1879. J 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
257 
Mr. Lawes’ Letter on Nitrogen. 
The Report of the N. J. State Board of Agricul¬ 
ture for 1878, contains, within convenient space, a 
large amount of useful material. Mr. Chas. V. 
Mapes contributes an article on fertilizers in the 
past and present, which supplies a variety of sug¬ 
gestions and subjects of thought. One of these 
topics has called out an interesting letter from Mr. 
J. B. Lawes, of Rothamsted, the veteran English 
Experimenter, which we have the pleasure of pre¬ 
senting to our readers, on page 262. Of all the 
many problems which agricultural chemistry is 
now investigating, perhaps no other one is more 
important to the future welfare of our farming than 
that of the nitrogen supply. This is the costliest in¬ 
gredient of our fertilizers. We are paying, and 
usually with profit, from 15 to 30 cents per pound 
for it in our standard fertilizers, such as guano, 
fish, ammoniated superphosphates, nitrate of soda, 
and other special crop fertilizers. And yet the very 
soils on which nitrogen is used with profit, often 
contain thousands of pounds in every acre within 
reach of the roots of plants, but in inert forms so 
that crops can not use it, and fail for lack of it. A 
great deal of the nitrogen applied in fertilizers runs 
to waste in one way or another before the crop gets 
it, or lies dormant in the soil. Hence the questiou 
how to apply nitrogen so as to make the most of it 
is, as Mr. Lawes says, a most important one. 
For more than thirty years Mr. Lawes has been 
devoting a considerable portion of his farm, and 
large sums of money, often as much as $15,000 
in a single year, to experiments. He has raised 
grass, wheat, barley, clover, roots, and other crops 
with different fertilizers—in some cases using the 
same fertilizers for the same crop on the same 
plots, year after year. Some of the results of 
these experiments continued through nearly one- 
third of a century he details to us here. The par¬ 
ticular question is : What becomes of the nitrogen 
applied in the manure ? Where he has used dung 
at the rate of 14 tons per acre every year for barley, 
the crop has had at its disposal, more than four 
times as much nitrogen as it used. Where has the 
rest gone ? There are several ways to account for 
it. Much stays and accumulates in the ground. 
Grass land manured in this way for eight years in 
succession, had stored up enough nitrogen and 
other ingredients of plant food to keep up the full 
yield for five years longer, and now, after fifteen 
years cropping since any manure has been applied, 
the effect of the old supply still remains. On an¬ 
other field where 14 tons of dung were applied 
every year to barley, analysis implies that the nitro¬ 
gen accumulated in the soil at the rate of about 100 
lbs. per acre annually. 
But with artificial manures the case is somewhat 
different. Nitrogen in Sulphate of Ammonia, and 
in Nitrate of Soda, is all ready to act at once. One- 
fourth as much as is found in the dung supplied, 
brings as good crops. But the nitrogen in these 
chemical fertilizers does not accumulate in the soil 
like that in dung. Part is recovered in the crop, 
and the rest is lost, though some doubtless enters 
into inert combinations in the soil. Much is leached 
away by drainage waters. Some probably escapes 
in the free state into the air, though Mr. Lawes 
does not dwell upon this source of loss in his letter. 
The nitrogen in dung is subject to loss in the same 
ways, but does not waste so fast. 
One lesson from all this is, that dung acts slowly 
and lasts a great while, but artificial fertilizers gen¬ 
erally bring quicker returns and are sooner spent. 
Each is profitable in its place. Another lesson is 
that the farmer ought to do his best to economize 
the materials he has on hand in his soil. If he can 
help his crops to utilize the inert nitrogen within 
reach of the roots, that will be better than to buy 
it at high cost in commercial fertilizers, or apply 
large quantities of dung, to store away more. 
Choice of the right crops, such as clover, and 
probably to some extent corn, use of lime and 
ashes, and proper tillage, are the means for this 
economizing of the nitrogen in the soil. 
Markets.— It may be worth while for those far¬ 
mers who live near towns and villages, to study 
their local markets. Although nearly every villager, 
or dweller in a country town, has a garden, yet, as a 
rule, such places are poorly supplied with fresh 
vegetables. A large quantity of early lettuce, as¬ 
paragus, peas, beans, sweet corn, cabbages, melons, 
potatoes, and many others could be sold if they 
were only offered. It is frequently the case, that 
one does not know that he needs a certain thing 
until it is offered to him, and the great consumption 
of fruits, vegetables and preserved meats, has been 
encouraged by the production and offering of them 
foi sale, by enterprising people. A case in point 
maybe given. The writer sowed cabbage seed, for 
plants to be set out on an acre of gronnd. As soon 
as it became known that cabbage plants could be 
procured, fresh from the seed bed, there were more 
applications for them than could be supplied, and 
the proceeds from the sale of surplus plants, to the 
neighbors more than paid for the cost of the bed. 
Cactus—Cacti—Cactuses. 
Of late, we have had several inquiries about 
plants popularly known by the above names. More 
generally we are asked about the Cactus as if there 
was but one. In fact there is no such genus known 
to botanists as Cactus. The old genus Cactus has 
been subdivided and given other names, and while 
we have the Cactus Family, we have no proper 
Cactus. It is very proper then to call them all Cacti 
or Cactuses, meaning that they belong to a special 
family. Some 25 or 30 years ago, Cactuses were 
much more generally cultivated as house-plants 
than at present. We can only account for the de¬ 
cline in their popularity by the fact that the most 
showy of them are not winter bloomers. But there 
are no plants that require less care, or more abund¬ 
antly repay the little they require in gorgeous flow¬ 
ers than these. The genera in most common culti¬ 
vation as house plants are Epiphyllum, Phyllocactus, 
and Cereus ; though others are attractive, they are 
generally confined to greenhouse culture. They all 
need a good, moderately rich, and open soil, water 
when growing and flowering, and a period of rest, 
during which time they may be kept nearly dry. 
The Epiphyllums, generally known as “Crab’s-claw” 
Cactuses, from their peculiar jointed stems, bloom 
in autumn and early winter. They are low, droop¬ 
ing plants, and are often grafted on some other 
member of the family to give them a stalk six 
inches or a foot high, from the top of which they 
hang over gracefully. Still they will do very well 
on their own roots, and form handsome specimens, 
nearly concealing the pot. These need to be kept 
nearly dry all summer, and in autumn given water 
gradually ; they come into flower from November 
to Christmas. No plants are more manageable, and 
they may be grown in pots or wire baskets, or in 
whatever will hold a little soil. After flowering, 
they make their growth, and when this is ripened, 
they should have a rest, with little water. Epiphyl- 
lum truncatum and E. liassellianum are the most 
common, but florists offer others. The plants best 
known in window culture as Cactus are either spe¬ 
cies of Phyllocactus or of Cereus. The Phyllocacti 
have flattened, leaf-like stems, which have no 
spines, and are often round below ; the Cereuses 
have three-angled stems, or cylindrical ones with 
lengthwise angles or grooves, and usually with 
tufts of prickles or bristles; in both, the flowers 
appear from notches in the edges or sides of the 
stems. Phyllocactus Ackermanni and Cereus specio- 
sissimus are the most common, and with their im¬ 
mense flowers, 5 or 6 inches across, of the most 
brilliant scarlet and crimson, are well worth the lit¬ 
tle trouble they require. They flower from May 
until August, and make fine ornaments for the ve¬ 
randa. When brought in early in autumn, if 
growth has ceased, they need very little or no water 
until February or later. Numerous other species 
and varieties can be had of the florists. One lady 
correspondent, writing from New Jersey, says: 
“ I am learning to love the Cactus (she, like most 
others, writes as if there were but one). It is 
like a person with a very amiable disposition. 
Neglect it, abuse it, and it will continue to grow, 
and even flourish, showing constancy in adversity, 
and forgiveness for ill-treatment,” 
A New Apple—The Highland Beauty. 
We hold that it would be a great advance if nine- 
tenths of the apples now named could be stricken 
out of existence; but we must take the world, 
apples included, as we find it, and if we have now 
and then added a new apple to the list, our sins in 
this direction are not many. We know, and tell 
our readers, that 100 names will cover all the apples 
that it is at all desirable to have in any given lo¬ 
cality ; 50 would make a better list, and if for any 
one place one’s selection exceeds 20, it is probably 
too large. W T ith these views, our readers may 
wonder at our adding a new name to the list, 
and assume that a newcomer must possess ex¬ 
traordinary merit to induce us to give it a place. 
They will be perfectly right. This new apple, the 
“ Highland Beauty,” competes with but just one 
apple in the immense list. Every one knows the 
Lady Apple; its small size and great beauty—the 
darkest of red on the brightest yellow—its brilliant 
polish, make it noticeable; and its beauty is more 
than “skin deep,” as it has a clear white, fine¬ 
grained flesh that is pleasant to the taste. It is a 
profitable apple, as it brings the highest price of all 
apples, and is especially in demand at the holidays 
for making up ornamental dishes and baskets of 
fruits. The tree, though productive, is not very 
hardy, and the fruit appears to have lost much of its 
former beauty. Last fall we had occasion to hunt up 
APPLE, “HIGHLAND BEAUTY.” 
a barrel of these apples, and were told by one of the 
largest commission merchants that not even a mod¬ 
erately good barrel of “ Ladies ” had come to mar¬ 
ket that season. Those that we found were more 
or less defaced by insect attacks, and scarcely a 
perfectly fair specimen could be found, while dark 
fungus spots blotched the surface and quite de¬ 
stroyed its beauty. If the Lady is to behave in this 
way, we must have some one to take her place. 
Will Highland Beauty do it? It seems to us to 
promise strongly in this direction. It is rather 
larger than the Lady (the engraving is larger than 
the average) and almost as Deautiful—perhaps 
some would say quite so—but its beauty is of a dif¬ 
ferent kind. If we regard the Lady as a brunette, 
the Highland Beauty may be described as a blonde. 
Its oblate form is shown by the engraving; its 
stout stem is in a very deep cavity, and its open 
calyx is set in a deep, furrowed, and even plaited 
basin ; the skin is of a very clear pale yellow, with 
an abundant light carmine blush covering about 
half of the surface ; the flesh pure white, very fine, 
and tender, moderately juicy, of a pleasant delicate 
flavor, with so little acidity as to almost class it 
among sweet apples. We first saw the fruit in 
September last, and were struck with its great 
beauty; we tried it during the Winter, and in 
March specimens that had received no special care 
attested ho keeping qualities. Except for its larger 
size, this may, if not supersede the Lady, form a 
most useful companion to it, and we have no doubt 
will prove profitable for the same reasons. The 
Highland Beauty was brought to our notice by Mr. 
E. P. Roe, who found it as a seedling in that old 
garden at Newburgh which has furnished him such 
excellent seedling gooseberries and raspberries, 
and beyond this nothing is known of its origin. 
