
there cultivated, and on that kind of soil—will be 
judged,and impartially reported upon. In short, Our 
Experimental Farm is to be conducted as an experi¬ 
mental farm, in the interests of the great commu¬ 
nity of farmers and gardeners ; and all of this experi¬ 
mental work will he carried on in connection with, and 
as farm practice. But let every reader of this re¬ 
member that most farm experiments are the work 
of years, and that immediate results can be obtained 
only in a comparatively few cases. So do not ex¬ 
pect too much of this enterprise, and we will try to 
give you all you expect. 
From the mountains on either hand, numerous 
springs water the hill-sides and meadows. So leaky, 
indeed, were the mountain reservoirs, that drainage 
has been necessary, and is now going on, over a 
large part of the tillable land; but there are also 
dry ridges, where the dryest of dry-soil crops can 
be raised. The farm is especially fitted for stock- 
raising, and rather poorly adapted to grain crops. 
Stock-farming, therefore, will be the general aim of 
the practice, with sheep as a speciality. Crops 
raised for particular industrial purposes, will also be 
prominent in our practice and experiments, as being 
of great importance to American Agriculture. This 
year, as the farm is under course of improvement 
from the state of neglect it was found in when 
recently purchased by the present owner, the ex¬ 
periments will be necessarily restricted within more 
narrow limits than we hope will be the case in the 
future. Those now under way are as follow : 
Experiments Now Going On. 
Amber Sugar Cane. — 2i acres on a dry, loamy plain 
of recently plowed sod, manured with well-rotted 
compost, and 250 lbs. of superphosphate per acre ; 
2i acres on a fertile, moist, clayey loam, thoroughly 
drained, stubble-land, planted to potatoes last year; 
manured with 250 lbs. superphosphate, 200 lbs. high 
grade sulphate potash, and 160 lbs. nitrate soda, per 
acre. This is to test the value of this crop for the 
production of sugar, in the East, it having been 
reported as quite successful in some Western States. 
Corn .—9 acres on a moist, drained meadow. In 
5 plots, manured with green stable-dung, chemical 
fertilizers in different forms and combinations, and 
one plot unmanured. Other experiments are with 
various combinations of chemicals on potatoes and 
grass, to be reported in due season. 
A Lysimeter has been put in position on a field 
of deep, loamy alluvial soil. A bottomless box, 
strongly made of two-inch plank, and about 451 
inches square inside, and averaging 36 inches deep, 
wa6 forced into the soil until its top was even with 
the surface ; then a frame of five-inch timber was 
let down outside the box, so that its upper side was 
two inches below the bottom of the box. A plank 
bottom, six inches each way larger than the box, 
was then forced beneath the box, upon the frame, 
by means of jack-screws and picking out the earth 
before it with a sharpened stick; the inside was 
lined with galvanized iron; and after the bottom was 
placed in position, the iron of the latter was solder¬ 
ed to the iron of the sides. The bottom inclines 
li inches from back to front, and an opening is left 
at the lower side, from which the water which per¬ 
colates through the enclosed earth is collected in 
bottles. Room is left in front of the apparatus, by 
stoning up a cavity dug in the earth, to attend to 
its working. A rain-guage is at hand to measure 
the rain-fall. This is the third Lysimeter in opera¬ 
tion in this country—the first being that of the 
SturtevantBros., South Framingham, Mass., set two 
years ago ; the second is at the Massachusetts Ex¬ 
periment Station. The difference between the 
amount of water in the rain-guage and that gathered 
at the Lysimeter, shows the proportion which per¬ 
colates through the soil—the remainder being evap¬ 
orated through the vegetation or from the surface 
of the ground. By analysis of the water running 
through, the wastes of fertility by drainage are de¬ 
termined ; and thus we shall be able, also, to study 
changes taking place in the soil under different 
methods of fertilization and culture, as the area 
within the Lysimeter will be treated the same as 
the field outside. In short, the Lysimeter is an ap¬ 
paratus for studying the relations of soil, air, water, 
and fertilizers ; comprising important questions. 
Secretary of Agriculture. 
The to-do being made over the attempt of the 
person who is supposed to occupy the position of 
Commissioner of Agriculture, to have his office 
elevated to a Cabinet position, is a striking illus¬ 
tration of the estimation in which this great indus¬ 
try is held. Some, in their desire to advance the 
calling, would grant Mr. Le Due’s utmost wish, 
evidently supposing that with a bigger name he 
could do better work. Others decry the whole 
plan as an attempt at class legislation, and hold up 
the past and present history of the Agricultural 
Department as an argument against the principle. 
That the industries of a nation, by which the bread 
and clothing, and all material wants of its people 
are supplied, and property is accumulated, should 
have some representation in the government, seems 
too self-evident for argument. Commerce, which 
represents but a limited number of people, and has 
only to do with the transportation and exchange of 
the products of agriculture and manufacture, has 
its interests carefully watched over by the govern¬ 
ment, which, for its benefit, has a Consul in every 
foreign port. Manufacturing, because of the indi¬ 
vidual and combined wealth of its supporters, com¬ 
mands respect and legislation for its interests. 
The sending of mail matter is considered of 
enough importance to require a position at the 
head of the government. The protection of the 
property accumulated by the industries has two 
representatives in the Cabinet. While Agriculture, 
in which over half of all the people of the country 
are engaged, producing all that manufactures, trade, 
and commerce, have to deal with, and the founda¬ 
tion of all that the government is supposed to pro¬ 
tect, is placed at the bottom as of utter insignifi¬ 
cance. Verily, it seems as if the world were made 
up backwards, so true is it that the least is con¬ 
sidered greatest and the greatest least. 
The Department of Agriculture has power and 
scope enough, as it is, to do all that Agriculture can 
ask. It only needs a man at its head who knows 
the demands of the situation, who is an agricul¬ 
turist in experience, education, and sympathy ; a 
man of broad, liberal mind, and of executive 
ability, such as is usually selected for equally im¬ 
portant positions in other departments. Such a 
man has never yet filled the office, but instead, 
it has been used as a sinecure for political favor¬ 
ites, and to pander to the demands of empty- 
headed politicians whose constituents are so im¬ 
pecunious as to be bought with a package of worth¬ 
less seed, or a book of stale statements called a 
“ Report,” of little value, to say the least. A man 
who buys seed for distribution, of dealers who 
would otherwise dispose of them to planters 
who wanted them, or spends large sums for objects 
which any intelligent farmer would know better 
than to touch, and who does nothing more, except 
to seek personal glory, is to be pitied that he can 
not see his own inability ; and the criticism and 
derision which he and his department receive 
should be visited upon those who permit this state 
of things —the farmers themselves, whose place it is 
to demand proper representation in this depart¬ 
ment. Given a man to fill the position of Com¬ 
missioner of Agriculture, and we would guarantee 
the expenses of his department for a year if it was 
not at once recognized as a power for good. The 
position does not want more power; it only needs 
a man who can use that which is now given it. If 
a Secretaryship shall secure such respect for the in¬ 
dustry, that a man of the proper caliber would be 
appointed to its head, then give us the Secretary¬ 
ship—but not before. 
