VOL. XLIX. NO. 2118. 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 3 o, i 89 o. 
PRICE, FIVE CENTS 
$ 2.00 PER YEAR. 
WHAT MANURES SHALL WE APPLY ? 
SIR J. B. LAWES. 
Crops for which manures arc better than fertilizers; 
varying capacity of plants to absorb mineral food 
from the soil; need of considering this fact in apply¬ 
ing manures. 
I do not consider that artificial manures are very suit¬ 
able for the growth of garden produce; in other words, if 
I were going to establish myself as market gardener, I 
should select a locality where I could obtain a large supply 
of yard manure at a cheap rate. Bulky manures have 
great advantages over artificial manures as they render 
the land porous and also retentive of moisture; we rarely 
have any drainage on the wheat experi¬ 
ments where we apply yard manure 
every year, which proves that the vege¬ 
table matter of the manure retains me¬ 
chanically the rain. I do not consider 
that it is possible to lay down any fixed 
rule with regard to the employment of 
manure containing nitrogen; for in¬ 
stance, nitrate of soda. It is quite cer¬ 
tain that upon most soils there is a 
large excess of available minerals, while 
the available nitrogen is more or less de¬ 
pendent upon the amount of organic 
nitrogen that is formed into nitrates 
each year. 
We have found, in the course of our 
experiments, that plants differ very 
much in their capacity to pick up miner¬ 
als from a soil; for instance, about -10 
years ago turnips ceased to grow upon 
one of our fields, being unable to obtain 
phosphates; since then we have grown 
10 crops of wheat and 10 of barley, each 
one taking up as much phosphate as 
would have grown a good crop of turnips. 
The turnips are sown every year before 
the barley and after the wheat, but they 
can form no bulb. We know that it is 
phosphate which the plant requires, as 
in another part.of the field where we use 
phosphates the turnips can grow very 
well. The same difficulty is experienced 
with regard to potatoes, but not to the 
same degree. Potatoes have considerable 
difficulty in obtaining their mineral food 
from the soil. There is hardly any crop 
grown in this country that Is so highly 
manured as the potato, and yet the 
amount of nitrogen or mineral which it 
carries off is comparatively small. The 
cereal crops appear to possess greater 
power of obtaining food from the soil 
than any other plants. I have had no ex¬ 
perience with corn, but I suppose its 
capacity to collect its food from the soil 
must be very great. Wheat certainly can 
take up much phosphate and potash and 
the best proof of this is that after 50 
years my uumanured wheat crop is very 
little less than the average crop of the 
world. It appears to me that the profit¬ 
able employment of nitrates in the States 
must depend more upon the absence of 
weeds than on any other circumstance. 
Weeds seize upon nitrates with the 
greatest avidity, and owing to this cir¬ 
cumstance we frequently see fields injured rather than 
benefited by an application of uitrates. 
In considering what manure to apply to a crop, we must 
study the character of the crop and its capacity to take 
manure out of the soil. The cereal crops can generally find 
a sufficient amount of mineral food in the soil, and there¬ 
fore an application of nitrate of soda will generally increase 
the yield ; but whether it can be profitably used is quite 
another question. In our most careful experiments we can¬ 
not get back more than one-half of the nitrogen which we 
apply in the manure; if we apply 100 pounds of nitrate of 
soda to a wheat crop we furnish it with 10 pounds of ni¬ 
trogen; 10 bushels of wheat and 1,000 pounds of straw would 
contain this amount of nitrogen. If a farmer got one-half 
this quantity it would pay him very well ’u this country, 
as live bushels of wheat would be woTh 20 s and the 
manure would cost less than one-half. The farmer is also 
very glad to get the increased straw. 
ltothamsted, England, 
LIBERTY STEPS OFF HER PERCH TO ENLIGHTEN THE POLITICAL WORLD. 
DAME AGRICULTURE.—You politicians have been flattering me until I am tired. Now I will 
teach you that I am not to be fooled any longer. 
POLITICIAN.—Oh ! Oh ! Please let me off this time and I will pass any law you want. 
DAME AGRICULTURE. — Law ! " Bosh ! I have had enough of being set up on a pedestal and 
called “ Liberty,” and of laws for “protection" that protect other folks. No, I have had enough of 
your tribe. I will shift for myself for a while. 
SUGGESTED BY A LATE RURAL. 
T. B. TERRY. 
“ Many a farmer has failed of success who would have 
been a prosperous man if his wife had known just how 
he stood." True as the teachings of Christ himself. A 
young farmer married a girl from a well-to-do family some 
years ago. His income from farming was small. She had 
been used to having almost auythiag she wanted, and 
knew nothing of business matters. It was a love match. 
He told her nothing whatever about his business—what 
his income was or what they could afford to spend. Her 
natural tastes were rather above his means. It is easy to 
see what the result would be. When he ran behind he 
borrowed money from time to time, hoping to make more 
in the future. All this he told the writer privately. As 
long as no names are mentioned I may give the substance 
of their experience as a caution to others. Now this man’s 
neighbors have said to me, in substance, that his wife had 
ruiued him by her extravagance. It is quite natural that 
they should think so ; but how does it look to us from be¬ 
hind the scenes? Wouldn’t we say that he ruiued him¬ 
self by not telling his wife in the first place just how he 
stood—by not making her a full business partner ? She 
w r as aud is a true lady, and can we doubt that she would 
have very willingly come right dowu to what they could 
afford ? I am very sorry for the husband. He meant 
right, but he made the mistake of his life in not starting 
right. There is just oue safe way and that is the straight 
aud honorable oue. You need not burden your wife with 
every little business worry ; but it will bo better for you 
aud her if she kuows all about your business in a general 
way. She should know whether you are gaining or losing, 
and she should be consulted about all matters of serious 
importance. This is simply her right as a business partner, 
and, as a rule, you may rest assured she will pull truly 
with you. There must he hundreds of young people 
lately married or thinking of getting married, among the 
readers of The Rural, and to them the above is most 
earnestly offered. 
“ Words have weight when there is a man back of 
them.” Exactly, and it is this that has made the writer 
persistently urge our agricultural papers to give the full 
name of the writer to back every article that is not edi¬ 
torial. Such articles have “weight.” It may be through 
modesty sometimes, but there is always a suspicion of 
something else when a writer doesn’t 
sign his full name to his productions 
For example, his neighbors may then 
know that he isn’t telling the case just 
as it was, or practicing what he preaches. 
In some journals (not The Rural 
articles get into print that the writer 
would not have sent if he had to sign 
his own full name. When one wants to 
say something mean, he generally does 
not care to father his article. Such had 
better not be published. It isn’t enough 
that the editor knows the author’s name. 
In an agricultural journal, at least, the 
readers want to know that the writers 
have faith enough in their words to back 
them with their full names. You may 
call this a hobby, but I believe I am 
right and intend to keep “ picking 
away at it.” 
Some years ago, at an institute in Tif¬ 
fin, O., there appeared on the programme, 
to be treated in an evening lecture, this 
sensational subject: “ Hogs or Hell, 
Which?” And, worse than all, the lec¬ 
ture was by a clergyman ! Well, he had 
an audience, thanks somewhat doubt¬ 
less to the title given his lecture. The 
large opera house was filled to overflow¬ 
ing. There were probably 1,200 people 
present. Now, if the curious reader 
will look over the editorial in the middle 
of the central column of page 516 of The 
Rural, I think he will see how the good 
minister’s lecture proved to be a rousing 
temperance address. He began by say¬ 
ing that he had agreed to speak only on 
condition that he could choose his own 
subject. Then he not only showed what 
The Rural so plainly does, that there is 
nothing in the argument that the liquor 
traffic gives the farmer a market that 
he cannot afford to lose ; but he went on 
to the other side of the question, "the 
effects of the two products named (pork 
and whisky),” as The Rural puts it. 
And for an hour his burning words im¬ 
pressed on our minds in a way never to 
be forgotten that it w r as infinitely better 
to raise hogs than hell. 
The Rural’s report of a tomato vine 
grafted on a potato stalk reminds me 
that at a certain fair in Ohio, some 
years ago, there was exhibited a tomato 
vine with potatoes on the roots. I 
thought there must be some trick about 
it; but this grafting process now explains it. The owner 
gave me a tuber and I planted it. It had a rather 
peculiar, tomato-like look, as we thought, and was about 
of medium size. The product was a few miserable little 
tubers that could hardly be called potatoes. 
Summit County, Ohio. 
Mulching Berries.— When I cultivated the Kittatinuy 
Blackberry, I mulched the rows heavily, which saved cul¬ 
ture by keeping dowu weeds, aud I have no doubt it bene¬ 
fited the crop in a wet or dry season. I have never grown 
anything among berry vines except grass and weeds. My 
latest experience with mulching has been with grapes, but 
both the seasons I tried it were very wet so that mulchiug 
was not needed to preserve moisture. The grape needs 
heat and sunshine when ripening more than moisture. 
One should rely on cleanly cultured middles, ami use the 
mulching about three feet wide along the rows of viues to 
save hoeing. e, WILLIAMS, 
