488© 
406 
those heaps only last fall, I shall not be able 
to record the results until next season. 
IN WHAT QUANTITIES APPLIED? 
It is very difficult to give a satisfactory 
answer to this question. In our cold climate 
the privy vaults freeze in the winter and the 
contents have to be chopped out. As house¬ 
maids are in the habit of throwing all kinds 
of refuse into the cess-pits, the proportion of 
valuable fertilizer to broken glass, crockery, 
old boots, tin cans, slops, etc., is very hard to 
estimate correctly. Frequently loads of 30, 
000 pounds contain at least nine-tenths of ice 
and refuse. Last winter we applied about 40 
loads per acre. 
WHAT CROPS IS IT BEST FOR? 
Thus far I have found it to give the best re¬ 
sults in mangolds and corn. In one field 
where the night-soil was applied at the rate 
of at least 20 tons to the acre of a rich sandy- 
loam soil with a clay sub-soil, with an equal 
amount of stable manure,muck and gas-lime,I 
found that the excess of what I presume to be 
nitrogen (I am no scientist) had in some places 
destroyed the vitality of the seeds. Those 
which did germinate threw up a sickly-look- 
ing lot of plants (carrots, parsnips and turnips) 
which seemed to have a bard struggle for an 
existence in the extremely dry season that 
followed. When the rainy weather set in at 
the end of August, however, the transforma¬ 
tion was marvelous. I never saw such a 
growth in so short a time. Many of the car¬ 
rots and parsnips dug from the field were six 
inches in diameter, and a large proportion 
had split open from the rapidity of growth. 
Cabbages in the same field had also burst to 
such a degree that they could not be marketed, 
ana had to be fed to hogs and young cattle. 
COMPARISON WITH BARN-YARD MANURE. 
I can hardly give an estimate of the practi¬ 
cal value of night-soil as compared with barn¬ 
yard manure. 
The night-soil seems to be more soluble and 
more readily available as plant food than 
stable manure, and composted with black 
muck 1 think it is more valuable for roots and 
vegetables. But there are so many objection¬ 
able features connected with the use of it— 
the difficulty of getting men to handle it: the 
prejudice in the market against buying vege¬ 
tables raised by such means, and, worse than 
all, the danger to horses’ feet from the quan¬ 
tity of broken bottles worked up in the soil— 
that 1 would much rather haul stable manure 
from the city with my own teams, if I could 
get it as cheap, than use night-soil. 1 have an 
idea that by building a large water-tight tank 
into which to dump the night-soil mixing with 
it as much ground apatite (phosphate of 
lime), and as much as it would absorb, the 
ammonia generated would create such a chem¬ 
ical change in the pulverized rock as to make 
the phosphoric acid available as plant food. 
Ground apatite containing 60 per cent, of 
lime phosphate, is sold at the mills in this 
vicinity at 88 per ton. I have used a quantity 
of it this winter in the stables as an absorbent, 
scattering it in the gutters behind the cows. 
ISext season I shall be able to judge of its 
effects on vegetation. In conclusion, I may 
say that I am now having a twelve-acre field 
covered with night-soil as it comes from the 
city. The soil is a somewhat sharp, sandy 
loam, summer-fallowed last season for the 
purpose of getting a large quantity of bould¬ 
ers out of it. The field is deeply plowed, and 
I expect that with two men, six horses and a 
steel rail 30 feet long, I shall be able to spread 
the manure evenly and thoroughly in less than 
a day. 1 propose to plant the field with pota¬ 
toes, using an Aspinwall planter for that 
purpose, and in due time 1 shall inform the 
readers of the Rural of the result. 
MAINTAINING FERTILITY AT THE 
WEST. 
In the Rural for January 5, a correspond¬ 
ent writing from Athens Co., Ohio, deplored 
the evident depreciation in the fertility of 
Western soils. Inclosing his note he made 
use of the following words: 
“ The question here arises: Can this fer¬ 
tility ever be returned to the soil by the use 
of commercial fertilizers ? I answer, yes, 
but it will force the owner to mortgage his 
Jarm. Not only will he have to mortgage it, 
but the sheriff will foreclose the mortgage 
and some one else will have a rich farm. 1 ' 
The question thus raised is a most interest¬ 
ing one for Western larmers to consider. 
Here are a few of the remarks called out by 
this statement. 
FROM PROF. F. H. STOREU. 
It is not easy for any one unacquainted 
with the soil of the locality to speak on the 
question here propounded. It may well be 
true that new methods of cropping are needed 
much more than artificial fertilizers. Has 
THE RURAL HEW-Y0RKER. 
everything been done there with clover that 
can be done? Has it been proved that there 
are no profitable “preparatory crops” fit to 
precede grass and insure its catching? It is 
not unlikely that the good success with 
Timothy which the writer says he had in 
former years may have depended on better 
tilth in those days and a greater capacity of 
the land to absorb and hold water than it has 
now. Has he ever tried, on his land, Orchard 
grass, sown according to approved methods? 
Probably there are very few places in this 
country where phosphates can be used econom¬ 
ically for the sake of the grass crop, though 
there may probably be some situations where 
a very cheap and fairly good phosphate, such 
as the “phospbatic slag” of Europe, could 
be employed with advantage, provided we 
had ready access to it. 
If a farmer condemns the use of chemical 
fertilizers before he has tried a high grade 
“ complete" article, he merely deceives him¬ 
self and stands in the light of his own pro¬ 
gress. 
FROM JUDGE T. C. JONES. 
The eonclus'oDs of your Athens, Ohio, 
correspondent respecting the results that may 
be expected from the continued use of “ com¬ 
mercial fertdizers” for the production of 
grain crops, are, in the main, correct; but I 
think he is wrong in concluding that the only 
way to maintain the capacity of the soil to 
grow full crops is to continue the use of the 
fertilizers. I have had no practical experi¬ 
ence with lands, on the sandstone formations 
of Eastern Ohio, living on the limestone soils 
of the Scioto Valley; but, I am quite familiar 
with the practice of the farmers in the 
eastern and south-eastern countie®, and have 
never seen or heard of any difficulty in grow¬ 
ing full crops of clover on those lauds, where 
a proper rotation of crops has been observed 
—that is, where clover has been sowm before 
the land was ex-hausted. And even when, by 
continuous tillage, the land has been “run 
down,” as it is termed, there has been little 
difficulty in securing a good growth of clover 
by the application of the commercial fertil¬ 
izers of which he speaks. And this I think is 
the best use that can be made of these fertil¬ 
izers, or of land-plaster which I have often 
used w r ith excellent results upon clover. 
W hen we once get a gooa stand of clover we 
are all right as to the future, if we keep up 
the proper rotation of crops, and keep a little 
stock—cattle and sheep—to consume our hay 
and fodder. 
It is impossible to restore the fertility of 
our exhausted lands by growing Timothy or 
grasses for meadows. Timothy, instead of 
restoring the fertility of the soil, will exhaust 
it if the grass is mown and carried off. I 
never sow Timothy, or Orchard, or Rye 
grass without clover, or the clover without 
some of these grasses. When a crop of clover 
is grown it is a common practice to cut the 
second growth for seed, and sometimes after 
this to graze the land so as to leave it bare 
through the winter. This is a monstrous 
practice. When the season is favorable a 
crop of clover seed is usually very profitable ; 
but I don’t like to remove the aftermath in 
this way. If it is fed off (not too closely) by 
cattle but little injury results. 
Delaware Co., Ohio. 
The very best of the novelties in vegetables 
and farm seeds; the best of the standard 
varieties. This subject will be treated by our 
best practical writers in a week or so. 
FROM A. C. GLIDDEN. 
The question here started will be answered 
differently in different localities. 
Throughout Southern Michigan, and, so far 
as I am imformed, over the whole State, there 
is no demand for chemical fertilizers, for the 
reason that the experiments, so far tried, have 
failed to show any marked increase in pro¬ 
duct on from their use. My views regarding 
the use of commercial fertilizers, and their 
necessity in some cases, are different from 
those usually expressed. I regard them as a 
temporary expedient, found necessary to fill 
out the requirements of a soil made sterile by 
unwise methods of farming. I believe nature 
is abundantly qualified to provide all the 
subtile elements that enter into plant life and 
growth, if given time to organize her forces 
within the soil. 
I have worked the farm I now own, as boy 
and man, for 36 years, and 1 know that its 
capacity for the production of crops is nearly 
double what it was at the beginning of this 
period. There have been seasons like the last 
two, when droughts have prevented a catch 
of grass, when the fields seemed to go back in 
quality. During this period of gradual im¬ 
provement the chemical affinities have kept 
pace with the improved character of the soil. 
Never has there been a handful of chemical I 
fertilizer sown on the farm, and I never ex¬ 
pect to see the time when it will become nec¬ 
essary to use it. Fifty years ago there was a 
log bouse and a cooper-shop on the farm, 
where now is the middle of a field. These 
have been taken down, ar d the space they oc¬ 
cupied has been tilled for nearly 30 years; but 
around this spot my best crop in the field still 
g ows. The seed takes on a stronger growth, 
and gra c s and grain are one-third better there 
than on the lands adjoining. I think here 
is a prophecy of what the other parts of 
the field may become, without the aid 
of phosphates or any other special fertilizers. 
On a neighbor’s farm there stood a school- 
house with ample grounds, built and occupied 
when the whole country was comparatively a 
wilderness. The grounds about the school- 
house were never plowed until a new school- 
house was built in another location. Then 
they were united to the fields about them, and 
cultivated like the rest. The ground oc¬ 
cupied as the yard back of the school-house, 
was sterile for years. It was in the same con¬ 
dition regarding fertility, as when the trees 
were felled. This half acre of yellow, raw 
soil was in direct contrast to the dark-colored 
land about it, and it is still behind in fertility, 
and shows it with every crop. 
On a naturally strong soil that has been too 
frequently cropped, the main elements of 
fertility may be exhausted and here the ap¬ 
plication of chemical fertilizers has a com¬ 
plementary effect on the soil as a timely relief. 
But such expedients should be regarded by 
the owner of the soil as a reprimand for some 
neglect or remissness of duty in previous 
years. Land that has become valuab'e from its 
proximity to good markets for its products, 
may be kept producing for a time by the use 
of chemical fertilizers by the aid of stable 
manures, without the necessity of rest; but 
ordinary farming lands must lie in grass for 
stated periods of greater or less duration, 
according to the character and needs of the 
soil. During these periods of rest, the energies 
of the soil should be assisted by stimulating 
manures applied to the surface. The soil thus 
becomes again perfected and complete in all 
the requirements for the production ot a 
crop, so that chemical fertilizers of all kinds 
become superfluous, and unnecessary. 
To believe that the soil of the West must 
eventually need artificial manures, is to con¬ 
cede that there is a gradual and ratural de¬ 
cadence of fertility, which carries with it the 
assumption that the race will eventually die 
of starvation. The facts warrant no such 
prophecy. Soils carefully and judiciously 
farmed, are capable of a steadily increasing 
fertility, and this in a ratio to correspond 
with the increasing wants of population. I 
am no pessimist.as the above will indicate,and 
it will take a more devastating drought than 
has yet overspread the earth, to convince 
me that seed-time and harvest with their 
concomitant supports, will not continue. 
Van Buren Co., Mich. 
What among the new kinds of strawber¬ 
ries, raspberries, blackberries, grapes and 
large fruits are actual improvements upon 
older varieties? This subject will be fully 
treated by the best horticidtural writers in 
the country, in a R. N.-T. special soon to be 
issued. 
FROM PROF. J. W SANBORN. 
Your correspondent is right, and right in a 
ringing way. Waste drops from about every 
finger of our Western farm policy. Above, 
horizontally and below waste follows hot on 
the heels of the plow when too much sped. 
Another brood of wastes follows the cropping, 
and as much nutrition is cast to the winds, 
and the “ tooth of time” in corn fodder as is 
carried off in the corn grown. And then the 
wasting of straw and the animal heat floating 
away on every breeze, and the manure that 
loads every rill in its onward course to the Gulf 
of Mexico : these make the wastes that would 
go far to feed some nations. So far as the Miss¬ 
issippi Valley is concerned as a whole, chemi- 
ca's will raise both the crops and the size of 
the mortgages. Few have greater taith in 
chemicals than the writer. 
The fact of their competency to grow large 
crops continuously seems well established by 
the most competent evidence. The personal 
experience of my father on a hill farm in 
New Hampshire for 13 years has shown that 
chemicals on laud very badly worn out will 
not only continuously raise fair crops but 
steadily increase the capacity of the soil to 
produoe them. But the question raised is not 
the adequacy, but the economy of chemical 
fertilizers. They and yard manure combined 
are profitable when used in the East, but six 
years’ use of them here has confirmed that 
which is apparent without trial—that chemi¬ 
cals cannot pay when prices for the staple 
products of the soil are low. It is true that 
chemicals will pay here for high-priced crops 
or that they can be used without los3; or, in 
more explicit terms, yard manure even then 
is much the cheaper source of manure. 
Again, there may be soils deficient in some 
one essential element of plant food, and if 
this be the low-priced potash, theD it might 
pay to use it if other materials are abundant 
in the soils; but these conditions are not the 
rule. 
I should regard it as a very great misfor¬ 
tune to the West to be induced to use chemi¬ 
cal manures as yet, and I hope that it will 
not be advised to do so. I have steadily 
opposed all movements looking to the use of 
chemicals in Missouri, My reason is obvious 
and, I believe, a conclusive one, and goes be¬ 
yond the mere fact that corn at 25 cents per 
bushel will not do more than pay the fertilizer 
bill, no account being taken of the cost of the 
necessary labor or of the rent of the land. 
It is a fundamental truth that stock manures 
are far cheaper; indeed, practically they cost 
only the outlay for drawing and spreading. 
We have had tables of manurial values of 
foods after feeding, going the rounds for 
years. Whatever may be the theoretical 
value and accuracy of these, I think it is true 
that they do not represent the oractical value 
of manures from grain feeds. Interest, leach¬ 
ing, volatijization, unfortunate chemical re¬ 
actions of yard manure which has to lie in 
soils that are close, for years before it is fully 
decomposed, cut down the value below that of 
each constituent of a chemical fertilizer; 
other and commercial factors enter into the 
calculation. 
I made for the ^Mirror and Farmer, a short 
time since, a table representing the value that 
I believed the manure from a ton ot several 
sorts of foods would have in practice. The 
value also represented the rates at which I 
would actually as soon have tne manure from 
a ton of said foods as to use the same amount 
of money in chemicals. This table was care¬ 
fully made, the several factors involvsd hav¬ 
ing been weighed. Here is the calculated 
value in actual practice of the manure made 
from the various kinds of stock feed: 
Corn 
83.27 
Com-fcdder 
1.25 
Clover 
3 50 
Timothy 
2.73 
Oats 
3.46 
Oat-straw 
1.27 
Wheat-straw 
.98 
Bran 
6.47 
Middlings 
5.12 
Linseed-meal 
9.03 
Cot ton-seed-mea 1 
12 61 
Carrots 
.45 
Now’ I do not wish to tell my West rn read¬ 
ers that they ran afford to give the above 
rates for the West, but I do mean to tell them 
that they may as well give them as to pay 
the price prevailing for chemicals, and I be¬ 
lieve that the manure trade would be the 
best. If I am correct, then it needs no fur¬ 
ther argument to show that it is far cheaper 
to save the manure now being wasted, and in¬ 
deed to feed for it rather than to buy chemi¬ 
cals. I regard stock as still our best market 
for our foods, and if this be so, their manure 
costs nothing, and chemicals are out of the 
question. 
Columbia, Mo. 
• » » - 
If a farmer should buy two tons of fine 
ground bone and spread it evenly upon an 
acre of land and the crops thereon shoidd be 
no better than upon contiguous land, he 
would not be justified in concluding that his 
land does not need bone. If the same inef¬ 
fectual residts shoidd follow the use of a ton 
of sulphate of potash upon another acre, 
this would not prove that the land does not 
need potash. Combine the tivo upon a third 
acre, and if the land makes no response, the 
farmer may conclude that, for the present 
at least, commercial fertilizers don’t pay. 
(See page 103.) 
The illustration (Fig. 34), engraved from a 
photograph taken early last spring, shows a 
specimen of this hardy and beautiful ever¬ 
green tree growing in the Rural Experiment 
Grounds. It was taken from the nursery 
some 12 years ago. and is now 10 feet high, by 
about six feet in diameter at the ground. It 
has never been injured irr the slightest degree 
by cold, heat or drought. A casual observer 
would mistake it for a young Norway spruce, 
but an examination shows decided differences 
ard a beauty all its own. 
In the language of F. J. Scott “ the multi¬ 
plicity of its tw T igs gives the tree a superior 
density of foliage which its early growth does 
not promise; and when a large tree, its dark- 
green masses break iuto strong and irregular 
