1874.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
375 
What we say is this: Here are two samples of 
barn-yard manure in about the same condition. 
One contains twice as much nitrogen, phos¬ 
phoric acid, and potash, as the other, and we 
say, if the one is worth $1 per ton, the other is 
worth $2 per ton. We do not say that if you 
put 20 tons of the former, or 10 tons of the 
latter upon an acre of land, the difference of the 
crops will be worth $20. This may or may 
not be the case. The chemist’s estimate of the 
value of different manures is based on their 
chemical composition, and on the condition of 
the ingredients. The chemist, does not under¬ 
take to tell a farmer, whether he can afford to 
buy sulphate of ammonia, or nitrate of soda, to 
sow on his wheat or barley crop. But ii yon 
are going" to sow these manures, the chemist 
can tell you to a certainty which of tw T o samples 
is the cheapest for you to buy. For instance, 
he finds one sample contains 22 per cent of 
ammonia, and the other 18 per cent. If he 
tells you the latter is worth $72 per ton, and 
the former $88 per ton, he merely uses these 
figures in a comparative sense. If he should 
say the one w 7 as worth $86, and the other $44, 
he would be equally correct. He has nothing 
to do with the commercial value on the one 
hand, or the fertilizing value on the other. The 
latter must be determined by the experience of 
farmers themselves, and on repeated experi¬ 
ments. Where wheat is worth only 75 cents 
per bushel, and other crops on the same scale, 
ammonia is only worth half as much to a 
farmer, as in a section where wheat is worth 
$1.50 per bushel. When an agent for some 
artifical fertilizer shows me a whole string of 
testimonials, as to the value of his fertilizer, I 
tell him that a good analysis would be more 
satisfactory to me, than an actual trial on my 
own land and under my own eye. A man need 
not swallow a lot of Glauber salts to tell if 
they are pure. The chemist can not tell him 
whether he needs a dose of the salts, but he 
can tell him whether the salts are genuine or 
not. Chemistry can not tell us whether our 
land needs this or that manure, but it can tell 
us whether the manure is genuine or spurious. 
If farmers had clearer views on this subject, 
the sale of inferior or worthless fertilizers 
would soon cease. 
At the present price of. corn, fine middlings, 
and pork, there is more profit in feeding pigs 
in this section, than we have enjoyed for some 
years. Furthermore, lard is in good demand, 
and packers discriminate in favor of fine boned 
well-fed hogs. In Chicago, “grassers” are 
quoted at 5 cents per pound, and dull of sale, 
while an extra, choice, well bred and well fat¬ 
tened pig, would bring 8 cents live weight. 
This is as it should be. The latter, even at this 
greater difference in the price, is far cheaper 
to the consumer than the former. And it 
makes quite a difference to a farmer, whether 
he has fifty “ grassers ” weighing 175 lbs. each 
to sell at 5c. per lb., or fifty choice, well bred 
and well fed pigs, at the same age, that will 
average 300 lbs. at 8c. The former lot will 
bring $437.50, and the latter $1,200.00. We 
ought to produce the best pork, lard, and hams 
in the world, and secure the highest prices in 
the English market. Instead of this, Irish 
' mne are quoted in London, at 22 to 24 cents 
per lb., and American hams at 13 to 15 cents. 
And there is a corresponding difference in the 
price of pork. I asked Mr. DeVoe, our largest 
pork packer, what was the reason American 
pork sold so low in Europe. “ Vot is the rea¬ 
son,” he exclaimed, “ I vill tell you vhy. Ye 
think they are vools over there. Ye think any¬ 
thing is good enough for them. Pork that ve 
vould not eat here ve ship to Europe. I sent 
several barrels of pork as a present to my 
friends in Germany, and they said it vas most 
excellent, but that most of the American pork 
they got vas vile stuff. The Captain of a 
steamer running from Hamburg to Hew York, 
vonce gave his Crew American pork on their 
return voyage. Great vas the grumbling. 
And ven they got to Hamburg they refused to 
continue on the ship until the captain had 
given them a written agreement, to never 
again give them American pork ! ” 
A large grocer and provision dealer in Staf¬ 
fordshire, once told me that he bought a quan¬ 
tity of Ohio bacon, and retailed it out at a 
ff'jOx. mo fit, and with much satisfaction to his 
cui .oarers. The next lot he bought was 
so poor that ho could not dispose of it. 
“ Since then,” he said, “ I have been afraid 
to deal in the article. If it was always 
as good as that first lot, I could sell large 
quantities.” For many years we had the same 
state of things in regard to American cheese. 
Our cheese factories, however, are now making 
so good an article, and there is so much great¬ 
er uniformity in the quality, that American 
cheese, I believe, commands as high a price as 
the best Cheshire. It will in time be so with 
American pork, bacon, hams and lard. 
As a rule, the price of agricultural products 
in Europe determines the price in America. 
Hitherto the cost of labor here has been double 
and treble what it was in Europe. Our pro¬ 
ducts had to compete with the products of this 
cheap labor, and pay freights over long distances 
into the bargain. We have been able to com¬ 
pete, because we lived economically and work¬ 
ed hard, and because our land was cheap and 
comparatively rich in what I have called 
“natural manure.” We have grown cheap 
wheat and com on our new land, because we 
have to pay no “ rent,” and because every bush¬ 
el of wheat we have grown has found an amount 
of manure in the soil, which would have cost 
the English farmer at least 50 cents. We are 
now getting less and less of this natural ma¬ 
nure. We find an increasing necessity for 
furnishing manure to our land. We should 
now find it a hard matter to compete with the 
English and European farmers, if they could 
get labor at the old rates. But fortunately for 
us, and fortunately, as I think, for them and 
all concerned, labor is now nearly or quite as 
high there as here. This places American 
farmers on a far better footing than ever be¬ 
fore. Owning instead of renting our land, with 
a favorable climate, a rapidly increasing popula¬ 
tion, improved implements, and comparatively 
intelligent and skilled labor, we have good rea¬ 
son to take courage and push ahead with our 
improvements. 
Enforce the Dog-Laws. —Sheep raising is 
undoubtedly looking up. Wool brings satis¬ 
factory prices. Early lambs are in brisk de¬ 
mand, and the market would take a great 
many more. We can have mutton, at least in 
winter, and farmers look cheerful in view of 
the profits of the flock at the close of the year. 
The pastures, where the sheep have been, are 
blooming with white clover, and the increase 
of grass and the reduction of brush are strong 
points in favor of sheep husbandry. But the 
dogs still worry the flocks, and kill sheep, not¬ 
withstanding the legislation against them. 
Some of the States have good laws for the pro¬ 
tection of sheep. The owners of dogs have to 
pay a license for every cur they keep, and 
the money goes into a fund to pay for the losses 
of sheep owners made by dogs. This is a great 
security. It not only reduces the number of 
dogs, but pays for the damage they do. What 
is now most wanted is the strict enforcement 
of the law where one exists. Make eveiy man 
pay for bis dog, and kill the unlicensed. 
Wheat without Manure. 
Our readers have been frequently advised of 
wliat has been done by Mr. Lawes of England, 
in the way of raising repeated crops of grain 
upon the same land year after year, both with¬ 
out and with manure. But Mr. Lawes’ labors 
have been experimental. We have now before 
us a report of the sales of the standing crops of 
wheat, oats, and clover upon two farms in 
England, upon which these crops have been 
raised successfully for a dozen years, and sold 
standing, to be cut and carted away by the 
purchasers, both straw and grain together. No 
stock is kept upon these farms. No manure is 
used upon them. Deep plowing by steam, 
and draining to further deepen the soil, are the 
only means by which these crops are produced 
year after year. One of these farms is owned 
and cultivated by Mr. Prout, of Sawbridge- 
worth, and consists of 450 acres. The present 
season’s crop was chiefly wheat, which, sold by 
the acre as it stood, realized from $45 to $89 
per acre, for grain and straw. The purchaser 
in all cases does the harvesting. The average 
prices were, for wheat, $54.40 per acre ; oats, 
$49 per acre; and clover, $52 per acre. The 
whole proceeds of the 450 acres were $23,141, 
an average of $53.30 per acre. The average 
result of the past seven years’ crops has been 
$51.25 per acre. The farm was purchased 
twelve years ago, and was then in poor condi¬ 
tion. It was drained, and $4,000 worth of 
chemical fertilizers were used, to bring it into 
a producing state. Since then it has been cul¬ 
tivated deeply by steam each year, but no fer¬ 
tilizer has been used, nor has the straw even 
been retained upon the farm. The other farm 
is owned by Mr. Middleditch, of Wiltshire. It 
has been managed upon the same plan. The 
crops upon this farm brought from $18 to $86 
per acre, or an average of $55. The aftermath 
of some fields of sanfoin, which were to be 
pastured by sheep, sold for $10 to $18 per acre. 
There are 500 acres in this farm. Both farms 
have a clay soil, and are fairly good wheat 
lands, but at the commencement of this crop¬ 
ping were much run down. The farmers who 
purchased the crops, and some who had taken 
them for several years, said^ that those of the 
present year were the best crops for several 
years, and Mr. Prout expressed the opinion 
that he could thus farm “ as long as he lived, 
and his son after him.” We do not pretend to 
make any application of this anomalous kind 
of farming, but merely give the facts. At the 
same time we can not refrain from comparing 
it with some farms we have seen, in the rich 
valleys of Ohio and westward, where for twenty 
years the merest scratching of the deep, rich 
soil, and the raising of wheat upon the un¬ 
plowed com-stubble, year after year, has made 
farmers comfortable, if not rich, and thinking 
at the same time, that it is possible, if those 
rich lands were better treated, and farmed 
more with the plow, and less with We harrow, 
that they might produce better crops than they 
now do, and remain profitable to their owners 
for an indefinite number of years to come. 
