507 
THE 
take very kindly to barley, partly because 
they don’t favor the use to which much of it 
is put, while many of those who are not so 
particular have not the skill to grow prime 
malting grain. 
As to Fertilizers.— In my own neighbor¬ 
hood, as heavy a dressing as 1,500 pounds of 
the Stockbridge potato fertilizer is being 
Apple Scab. Fig. 188. 
tried, where 600 to 800 pounds have been 
thought all that would pay. The hint was 
taken from an accidental excess, which show¬ 
ed remarkable results at digging time. A 
good deal of risk has been run, in one field 
of about 20 acres, where the crop was planted 
April 16—23, and was coming into bloom 
when, for several nights, at the end of May, 
the temperature ranged perilously near to 
freezing. At this date—June 10—they are 
almost ready to dig for the early potato mar¬ 
ket. There will be a heavy yield, and no 
doubt a large profit, although there will be a 
haul of 230 miles to market. But the field is 
les3 than a mile of level road from the sta¬ 
tion. 
Rather a Gambling Crop.— The friend 
who is growing the crop, (and another field of 
40 acres planted later) is a close reader of the 
Rural ; but I think he will not take offense at 
my styling his splendid field of early tubers 
by this name. It is really as much so as hops 
were here, until the Pacific coast supply froze 
our hop-growers out. The chances are a good 
many that potatoes planted so early will be 
destroyed by frost. It would require the 
figuring of a skilled “actuary” to settle 
whether in the long run such eably planting 
would pay. But it is hardly a practical ques¬ 
tion, as the seasons are rare when it can be 
done. 
The Price.— These potatoes, if they strike 
the market just right, may net the grower as 
much as 70 cents a bushel, or even more. 
They will be nearly full-grown when dug, 
and will escape all risks from rotting, if prop¬ 
erly ventilated on the car. But how about 
the 40 acres of the later crop? Can they pay 
a profit overall expenses, including$30worth 
of fertilizer per acre? The land is light and 
level, and the whole work is as much as pos¬ 
sible done by machinery. Including planting 
and digging. 
Some Random Figuring.—I think our 
farmers generally do not average much over 
100 bushels of merchantable potatoes per acre. 
The census puts the average yield under SO 
bushels, but that looks much too low to me. 
They continue to grow the crop in this way, 
and think they get a little profit on it, (where 
access to a shipping point is not too difficult), 
at an average price of 35 cents a bushel at 
the cars. Planting, fertilizing and harvesting 
are done by hand; and the patches, per farm, 
probably do not average more than two or 
three acres. Experience will, I think, justify 
the statement that without any other ma¬ 
nure, potatoes on turned sod, getting 600 
pounds of Stockbridge, may, with clear cul¬ 
ture, bo made to give the grower 150 mer¬ 
chantable bushels, or, at 35 cents, $52.50 per 
acre. To pay the cost of adding 1,000 pounds 
more fertilizer, there must be an increase of 
nearly 60 bushels. ■ 
Special Advantages. —I do not believe 
our farmers could, as a rule, get a new dollar 
for an old one by this practice. But where a 
man has large, level fields of good potato 
land, handy to the station, uses the best im¬ 
proved machinery, and ships on his own ac¬ 
count, the condition of things is bettered. 
Many wastes are then prevented, and many 
losses forestalled. If his fertilizer costs him 
but $30 per acre, and his crop nets him 45 
cente, he is clearly in a better condition than the 
small farmer, especially when the latter has 
to make a long haul over a bad road, and sells 
at the car. If the added 1,000 pounds of fer¬ 
tilizer add 100 bushels per Jacre ^to the crop, 
there is a profit. But, then, we are saying 
nothing about the extra risks of rot, a glut¬ 
ted market, etc. 
The Secondary Profit of improved suc¬ 
ceeding crops has a right to consideration 
hero. If the grain can be bettered and the 
grass doubled, even for one year, it may pay 
even the common farmer to be more liberal 
with his fertilizer on the potato field—pro¬ 
vided he gives clean culture, which, so far, 
he has generally failed to do. A clean field 
of potatoes in early September is a rare sight 
on the average farm: and no man can afford 
to buy manure at two cents a pound to grow 
weeds. 
A Still Better Way.— The skilled farmer 
who can command the cash to do business 
with, can certainly gain something by pur¬ 
chasing his fertilizers unmixed, and to a con¬ 
siderable extent unmanufactured. Fine 
ground bone or dissolved bone black, or min¬ 
eral phosphates, with potash salts and nit¬ 
rates bought for cash and intelligently mixed 
on the farm will give a large saving to the 
farmer who has command of the chemistry of 
fertilizers. As I can get plenty of good ashes 
I have used a mixture of equal parts of bone 
and Stockbridge, sowing on ashes before the 
first cultivation. To get on an equal quantity 
of plant food in this way is cheaper than to 
use a fully manufactured fertilizer. Over 20 
years of experience have proved to me that 
here is an important saving. The young, 
progressive farmer ought to, and must, know 
something of the chemistry of manuring, if 
he wishes the best results at the least cost. 
ftitml Copies. 
AGRICULTURE; AN ART, A BUSINESS, 
A SCIENCE, ETC. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
III. 
AS A SCIENCE. 
With the birth of organic chemistry—the 
chemistry of life and living things—began 
the possibility of making agriculture a science. 
But dealing with living things, and their re¬ 
lation* to things not living, the science of ag¬ 
riculture must deal from the start with ques¬ 
tions which can only be solved by much care¬ 
ful study, and by slow degrees. Matter 
when endowed with life, is governed by dif¬ 
ferent laws from those which control it oh 
the plane of inanimate existence. On this 
new plane it forms a vast number of combin¬ 
ations, and in all of them conducts itself quite 
differently, and to very different ends, trom 
the way it does when lifeless. Plants and 
animals are composed of but a small number 
of elements. Many of the substances existent 
and more or less active in the inorganic 
world havo no part in the organization of 
living things. Life indeed produce* its great 
and varied results with very simple ma¬ 
terials. A few invisible gases, hardly cog¬ 
nizable by our senses—oxygen, nitrogen, hy¬ 
drogen-combined with a few simple solids, 
some of them metals—iron, calcium, potas¬ 
sium, sodium;—others, metalloids—sulphur, 
phosphorus, carbon, chlorine—these alone. 
Apple Scab. Fig. 1S9. 
or nearly alone, are the material substances 
with which mysterious vitality achieves its 
marvelous results in the world of aatural 
things. 
The scientific farmer—the man who pro¬ 
poses to apply scientific facts to the realiza¬ 
tion of economic results for his own and the 
public advantage—must seek to acquaint him- 
self with all the laws governing in the realm 
of vegetable and animal life. He must do 
this not as a theorist, but as men like Edison 
or Ericsson make themselves acquainted 
with physical laws—having a direct purpose 
of applying such knowledge to practical ends. 
He will require a good working acquaintance 
with both organic and inorganic chemistry; 
with geology, so far as relates to the forma¬ 
tion and composition of soils; with physiol¬ 
ogy, botany and natural philosophy. 
These must be the leading subjects of 
instruction in every well organized school 
of agriculture; and all of them must 
be treated there with a close view to 
their practical application, as is done with 
their special subjects in all schools designed 
to fit men for particular branches of work 
among their fellows, for the general good. 
A store of such information in the mind of 
an active man with a love for farming, makes 
the business a delightful one, because he is 
not stepping blindly along, or plodding for¬ 
ward with the guidance only of dry, unrea¬ 
soned maxims, handed down out of the ex¬ 
perience of the past. He goes forward with 
light on his path that constantly increases; 
and he may feel that he can plan his course, 
in confidence that it is at least a measurably 
true one, leading to results that may be cal¬ 
culated in advance. 
Scientific farming has passed the time when 
it can be made the subject of derision. Agri¬ 
culture, like seamanship, is not an exact 
science, because it has to do with uncon¬ 
trollable natural forces. But just as mathe¬ 
matics and astronomy and meteorology com- 
Applk Scab. Fig. 190. 
bine to aid and facilitate navigation, so the 
sciences named place power in the hand of 
the farmer with which his predecessors were 
unfurnished, and which his competitors at 
this time generally lack. It is just as absurd, 
therefore, to decry science in farming, and to 
assert that farming may be made quite as 
successful without it, as it would be for the 
navigator to neglect the compass, the barom¬ 
eter, and all the other scientific aids belong¬ 
ing to his profession, and to hold that the sea¬ 
manship of the Phenician sailor is sufficient 
for all his needs. 
This comparison may be followed farther 
with .profit; for just as it is impossible for 
a youth to make himself a successful seaman, 
fit to control and direct the course of costly 
ships, without continuously combining prac¬ 
tice with science in his training, so it is with 
him who would be a scientific farmer. Work 
and study must go together, hand in hand, 
from the first step of his school training to the 
last. He must have for his instructors not a 
corps of obstructionists, but a body of living, 
energetic practitioners of the arts of tillage, 
cropping, breeding, and so on, through every 
portion of the business of agriculture. Every 
principle must be demonstrated in action to 
the eye and mind of the student; and more 
than that, he must be tested and tried, to deter¬ 
mine whether he is really learning how to do 
what he is being taught. Agricultural schools 
that will do for the farmer, what West Point 
and Annapolis do for the soldier and sailor, 
will soon be crowded with pupils, who will 
justify their existence most completely. 
Ul)C Pcntltnj Ijaui, 
POULTRY EXPERIMENTS AT THE 
NEW YORK EXPERIMENT STA¬ 
TION. 
Experiments have been made at this sta¬ 
tion for the purpose of determining the ap¬ 
proximate amount of food required for a fowl, 
Skull of a Primitive Texas Boar. 
Fig. 191. Page 506. 
the average weight of eggs, and their loss of 
weight in keeping, the difference in the com¬ 
position of eggs, and whether any difference 
is due to the influence of food or of breed. 
Only 16 fowls were used in these experiments, 
which is to be regretted, as a larger number 
would have more nearly furnished the con¬ 
ditions under which fowls are ordinarily 
kept. The birds were placed in four pens, 
each containing four pullets of the following 
breeds, numbered in the order given. Light 
Brahmas, Laced Wya’-dottes, Single-comb 
White Leghorns, and White-crested Black 
Polish. They were fed ground oats moistened 
with water in the morning, raw apples at noon, 
and whole corn at night. The trial lasted 
from January 23, to February 26. Without go¬ 
ing into details, which are given in the report, 
the average amount of grain consumed per 
fowl per day, for the large breeds, was 4.3* 
ounces, and for the small breeds 1.95 ounce. 
The total amount of food consumed on the 
average per day was 6.65 ounces for the large 
against 3.52 ounces for the small breeds. The 
total gam during this time was, for pen No. 1, 
two pounds 15>£ ounces; pen No. 2, three 
pounds 8 )4 ounces; pen No. 3, one pound 4% 
ounces; pen No. 4, 15 ounces. None of the 
pullets was laying. This shows the greatest 
gain in favor of the Wyandottes. The 
amount of grain consumed by the small breeds 
was 45 per cent, of that consumed by the 
larger. In a later trial when the hens were 
laying, the amount consumed by the smaller 
was 72 per cent, of that consumed by the 
larger. 
On March 1, the fowls were arranged for a 
feeding experiment in which the influence of 
different feeds on the composition of the eggs 
was to be observed. Pens No. 1 and 2 con¬ 
tained two Brahma and two Wyandotte pul¬ 
lets each. Nos. 3 and 4 contained two Leg¬ 
horn and two Polish pullets each. The pens 
and open yards attached were uniform in size 
and other conditions. All were supplied with 
ground oyster-shells and pure water. The 
experiment lasted for six months. The feed 
of Nos. 1 and 3 contained a larger proportion 
of albuminoids than the feed for Nos. 2 and 
4. Pens 1 and 3 were fed from a mixture of 
linseed meal and wheat-bran in the morning, 
Skull of a Yorkshire Sow. Fig. 192. 
Page 506. 
and wheat at night. Pens 2 and 4 were fed 
corn'meal in the morning and wheat at night. 
For the first few months all the pens were al¬ 
so fed raw apples, and sometimes, instead, 
boiled potatoes at noon. They were fed all 
the meal that they would eat, but always 
much less wheat than they wanted. The 
amount cousumed differed somewhat from 
week to week. The daily average, however, 
for each fowl was, for the larger breeds, 
about 1.4 ounce of the meal and 1.6 ounce of 
