whether new deposits are of real value. It is 
called upon daily to decide the value of waste 
products for feeding or fertilizing purposes 
and iu connection with industries intimately 
connected with the farmer, it has been able, 
by improving the conditions of manufacture, 
to increase the market where he disposes of 
his crops, and furnishes him by selection, de¬ 
pendent on analysis, the most improved va¬ 
rieties. 
The beet sugar industry iu Germany is an 
illustration of what the chemist has done, in 
connection with the artisan, for the establish¬ 
ment of a new industry, both to the profit of 
the farmer and the manufacturer. Chemis¬ 
try, then, may besaid to be t.bescience, which 
in its application to agriculture is one of the 
most important means of investigating the 
economies of nature. Without it, to-day the 
farmer would be in a very different position 
and his future progress slow, if not completely 
blocked. 
It must, however, be remembered that many 
of the theories which are now well known and 
accepted have been built up by the work of a 
multitude of investigators, and the every-day 
reader who cannot always see in the agricul¬ 
tural chemical publications of the moment 
telligent purchase and use of chemical fertili¬ 
zers. The elementary and professional intel¬ 
ligence to purchase, through knowledge of 
one’s own soil, just what one needs, and to 
secure in their best and cheapest forms the 
needed materials, is the A. B. C. of success in 
chemical farming. The chance of success in the 
“go-it blind" system of farming is constantly 
growing less. The “root hog or die” motto must 
soon bechanged to “think or die,”in farming, 
especially so in fertilization. Neither two of the 
above named farms could I farm ou the same 
system of chemical fertilization without finan¬ 
cial death. 
Much criticism has been written against 
Ville’s system of plant-analysis of the soil,and 
against the companion practice of pur¬ 
chasing the materials found essential to the 
soil, iu their separate forms before manipula¬ 
tion by the dealers into finer brands or names. 
We should buy the potash, phosphoric acid, 
etc., each iu independent lots. The form in 
which to purchase, however, is to depend upon 
the cost per pound of the constituents needed. 
I recognize, as the result of my own expe¬ 
rience, the other enunciation of Ville, that 
each plant needs fertilization speciu) to itself, 
if one intends to bring farming down to a 
the nitrogen which Sir John B. Lawes’s trials 
would seem to call for in England. Third, 
after learning the needs of your soil by tests, 
buy the constituents needed, in the cheapest 
market, to be ascertained from the price lists 
of the reliable houses. Fourth: if ashes are 
under 25cents a bushel, use them for potash, if 
your soil needs potash; and for phosphoric acid 
buy flue ground Charleston phosphatic rock, if 
your soil is fairly rich in organic matter, and 
if your faith is strong enough, bed your cattle 
with it so as to use about 500 to 1,000 pounds of 
it to every acre covered with manure. You 
are safe to buy bone-meal and dissolved bone- 
black wheu the phosphoric acid costs under 
nine cents a pound for soluble acid,although the 
rock dust will cost but a little over one-third 
of this sum, and will reduce the entire cost of 
chemicals to a small sum, aud will keep the 
farm on an ascending scale of fertility and 
profit. However, each farmer’s practice must 
be dictated by a familiarity with his own soil. 
After a rich experience upon one farm, I 
found it practically useless, or financially use¬ 
less, to add anything but potash salts, or a fer¬ 
tilizer yielding potash. Our farmers will work 
away at this problem until it is a grander suc¬ 
cess to them than now appears. [Columbia, Mo. 
the Fall, and keep them growing in the win 
dow during Winter. 
In the flower garden they are used in 
masses in beds, or as standards (that is trained 
to single stems one to five feet high, with 
bushy heads at the top). They are introduced 
singly or in clumps into beds that have been 
planted with pansies, lobelias, torenias, sweet 
alyssum, or other dwarf-growing plants. 
Lobelias and other plants that like a little 
shade from strong sunshine, enjoy the shade 
afforded them by the standard lantanas. 
Young plants grow more robustly than old 
ones ; but in proportion, are hardly as flori- 
ferous; hence it is that so many old plants 
are used year after year. Before there is 
danger of frost—by about the end of Septem¬ 
ber or early in October—it is well to lift those 
plants we wish to save for another year, cut 
them back severely, pot them and take them 
indoors. They will winter safely in the win¬ 
dow (a north is as good as a south-facing one 
for them), light coller, or elsewhere, where the 
temperature may not fall below 40^ or the at¬ 
mosphere is not too close and damp, or too dry 
as near a furnace, In winter-quarters they 
need no more water than is enough to keep 
the soil faintly moist,but never let ltgetdust- 
■ & . 
•v 
Blue Victor. Fig. 11. (See Supplement, page 10.) 
any practical application to his own circum¬ 
stances aud surroundings, must remember 
that it is only from the combination of the 
many small results that, the larger and broad¬ 
er principle's follow, and that these arc often 
so gradually impressed upon oue’s mind as to 
make less marked what chemistry has done 
aud is doiug for the farmer than is really the 
case. In these days of such rapid advance¬ 
ment in science and the arts, only the more 
startling inventions make any lasting mark 
upou our memories. 
CHEMICAL FERTTLIZERS. 
PROFESSOR J. W. SANBORN. 
I am led to offer a few suggestions to read¬ 
ers of the Rural east of the Mississippi River, 
iu relation to chemical fertilizers, by notic¬ 
ing that the gregarious instinct of iudividual 
human thought, that leads it to act in uuisou 
with fellow thought,is just now exemplified in 
the Eastern farm press, in asserting, with un¬ 
usual unanimity, that chemical fertilizers, 
weighed iu the business balauces, are found 
wanting. Some good men are lendiug their 
influence to this stampede of faith, Ten years 
of special work with chemicals upou three dis¬ 
tinctive types of farms, convince me that the 
future of Eastern and,ultimately,of far West¬ 
ern farmiug is profoundly bound up in the 
development of the manufacture,aud more in¬ 
close basis, yet practically I would not rule it 
an important or vital necessity in fertiliza¬ 
tion, as I would conduct it, to wit: I would 
maiuly avoid the use of the costly nitrogen iu 
the form of purchased nitrogeuous chemi¬ 
cals. It is in relation to this material 
that the varying powers of plants to gather 
food from natural sources is strongly mani¬ 
fested; and this material costs more thau all 
the others put together, and is far more liable 
to suffer loss from remaining over in the soil 
thau either phosphoric acid or potash. But I 
must not multiply words over the fine points 
involved. 
Directly stated, experience on a New 
Hampshire farm, still being continued with 
chemicals alone, for nine years, leads me 
to believe that chemicals may be profitably 
used alone. G. W. Sanborn, who lias carried 
the work forward, weighing and testing year¬ 
ly, is a strong believer in them.. But the 
greatest profit is our true aim, and, I believe, 
under present information, a sure profit will 
be realized by pursuing the following system: 
First, uso the chemicals iu eouuection with 
yard manure, extending the yard manure 
over more ground. By this method larger 
crops will be realized thau when either is used 
alone. Second, secure'the nitrogen, if essential, 
by feeding rich nitrogenous foods, like cot¬ 
ton-seed meal, thus enriching the yard ma¬ 
nure. I do not believe that this country needs 
fUrxntliitml. 
LANTANAS. 
WILLIAM FALCONER, 
These are among the most useful summer¬ 
blossoming plants that we have for the flower 
garden, and so far as profusion aud bright¬ 
ness of blossoms are concerned, for the win¬ 
dow-garden, too. Bat as house plants, many 
people dislike them ou account of their pecu¬ 
liar fragrance; In the flower garden, how¬ 
ever, that is no objection. They delight iu 
full sunshine, enjoy our warm Summers, and 
bloom uninterruptedly from June till they are 
taken up aud cut back in the Fall; or, if left 
out, till the frost destroys them. [We show a 
cluster of blossoms at Fig. 11. Eds.] They are 
easily raised from cuttings of the young wood 
at any season—Spring or Summer— when the 
growths are new. Keep the cuttings close, 
warm and shaded till they take root. They 
are also easily raised from seeds. These you 
can buy at the seed stores, or save from your 
own plants, for in warm seasons lantanas 
bear a good deal of seeds. You can start the 
seeds in pots or boxes in the house in Spring, 
or in a hot-bed, or, as the weather gets 
warmer, in a cold-frame, or sheltered, shad}- 
plot iu the garden. Or you can start them iu 
dry. In Spring by bringing them forth to 
lighter and sunnier quarters, giving them a 
little more sunlight, warmth and water, they 
soon break into fresh growth. 
They are natives of tropical and subtropical 
America, belong to the same family of plants 
as do the verbena and Chaste Shrub. Their 
flowers are white, yellow, and red in many 
shades, two or three colors in belts being often 
present in one flower. There are about three 
dozen varieties. You will find them described 
in florists’ catalogues. A very dwarf bright- 
yellow bloomiug one, called Califoruiea, has 
come prominently into notice within a few 
’ years, uud is much used as panels in carpet 
beds. Sellowiaua, a low-growing, spreading 
species from Southern Brazil, has a profusion 
of reddish-purple flowers; and is an excellent 
plant for vases, window boxes, baskets, or 
masses in dower beds. 
Honor to Pioneer Horticulturists.— 
The Western Rural, speaking of horticultural 
pioneers, says that it is nut expected that the 
great world at large will ever appreciate the 
