AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
291 
1878.] 
ica for breadstuffs will no doubt be materially in¬ 
creased in consequence. 
Hops.— Every considerable town in England has 
its Hop Exchange. Kent, which we have just 
passed through, abounds in hop-fields, admirably 
cultivated, which, at this season of the year, pre¬ 
sent a very attractive appearance. The poles are 
arranged in many different ways—some vertical, in 
single or double rows ; some are leaned at an angle 
of 45°, while others are furnished with strings, 
extending to the ground, or from pole to pole. 
Horse-beans are now (June 9th) iu bloom in 
England, where they are raised very largely, and 
their peculiar blossoms, resembling those of the 
pea, but larger, and lined with black, have fre¬ 
quently attracted my attention. They are raised 
in rows, quite close together, and cultivated by 
hand. The beans are sometimes ground, sometimes 
fed whole, mixed with oats, and used as feed for 
horses. The production per acre is very large, and 
as they are considered very nutritious, it is to be 
regretted that they will not succeed in America. 
The Ked, or Pink, Horse-chestnut, is 
common throughout England, forming an attrac¬ 
tive shade tree, and when in blossom there is none 
more ornamental. The horse-chestnut, probably 
owing to the less intense heat, attains here a greater 
size and better proportions than with us. 
Dover , Eng., June , 1878. G. W. W. H. 
American Agriculturist Experimental 
Farm. 
The Raiu-gauge in connection with the Lysimeter 
—described last month—showed a rainfall of 11 
inch on June 21st. This indicates that there fell 
on the surface of the Lysimeter about 1 Vs cubic foot 
of water (or exactly 1.814 cubic feet), and upon an 
acre 3,000 times as much (the Lysimeter surface is 
1 3 nno of an acre), or 5,442 cubic feet, equal to about 
170 tons of water upon a single acre ; yet the Ly¬ 
simeter showed no trace of water running through 
the soil. All of the water of this rainfall was 
held in the soil, the greater portion of it to be ab¬ 
sorbed by the roots, and subsequently to pass off 
through the foliage of the grass growing on the 
land. Tins simple fact, recorded by the Rain-gauge 
and Lysimeter, tells more than volumes of rea¬ 
soning about the immense importance of water to 
crops, and when the rains do not supply sufficient 
moisture, what material benefit irrigation may be to 
a field. We regret that this apparatus was not in po¬ 
sition early enough to show how much water was 
used by the grass during the eutire growing season. 
The Amber Cane Sorghum is a failure this year 
on our Experimental Farm, owing, perhaps, to the 
extremely wet spring, and the natural moisture of 
the land. This crop needs a light, dry soil, and, 
for its best development, a warm spring. The fail¬ 
ure, however, is just as instructive as a successful 
crop would have been, as it warns farmers not to at¬ 
tempt to grow this crop on heavy soils without fur¬ 
ther light, thus saving them from possible loss ; and 
this is as much a part of the plan of the farm as to 
show what can be raised at a profit—“ a penny 
6aved is a penny earned.” Another season’s trial, 
however, may make a different showing, and result 
iu changing our views of the value of the crop for 
6uch locations, as it is reported very successful iu 
the West, on light soils, under proper treatment, 
and other conditions. The five acres occupied by 
the Amber Cane has been worked up with a Ran¬ 
dal! wheel-harrow—saving a small patch where 
the cane made a good growth—and fodder-corn and 
turnips planted, thus utilizing the fertilizer and 
the land, and only losing the seed and the labor 
expended on the Sorghum. 
Hungarian grass has been planted on three acres 
of sod land,with different fertilizers, to test the value 
of the crop for our section, and its adaptability to 
the soil. This is now well established as a valuable 
fodder-crop for both cows and horses. It needs a 
light soil, is a very rapid grower, yields three to 
four tons per acre under good culture, and may be 
planted any time from the 1st of July to the 10th 
of August. It is a good second crop, and does 
well on sod plowed after haying. A quick acting 
artificial fertilizer is the best manure for the crop— 
say 200 lbs. of superphosphate, 150 lbs. of nitrate 
of soda, aud 100 lbs. of high-grade muriate of pot¬ 
ash, per acre. In our trials of this year, we hope 
to learn something more definite in regard to the 
plant-food requirements of the crop. It should be 
cut while still quite green, as, if left until ripe, it 
has some qualities injurious to animals. When the 
hay crop is short, this will be found an excellent 
substitute to fill out the lacking supply of fodder. 
“Hungarian grass cut green and well cured, is used 
by some good Vermont dairymen as a special food 
for butter cows, and they claim that it has the 
effectof giving butter the true summeryellow. It is 
suggested that since Hungarian so cured remains 
bright and green all winter, and because one of 
the elementary colors which goes to make green is 
yellow, that it is this greenness of the fodder which 
imparts the yellow color to the butter.” 
Science Applied to Farming— 2LIY. 
Formulas For Fertilizers. 
Formulas for fertilizers for particular crops are 
based upon the principle of successful agriculture, 
that the soil must be supplied with the plant-food 
that the plants take from it, or it can not produce 
crops. They differ in respect to the proportions of 
die several ingredients which they assume, (1) that 
the plant takes from the atmosphere, (2) that the soil 
can contribute from its own stores or from what it 
gathers from the air, and (3) that must consequently 
be supplied in the fertilizer. For instance, a crop 
of fifty bushels of corn with the stalks would take 
from the soil on the average : 
Nitrogen. 71 lbs. I Magnesia.21 lbs. 
Phosphoric Acid .r>l •• J Lime .27 “ 
Potash..72 “ | Sulphuric Acid_8 “ 
We may make our mixture so as to furnish all 
these six ingredients ; or we may assume as the re¬ 
sult of general experience, that nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid, and potash, are the only ones the soil will fail 
to furnish in plenty ; or that, if lime and sulphuric 
acid are needed iu addition, there will be enough in 
the superphosphates and other materials used, 
to supply them. This plan of furnishing in the 
fertilizer the quantities of nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid, and potash, found in the crop, has been 
adopted by various experimenters, and makers and 
users of fertilizers in this country and in Europe, 
and notably by Prof. Stockbridge, of the Massachu¬ 
setts Agricultural College. Aside from the effects 
of climate, physical character of soil, tillage, and 
so ou, which affect very materially the feeding of 
plants and the action of fertilizers, there are two 
Chief Difficulties with Formulas 
for special crops. The first is that they do not take 
into account the materials that the soil can furnish: 
they can not do this because soils vary in their 
supplies of plant-food. Some lack one ingredient, 
others another, and the fertilizer which covers all 
cases must include materials that will be superflu¬ 
ous for some soils. The other applies to formulas 
based solely on the composition of the crop : it is 
that they ignore what may be called 
The Feeding' Capacities of Different Crops. 
Plants vary widely in their power to avail them¬ 
selves of the materials contained in the air and 
soil. Leguminous crops, like clover, will, some¬ 
how or other, gather a good supply of nitrogen 
where cereals, 6uch as wheat, barley, rye, and oats, 
would half starve for lack of it, and this in the face 
of the fact that leguminous plants contain a great 
deal of nitrogen, and cereals relatively little. Hence 
a heavy nitrogenous manuring may pay well for 
wheat and be in large part lost on clover. 
This fact is most strikingly shown in the classic 
experiments of Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert, in Eng¬ 
land, by bringing out the details of which, in his 
book on Manures, just announced by the Orange 
Judd Company, Mr. Harris is rendering to the 
farmers of this country most excellent service. 
In their experiments, wheat, which has for thirty 
years received mineral manures alone, has averaged 
16} bushels per acre yearly, against 14 bushels uu- 
mauured. The addition of sulphate ammonia, 
with repeated cropping of the same land, brought 
the average up to 36 bushels per acre. The le¬ 
guminous crops have told just the opposite story. 
Though they contain a good deal more nitrogen 
than wheat, they respond but slightly to nitrogen, 
aud are greatly aided by mineral manures. In an 
experiment on the mixed herbage of grass land, 
continued through twenty years, mineral manures 
without potash brought up the total crop 47 per 
cent, and the nitrogen in the crop 38 lbs. per acre 
annually above the unmanured. And when potash 
was added to the mineral manures, the crop was 
67 per cent larger, and contained 56 Lbs. more nitro¬ 
gen per acre than the unmanured. Such facts ex¬ 
plain why it is such good farm practice to use 
mineral fertilizers, as plaster, bone, ashes, aud 
potash salts, for mixed grasses and clover; and 
nitrogenous materials, like guano, sulphate of 
ammonia, and nitrate of soda, for grain crops. 
They help us to understand why clover is such an 
excellent preparatory crop for wheat, and so eco¬ 
nomical generally for plowiug under to bring up 
poor soils. It gathers and stores plant-food, par¬ 
ticularly nitrogen, and thus is itself a fertilizer. 
The “ Stockbridge Manures.” 
In the Aunual Report of the Mass. Agricultural 
College for 1876, "Prof. Stockbridge gives formulas 
for fertilizers based upon the composition of crops, 
and accounts of a long and laborious series of ex¬ 
periments made with them, on the College farm, iu 
which the crops averaged better than the fertilizers 
were calculated to bring, with many other valuable 
details. These formulas provided for all of the 
nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash, contained 
in the crop. The preludes to the formulas read : 
“ To produce 25 bushels of wheat and the natural 
proportion of straw per acre more than the natural 
yield,” and so on for corn, clover, and other crops. 
In such fertilizers the potash and phosphoric acid 
not used the first season, will be held by the soil 
until they are taken up by the crops that follow. 
But more or less of the nitrogen will probably be 
leached away in drainage waters, enter into inert 
combinations in the soil, or escape and be dissi¬ 
pated in the air. Nitrogen is the costliest ingredi¬ 
ent of fertilizers. In the better articles in the 
markets, farmers are paying from 4 to 8 ets. per lb. 
for potash, from 5 to 15 cts. per lb. for phosphoric 
acid, and from 17 to 27 cts. per lb. for nitrogen. 
Such crops as wheat, barley, rye, and oats, bring 
the largest returns for nitrogenous manures. But 
the results of experiments and of successful farm 
experience with fertilizers, which, like guano, phos¬ 
phates and bone, contain less nitrogen, unite in 
making it a question whether it will pay to apply 
the full amount of nitrogen found in such crops 
as wheat,, barley, rye, or oats, or even com. 
The case against the nitrogen in the clover fertil¬ 
izer is still worse. When we consider how often 
clover thrives with mineral fertilizers alone ; how, 
on a mineral diet, it will gather nitrogen from 
soil and air and store it for future use ; how the 
great advantage of such crops to the farmer, is 
that, instead of consuming nitrogen which he must 
buy at great cost, they gather it for him for noth¬ 
ing; the plan of supplying so much nitrogen to 
clover seems poor economy. Experiments might 
be cited, which, like the above, illustrate the 
principle that the composition of a given crop is far 
from being a correct measure of the fertilizing 
materials which will most economically help its 
growth. At the same time it is fair that 
The Other Side of the Question 
should be given. And I can do this no better than 
in the words of Prof. Stockbridge, spoken before 
the Conn. State Board of Agriculture, Dec., 1876 : 
‘Tagree that some plants can gather nitrogren from nat¬ 
ural sources, and we need not. apply it. All probably 
gather some, and some classes of plants more than others. 
I hope that Prof. Atwater, myself, or somebody else, will 
find tiie law there hy-and-by; when it will be. I don’t 
know. I have bad sixteen plats on trial this year, looking 
for that very tiling. I have not found it yet; lint I shall 
put the sixteen plats and more too after it next year, and 
I shall keep on until X think I have found it. There is 
