410 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
the fertilizers. Every ordinary soil has a certain 
capacity for production, a certain natural strength, 
or natural fertility, measured by a variety of cir¬ 
cumstances, chief among: which is the quantity of 
plant-food which it can of itself continually supply 
for the growth of successive crops, after previous 
ones have been removed. Now this natural fertility, 
or the consequent natural yield, is a very important 
factor of every manured crop, and it would be 
more nearly correct, to expect from the use of the 
fertilizer an increase above the natural yield, corre¬ 
sponding to the amount of fertilizing material 
added. But in practice we do not always realize 
just this proportion of increase Sometimes we 
get a good deal more and sometimes a good deal 
less increase of crop than we apply food for. The 
reasons for this are manifold. The soil may be too 
dry or too wet, too heavy or too light, too close or 
too porous, to favor the most complete utilization 
of the fertilizer. There are, for instance, a great 
many soils where heavy manuring will not bring a 
corresponding return, for the simple reason that 
th y either do not receive, or are not capable of re¬ 
taining enough moisture to enable the crop to make 
use of "11 the plant-^ood that may be supplied. On 
such soils as these, heavy manuring and ‘‘high 
farming ” cannot be made to pay, unless, of course, 
It be by aid of irrigation. In dry seasons the case 
would be similar on soils naturally more moist. 
On the other hand, the increase above the natural 
yield is sometimes much greater than would corre¬ 
spond to the amount of fertilizer applied. The in¬ 
gredients of fertilizers, by their chemical and physi¬ 
cal fiction, aid in rendering materials previously 
existing in the soil available to plants. By thus 
bringiugthe inert plant-food of the soil into action, 
the fertilizers may increase the yield up to a point 
considerably above that to which their own supply 
could raise it, even if entirely utilized. 
We are speaking of fertilizer mixtures containing 
the food ingredients in the proportions in which 
they are used by crops. From the stand-point of 
economy, there is a more serious objection to the 
promiscuous use of such mixtures, than either of 
those above alleged. Their object is to supply 
necessary plant-food. What will be needed in a 
given case will depend on two things : what the 
crop requires, and what the soil supplies. These 
mixtures take into account only the needs of the 
crop, the supply from the soil (and, in the case of 
nitrogen, that from the air) is left entirely out of 
consideration. There are a great many soils that 
furnish enough of potash, for instance, for the 
wants of any common crop, and continue to do so, 
year fter year, provided phosphates and nitrogen 
are applied in sufficient quantilies. The experi¬ 
mental fields of Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert, in 
England, spoken of in the July article of this series, 
are an excellent example. For over thirty years 
this soil has given excellent crops of grain, with 
mixtures of phosphates and nitrogenous fertilizers, 
and there are no signs of its being depleted by this 
treatment. To have added potash during all this 
time, would have been to store tip in the soil a large 
quantity of material, useful in itself, indeed, but 
useless in this case, because not needed. The 
money spent for potash would have been wasted. 
Again, certain crops, like clover, seem to have a 
faculty of gathering up nitrogen from the air, and 
from the deeper layers of the soil, so that if the 
other food ingredients are supplied, they bring 
large yields, where grain crops would fail from lack 
of nitrogen. Such crops are little benefited by 
nitrogenous fertilizers, and yet clover is a great 
deal richer in nitrogen than wheat. A fertilizer 
mixture for clover, prepared on the plan we have 
been discussing, would contain a great deal more 
nitrogen than one for a corresponding wheat crop. 
A large part of the nitrogen would, so far as the 
clover is concerned, be practically wasted, and a 
glance at the figures ill the wheat formula above, 
will show that nitrogen is by far the most expensive 
of all the materials, its cost being $13.00 against 
$3.42 for phosphoric acid, and $2.28 for potash, and 
While the potash and phosphoric acid, if added in 
excess, would be held by the 6oil with compara¬ 
tively little loss, until it was used by succeeding 
crops, a large part of the nitrogen would sooner 
or later escape into the air, or be leached away by 
water, and thus be lost. 
Indeed, when we consider how much of uncer¬ 
tainty there is in the present condition of our ex¬ 
perimental knowledge of the ways iu which plant- 
food is used in the soil, how different crops vary in 
their demands, and soils in their supply of fertilizing 
materials, and how large a part of the value of fer¬ 
tilizers is due to their indirect action in the soil, it is 
clear that any attempt to prescribe formulas to fit all 
cases, while it may, in some, prove most profitable, 
but must, in others, be very uneconomical. At the 
same time the method of preparing fertilizers by 
formulas based on the composition of the crops for 
which they are to be used, is a long step in advance 
of the practice which is in vogue among 60 many 
farmers, of using fertilizers at random. The fact 
is, as I have often urged, the only sure way to tell 
what fertilizers will be the most economical for 
given crops on a given soil, is by actual experiment. 
Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station , Wesleyan 
University , Middletown , Conn. 
Ogden Farm Papers—No. 81. 
BY GEORGE E. WAR1HQ, JR. 
The most important feature of the Centennial 
Exhibition, from the farmer’s point of view, was 
the Cattle Show, which closed on the 4th of Oct. 
The amount of stock exhibited was not large, nor 
was it of a remarkably high average character. In 
my view, however, its value was enhanced by the 
marked difference in quality between the different 
specimens shown of almost every breed. There 
were Short-horns of enormous size with humps of 
fat loaded on to them until they looked to the in¬ 
experienced eye like huge animated masses of tal¬ 
low,—animals to delight the soul of the Short-horn 
fancier, to arouse the astonishment of the unedu¬ 
cated citizen, and to awaken another emotion among 
those who, like myself, have been trained to appre¬ 
ciate the delicate and graceful beauty of the Jersey, 
the generous milking quality of the Ayrshire, and 
the suggestion of the meat and well-flavored roast¬ 
ing pieces of the less ponderous beefing breeds. I 
cannot pretend to do justice to this race of cattle, 
for my taste lies in quite an opposite direction to 
that of the Short-horn breeder—I can only repeat 
the assurances of those who are learned concern¬ 
ing them, that some of the animals shown were ex¬ 
tremely worthy examples of the best breeding. 
Others were obviously inferior, fit to serve as a 
warning to the careless and ignorant who are not 
qualified by nature, and by purse, to embark in the 
breeding of these mountains of butcher’s meat. 
My opinion as to the quality of the Ayrshires, 
Herefords, Devons, and “ miscellaneous ” breeds 
shown, would not be worth writing, for I am not 
qualified to form an opinion. My attention was 
given almost exclusively to the Jerseys, (in which 
class I acted as a judge), which were gathered in 
quite unprecedented numbers, indeed there were 
more Jerseys present on the ground, if my count 
was correct, than there were of all other breeds put 
together. This preponderance was due to two 
causes ; first, to the rapidly growing interest in this 
race of cattle, and second, to the well-directed efforts 
of the American Jersey Cattle Club to secure a full 
representation. The small returns received by dairy¬ 
men for milk sent to cheese factories, and the more 
profitable manufacture of butter, are leading North¬ 
ern dairymen to infuse an increasing proportion of 
Jersey blood into their herds, and the success that 
has attended the introduction of Jerseys into the 
Southern States, where more and more attention is 
being given to general farming to the exclusion of 
cotton growing, account sufficiently for the increas¬ 
ing appreciation of this remarkable race of„butter 
producers. The Jersey Club, realizing the value 
of the opportunity to be afforded by the Centen¬ 
nial Exhibition, offered $1,000, in special prizes;— 
to be awarded by judges of its own selection, accord¬ 
ing to its own scale of points, $250 each was offered 
for the best cow and the best bull, and $100 each for 
the second best cow and bull; also $300 for the best 
herd to consist of one male and four females. The 
extent of the competition for these prizes was 
evidenced by the fact that thirteen herds were 
brought into the ring for examination, and that 
there were in all about 150 animals competing in 
the different classes. The uneveness of quality was 
certainly as marked in the exhibits of this breed as 
of any other. With instructions from the Exhibi¬ 
tion authorities to make awards wherever sufficient 
merit was found, and with a disposition on our part 
to act with the greatest practicable liberality, we 
found it possible to recommend for award only 
about one third of the animals shown. We might 
have commended animals in many cases for beauty 
of appearance, or for fineness of bone, or for many 
other desirable qualities, and in this manner we 
could have easily doubled the number to receive 
awards, but we restricted ourselves by a resolution 
to commend no animal that did not promise more 
than ordinary dairy quality. However good a cow 
might be as an example of skillful fancy breeding, 
if she was not obviously a good cow, she was not 
to be ticketed as a model to be followed by having 
a Centennial medal and diploma hung to her horns. 
Of course every exhibitor believed that he had at¬ 
tained a high degree of success, or he would not have 
exhibited,—no one certainly sent his herd to Phila¬ 
delphia to be defeated. Many of them must have 
gone home sadder than they came, with the sad¬ 
ness that accompanies an increase of wisdom. It 
is easy, if one can pay the cost, to buy and breed a 
herd of registered Jersey cattle, but, as the result 
has shown, the elements of skill and judgment in 
breeding are more necessary than common. Indeed, 
to be entirely frank, 1 do not hesitate to say that 
with large facilities for examining specimens of 
this breed, I never saw before fifty such worthless 
brutes,—among registered animals,—as the tail 
fifty of this show; and the fifty next above them 
were by no means a high average lot. 
Any visitor to the Exhibition, with the least ca¬ 
pacity for forming a judgment, even if he learned 
nothing else, must have learned thoroughly well 
what to avoid. But he must also have learned very 
much else,—for there were twenty or thirty bulls 
and cows in the lot that could hardly be excelled. 
—typical animals, fairly glowing with the charac¬ 
teristic beauty and quality of this race. Our first 
task was an easy one—that of culling out the ani¬ 
mals not to be commended,—but after the best had 
been selected for more careful examination, it be¬ 
came extremely difficult. The shades of merit 
were almost infinitesimal, and more than once the 
ranking was decided by a difference of less than 
one per cent in the scale of points. The judges 
were in every instance unanimous, and they were 
especially so in their appreciation of the difficulty 
of selecting the successful candidates for the Club 
prizes. There was no question as to making beauty 
yield to quality, but the quality was so evenly bal¬ 
anced that the judging became really embarrassing. 
The first prize for a cow was given to Sam. J. Sharp- 
less’s imported “ Niobe,” a grand fawn and white 
animal, eighteen years old, and still hearty and 
vigorous,—still breeding and milking regularly, 
and giving every indication of the vdVv highest but¬ 
ter producing quality. She is the least “pretty” 
of all that were selected for commendation, but 
for all that she is an extremely taking animal to 
any connoisseur of the breed. The second prize 
was given to the same owner’s imported “ Cyrene,” 
nine years old, a less robust cow than “ Niobe,” but 
fine, soft-haired, and of extremely yellow color. 
Like “Niobe,” “Cyrene” has a generous proportion 
of white. The first prize for bulls was given to F. 
K. Starr, for his solid fawn “Litchfield,” an animal 
shown in too fat condition, but with an obvious 
excellence of dairy quality, which no amount of 
over-feeding could conceal. The second prize went 
to H. J. Lotbrop’s “Bellini,” a bull whose unmis¬ 
takable good qualities were almost overshadowed 
by his remarkable beauty. He would be safe, to 
day, to carry off the first prize at nine-tenths of the 
agricultural shows of the country, and if more age 
gives him a deeper flank, he will stand a very good 
chance of sweeping the other tenth of the field. 
His only real defect is in the white of his horn. 
