1876.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
211 
very excellent care, although he says that they re¬ 
ceived while in pasture only five pounds of ship- 
stuff each, and during winter, potatoes, wheat-bran, 
and corn and oat-meal. 
J. S. Elder, Darlington, Pa., sends a sketch of a 
field in which there is a depression that holds sur¬ 
face water. Under a part of the field there is an 
old coal gangway, twelve feet below the surface. 
He asks whether the continuing of this gangway 
under the depression will drain it. As I understand, 
the basin is always, or often more or less filled with 
water. If this is the case, the driving of the under¬ 
ground channel would not alone be sufficient, be¬ 
cause the water standing on the surface has doubt¬ 
less, under the action of the winds, puddled the 
soil below it so as to form a tight basin. The gang¬ 
way may very .well he used as an outlet for this 
drainage, but it would at least be necessary to dig 
a hole from the surface down to the gangway, and 
to fill this hole with loose'stone gravel, or other 
porous material, that would readily carry away any 
surface water accumulating. Were this not suffi¬ 
cient for the complete drying of the soil, the same 
hole can be used as an outlet for the necessary 
under-drains. It is possible, as coal seams are 
more or less open, that by simply making the hole 
suggested well into the coal, the natural porosity 
of this would furnish a sufficient outlet for the 
water, saving the cost of the further gangway 
driving suggested. 
- -— <a — i m - 
Wild and Mongrel Geese. 
The Wild Goose (Branta Canadensis) which we are 
accustomed to see on its passage every spring and 
fall, is as well worthy of domestication as any va¬ 
riety of water fowl that we have upon our farms. 
To the great majority of our people they are onlj- 
known as they see them in flight. They have never 
seen them in the poultry yard, and never enjoyed 
them as a delicacy upon the table. In a few districts 
their value has been discovered, both for ornament 
and for use, and the raising of wild geese has be¬ 
come a regular and profitable business. They are 
more generally raised in Rhode Island, about the 
shores of Narragansett Bay, and in Eastern Connec¬ 
ticut, near the Sound, than in any other district 
with which we are acquainted. The bird is thus 
described by naturalists : “ The head, two-thirds of 
the neck, the greater quills, the rump and tail are 
pitch black; the back and wings broccoli-brown, 
edged with wood-brown ; the base of the neck an¬ 
teriorly, and the under plumage generally, brown- 
isli-gray ; a few white feathers are scattered about 
the eye, and a white cravat of a kidney shape forms 
a conspicuous mark op the throat; upper and un¬ 
der tail coverts, pure white; bill and feet black.” 
They do not walk so gracefully as the common 
goose, but are entirely at home on the water, and 
are beautiful objects upon any pond or stream in 
cultivated grounds. They make a pleasing contrast 
with white swans, common geese, or ducks, upon 
any lawn or woodland park. To the farmer they 
are of chief value for their flesh, and for crossing 
with other varieties to raise mongrel geese, which 
are an article of luxury in city markets, and com¬ 
mand very high prices. The wild goose has been so 
little domesticated that there has been no departure, 
in the color of the plumage, or habits, from the 
original type. They are strictly monogamous, and 
the old gander, when mated with the goose for the 
season, rarely leaves her, unless it be for some 
former mate, who unexpectedly returns to him. 
In breeding the pure birds, it is usual to have not 
more than two or three pairs upon the same prem¬ 
ises, and if each pair could have a separate breed¬ 
ing place, it would be likely to save quarreling 
among ganders, and disturbance among the gos¬ 
lings. The breeding birds are pinioned at the first 
joint of the wing, to prevent them from flying, an 
operation is usually performed while they are 
young. When first brought to a new location, they 
should be kept in a pen or hurdle near the spot 
where they are to breed. They will soon become 
accustomed to their keeper, and if regularly sup¬ 
plied with food, will give no more trouble than 
common geese. Abundant feeding, especially dur¬ 
ing the first season, is essential to the highest suc¬ 
cess. The young are strong and hardy, and soon 
learn to shift for themselves. The wild birds are 
not nearly so prolific as the tame varieties. Each 
goose lays six or seven eggs at the first litter, and 
if these are set under other birds, she will lay a 
second time. The birds increase in size for several 
years, and their weight will depend very much upon 
the abundance of their food. 
Mongrel Geese, with which the markets of large 
cities are scantily supplied, are the delight of epi¬ 
cures; they are a cross of the wild goose upon 
some domestic variety. The mongrel goose is usu¬ 
ally larger than either parent, and the flesh is held 
in the highest esteem, either because of its excel¬ 
lent flavor, or of its veiy high price. The early 
birds are most desirable, as they can be marketed 
in August at the watering places at the highest 
price. The wild gander is usually mated with a do¬ 
mestic goose, because she will produce two or three 
times as many eggs as a wild goose—thirty and for¬ 
ty eggs are secured by the skillful poultryman, and 
are hatched under hens or other geese. The young 
birds are hardy, and easily raised. They should 
have a good pasture, with a pond or brook, and be 
regularly and bountifully fed. The object is to se¬ 
cure early maturity, and sell while there is the 
greatest demand. The business pays well. 
The use of Machinery. —The use of machinery 
upon the farm is doubly beneficial. It not only re¬ 
duces the labor, lessens the cost of products, saves 
time, and enables a larger surface to be cultivated, 
but it actually necessitates better and more careful 
work. To plant corn with a drill successfully, it is 
necessary that the sod be well turned over and cov¬ 
ered, and no trash left upon the surface to interfere 
with the regular dropping of the seed ; nor must 
loose stones be left in the way. It is the same with 
all other machinery, and this indirect benefit is not 
the least by any means of those that we gain by 
the use of farm machines. 
Improvement in Sheep. —A marked improve¬ 
ment is noticeable in the quality of sheep which 
come to the markets. Whole flocks of sheep, which 
will average over 100 lbs., may now be seen in the 
pens in place of poor animals weighing but 60 to 70 
lbs. Tliie is the effect of the rapid introduction of 
pure bred sheep of different varieties, but chiefly 
the Cotswold. In good time American mutton will 
be equal to that of England; it is nearly so now in 
weight of carcass, and will be so in quality and fla¬ 
vor of the meat, if farmers will raise roots upon 
which to feed their sheep. One acre of turnips or 
mangels is equal to ten of grass for fodder, and 
when fed with straw, and helped out with a little 
bran or oil-cake, roots are certainly the cheapest 
feed that can be produced. 
- —a <0' am - 
Science Applied to Farming—XVIII. 
BY PROP. W. O. ATWATER. 
A Correction—Nitrogen, How Supplied to Soils 
und Crops, and How Lost-Need of More In¬ 
vestigation—Fraud in Fertilizers. 
In Table 31 of last month, a grievous error oc¬ 
curred, which was not discovered until the edition 
was printed In part A the figures of the columns 
“Mineral Matters” and “Nitrogen,” were, with 
the exception of the first and last, transposed, so as 
to bring the figures for “ Nitrogen ” under “ Min¬ 
eral Matters,” and vice versa. The surest way to 
correct so important a mistake, is to reprint the 
table entire, as is here done. In the calculation of 
the materials taken from the soil by a ton of hay, 
the proof-reader changed the figures to correspond 
with the transposed table. They should be, ni¬ 
trogen 2876 lbs., potash 26y 5 lbs., lime 17‘/ 5 lbs., 
phosphoric acid 8>/ 5 l’os., and so on, as they were 
originally written by myself. 
Nilrogcii in Soils and Plants. 
In the table the nitrogen of the plants is stated 
to be “ derived mostly from the soil.” Tjiis point 
deserves more detailed explanation, and I know no 
way that this can be so well given as in the follow¬ 
ing language, which will be valued as coming from 
our first authority on these matters in this country. 
Prof. S. W. Johnson, in a lecture on “ Guiding 
Ideas in the Use of Fertilizers,” published in the 
Report of Conn. Board of Agriculture for 1873, 
says : “We do not know positively, as yet, all the 
processes or arrangements by which nitrogen is 
made accessible to our crops. We have got a great 
deal of valuable knowledge, but there is still much 
to be learned. The atmosphere contains an im¬ 
mense store of nitrogen gas—four-fifths of its bulk 
and weight—but this free nitrogen is, so far as our 
present information enables us to decide, of no 
use as food to vegetation directly. It is only capa¬ 
ble of feeding plants after it has been brought into 
combination with other elements as a nitrate*, or as 
ammonia. The atmosphere will furnish a limited 
but variable supply of these compounds, enough 
to be of essential service to well developed vegeta¬ 
tion, having great absorbent surface of leaf and 
root, but not enough to bring annual plants to 
great development, so that agricultural plants, if 
planted in a soil destitute of available nitrogen- 
compounds, can never make a crop without the 
help of manure containing suitable nitrogen com¬ 
pounds. 
“ Nitrogen is the most costly clement of our or¬ 
dinary fertilizers, because it is the most generally 
and strikiugly useful, and because it is the most 
difficult to obtain, or in other words, the demand 
is great and the supply small. 
“ The soil, if it contains little nitrogen, must be 
enriched by that element; if it contains abundance, 
it is obviously not needful to add more. By natu¬ 
ral processes, the soil is constantly losing and gain¬ 
ing nitrogen, or is liable to such loss and gain, and 
these changes are intensified under the artificial 
conditions of agricultural practice. Nitrogen en¬ 
ters the soil from the atmosphere, by direct absorp¬ 
tion of ammonia, especially wdien moisture con¬ 
denses in it as happens in the night time, and loses 
ammonia again, or may lose it, as the water exhales. 
The rain that falls upon the earth brings both am¬ 
monia and nitrates in varying quantity, equivalent 
to from two to twenty-one pounds of nitrogen [to 
the acre], per annum, in the dozen instances where 
chemists have taken the immense trouble necessary 
to ascertain its quantity for an entire year. On the 
other hand, the nitrates, and ammonia after being 
oxidized to nitrates, wash from the soil in the out¬ 
flowing water, aud are lost in the streams. Again, 
the soil itself is not passive to nitrogen, but on the 
one hand appears to be able to render a portion of 
the available nitrogen inert, and on the other, to 
assimilate nitrogen from the air, and make it avail¬ 
able to plants. But with regard to these processes 
we are very much in the dark.” 
There is another source of loss of nitrogen which 
Prof. Johnson does not speak of just here, and upon 
which new light has been thrown by experiments 
since the above was written. The compounds of 
nitrogen which are so precious as plant food, are, 
to greater or less extent, broken up in the soil, and 
tiie nitrogen let loose as free nitrogen, which is use¬ 
less to vegetation. 
Prof. Johnson continues: “Nitrogen then is 
somewhat exceptional among the elements of fer¬ 
tilizers. It comes to our soil in an unseen atmos¬ 
pheric stream, sometimes larger and sometimes 
smaller, but always so small that the current quan¬ 
tity is not adequate for the current crop. It is al¬ 
ways wasting, or liable to waste, and it wastes the 
more the greater the volume of rain-water which 
our soil is unable to retain in its pores, but permits 
to leach through and away. The natural accessions 
of nitrogen to the land, though not enough for a 
grain or a hoed crop, while that crop is growing, 
are yet enough to help it essentially when its ab¬ 
sorbent surface of leaf and root has become large. 
And by judicious alternations of the large-surfafpjl 
and deep-rooted plants of the perennial class, or of 
perennial habit, ]ike elpY cl '< v Y e ca P save and starp 
I tt will he remembered that ammonia aiul nitric ackl ar.e 
cpnipounds of nitrogen, and tliat compounds of nitric acid 
with bases as ammonia, lime, etc., are pallet} nitrates. 
