1877.1 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
131 
cultural chemistry, at least, that this is not prac¬ 
ticable. The fertilizer manufacturers come along, 
and tell us, each in turn, that his article is just the 
thing we need. We try this one, and then that 
one, at a great deal of expense, sometimes with 
good results, and sometimes quite otherwise. In 
the former case we go on and buy and use more. A 
neighbor, having a different soil, follows our ex¬ 
ample, and fails, and is disgusted, not to 6ay dis¬ 
couraged. If we fail in our first trials, we too are 
disgusted, and pronounce all artificial fertilizers, 
and agricultural science itself, a humbug. But 
even when we succeed, we are not sure that we 
have got the best or cheapest fertilizer. Something 
else might have furnished our soil with just what 
we wanted at half the cost. 
Now the best way to get at the root of the mat¬ 
ter is, not to go into costly experiments, buying by 
the ton, or score of tons, a fertilizer that is highly 
commended, but to put a few simple questions to 
our fields, in the form of experiments that any or¬ 
dinary cultivator can carry on at small cost, which, 
If made carefully, will afford a large amount of 
most important information. In an average field, 
lay off a few long plots, and try on one plot a 
single fertilizer, another on next plot, and so on, 
using various mixtures of the fertilizers on some 
plots. Across these plots plant or sow several 
leading crops, and watch carefully the effects upon 
each, of the different fertilizers. A single trial of a 
season, will give a great deal of information ; while 
repeated trials'will be of still greater value. Thus 
ascertaining what will pay best,we can,in future, buy 
and use largely just that fertilizing element, and 
only that one, or only those which are needed. If 
potash is the thing, we shall not have to buy and 
pay for a lot of other things, to get what we want. 
The chemists can tell us accurately what is in this 
or that fertilizer, and whether we get what we pay 
for, or intended to. The cultivators who make 
these experiments—who thus ask direct questions 
of the soil—will be the most successful, and they 
should be begun at once. For directions in mak¬ 
ing such experiments, see Prof. Atwater’s article 
in another column, “ Science Applied to Farming.” 
Ogden Farm Papers.—No. 86. 
BT GEORGE E. WARINQ, JR. 
I have a letter from the Pacific Slope which reads 
thus : “ Enclosed you will find one dollar for that 
amount of Prickly Comfrey, that you and the Edi¬ 
tor speak of in the American Agriculturist. You 
did not say you had any for sale, but I thought it 
was a sly way of advertising it. If you have none 
for sale, please send my letter to some one that has, 
as I am anxious to try it in this dry climate. If it 
should do well here, it would be a great benefit to 
this country. Please answer these questions: Who 
manufactures the best machines to underdrain 
with ? How large a drain do they make ? How 
many rods can be made per day, and at what cost 
per rod ?” 
Those who have read the advertisements of books 
in the American Agriculturist , and those who know 
the conspicuous character of the inducements of¬ 
fered for forming clubs of subscribers, will probably 
agree with me that the American Agriculturist's 
way of advertising is not a particularly 6ly one, and 
I think 1 am safe in saying that if any hired writer 
in the establishment were to attempt the sly game 
in advertising his own business, “the Editor” 
would be very likely to draw a broad pen through 
that part of his article before it went to the printer. 
Slyness is not a style that seems to be cultivated in 
that establishment. 
My interest in the Prickly Comfrey is two-fold. 
First, as a farmer I am interested in securing the 
best and cheapest forage for my herd.—Second, as 
the writer of these papers I am obliged to cultivate 
a quick eye for whatever promises to be of advan¬ 
tage to my readers. It is a question of bread and 
butter with me to earn my wages as a writer, and I 
have learned by experience, that the inexorable 
editor of the American Agriculturist is sly enough to 
insist on his subordinates hunting out and. describ¬ 
ing fully and fairly, all new and valuable topics. I 
thought the Prickly Qomfrey would “score one” 
for me in this account. That is all. I have no sets 
for 6ale, nor shall I be likely to have until the mar¬ 
ket is so generally supplied that the price will be 
too low to make the sale of sets worth while. 
The best ditching machine yet devised, is a broad- 
backed, stout-armed Irishman, who has been 
brought up to the work. His place on the Pacific 
Slope could probably be well supplied by the use 
of Chinese cheap labor. I think among the numer¬ 
ous inventions for the purpose, which have been 
more or less successful, much the most promising 
seems to be Gov. Randolph’s ditching machine, 
which has been well tested, and which is advertised 
and described in the March American Agriculturist. 
The maker’s address is given in the advertisement. 
I have seen only the model, but I have heard good 
reports of its work from an eye witness, and think 
that the machine is sufficiently promising to justify 
its being tried. 
The tendencies in all industries are getting to be 
more and more in the direction of cooperation. I 
have occasionally, during the past year, suggested 
cooperative action of farmers who retail milk from 
their wagons in towns. Since my former notice of 
its work, I have received the full report of the 
Onondaga Dairymen’s Association, which began 
business in the city of Syracuse, in 1872, and has 
been in successful operation since that time. It is 
a large Association, with a cash capital of about 
830,000, owning the necessary horses and wagons, 
and having a factory for the disposal of so much of 
the product as is not needed for the retail business. 
In this factory both butter and cheese are made. 
The employees of the Association are boarded at 
the establishment, and as the supplies are bought 
at wholesale, and the house is carefully kept, it is 
found that the average expense of board per month 
is $9.44. Incidentally this may be valuable infor¬ 
mation for farmers who make an allowance for 
board to their hands. The Association has taken 
up 39 private routes, which had formerly required 
39 horses, wagons, and men—many of the men be¬ 
ing farmers themselves. The business has now 
been carried on for 4 years with increasing success, 
and it has demonstrated the important fact that the 
farmers net more for their milk, without counting 
the value of their own services at home, than they 
did under the system of private routes. 
Milk must be delivered at the depot at a fixed 
hour of the morning. That which arrives after 
that hour, is credited at “cheese rates.” Regula¬ 
tions for the cooling of milk are enforced. Weekly 
tests are made of all that is delivered, and when it 
faffs below the standard, a discount is made from the 
aggregate of the week’s delivery. When it faffs so 
much below the standard as to indicate adultera¬ 
tion, a penalty is inflicted. The drainage and ven¬ 
tilation of stables, their cleanly keeping, the clean 
bedding of the cows, and a pure and wholesome 
supply of food and water, are insisted upon—other 
details looking towards extra cleanliness, also re¬ 
ceive attention. 
The 6tock of the Association is apportioned to 
the members on the basis of $20 for each cow usu¬ 
ally kept by them, thus insuring in the division of 
profits according to capital stock, a fair dividend to 
each farmer. The credit for the milk deliveries is 
according to quality, thus making it for the inter¬ 
est of each farmer to keep good cows. So com¬ 
plete a system as this is only practicable among 
farmers who live near a large town, or who can 
supply a more distant city regularly by rail, but 
there are hundreds of cases where a dozen or more 
farmers drive daily over little peddling routes in 
their neighboring market-towns, delivering all 
together not more than could be easily delivered by 
one-fourth their number. If such farmers would 
unite, under regulations which would ensure a fair 
division of returns according to the amount of 
milk furnished, they might save at least one-half 
of the wear and tear of vehicles and teams, and at 
least three-fourths of the value of their services, 
and escape the tedious work of delivery. 
We hear a good deal about hard times, though 
less, I am happy to say, in connection with farming 
than in the other industries of the country. If 
there ever was a time when the prosperity A the 
country depended mainly upon its agriculture for 
the exportation of produce it is fie present,—agri¬ 
culture has thrown the balance or trade $113,000,000 
in our favor,—according to the President’s recent 
message in favor of resumption. One item or our 
foreign trade is fuff of encouragement,—-that is the 
exportation of fresh meat to England, whor” there 
arrived in a single week in January last, at the port 
of Liverpool alone—in addition to large hi Voices of 
butter, cheese, bacon, hams, salt beef, pork and 
lard—fresh beef and mutton, equivalent In 10,000 
sheep and 1,400 steers. 
The facility for transporting fresh beef (at a tem¬ 
perature of 38° or less) is constantly increasinsr, and 
the demands keep pr.ee with it. The product has 
not yet become so recognized as being first-rate, 
that it is sold as of English production, as our cheese 
often is, but it has found its way into the best mar¬ 
kets, and there is much significance in the following 
anecdote from a communication to the “ London 
Farmer” : A gentleman who was anxious to taste 
fresh American beef, went to a butcher, who made 
it a specialty. He was asked who was his regular 
butcher.—“ Oh ! so and so, and we have no reason 
to complain, as he sends us the best Scotch beef he 
can buy.”—The butcher remarked to a friend, that 
the man in question had got all of his best Scotch 
beef from America for eight months past. 
The attention that the subject ia attracting in 
England, is very significant. Not only do butchers 
and farmers discuss it, but the subject is taken up 
by political economists, essayists, and members of 
Parliament. It is compared with the admbsion 
of foreign grain by the repeal of the corv. ,'aws. 
Arguments are advanced to show that, just so the 
introduction of foreign com was followed y the 
cheapening of living, an increase of industry which 
aggregated a larger demand for better food, and so 
improved the farmer’s business), so the cheapening 
of meat will lead to a still further advance of prosper¬ 
ity, in which the farmer can not fail to ■' ti r pate. 
Probably this is true, and it [is imports-. t j r us 
that it is so, for the foreign demand for our meat 
has come to this country, “ andit has comj.o stay.” 
It is as important for us that the English people 
should remain prosperous and be able > buy our 
meat, a« it is important to the English far ner that 
the ability to buy his product shorn.'! continue. 
That this foreign demand, so long as ii remains, 
must add to the cash returns of American agricul¬ 
ture, is undoubted, and there has never : -een a time 
when the out-look of the farming intov st in this 
country seemed to be so promising, an i so firmly 
based as it is to-day. Let it only be tor. e in mind 
,that as the profits of farming increase, he profits 
of good farming will increase in the gre '.test pro¬ 
portion. Do everything in the best -..ay, and invest 
all the capital needed to improve too wav, only be 
extremely cautious in making the investment a 
judicious one, and especially 60 when it is made 
with borrowed money. 
Science Applied to Farming—XXVIXI. 
Farm Kiperlments with Pcrtiliieni-Sng- 
gestions ami Directions for making them. 
Since the chief use of commercial fertilizers is 
to supply the materials which crops need, and at¬ 
mosphere and soil fail to supply, it i6 evident that 
to use them economically, we must know what ma¬ 
terials are deficient in the soil where they are to be 
applied. This can best be learned by direct experi¬ 
ments—by putting the question to the soil with dif¬ 
ferent fertilizing materials, and obtaining its reply 
in the crops produced. 
For experiments by which any intelligent farmer 
can test the needs of his soil, without great cost 
or trouble, I would suggest a series in which the 
action of the three substances, nitrogen, phosphor¬ 
ic acid, and potash, should be tried separately and 
in combination, and, at the same time, the effect of 
plaster, lime, and stable manure, be studied. Ni¬ 
trogen cm be conveniently supplied by dried 
