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pliates extracted. The whole farming community of Britain has thus 
been benefited by this mineral phosphate, as it is called, coming into 
competition with, and keeping down, the price of bones, now so exten¬ 
sively used as a manure in that country. 
Many instances might be cited of the benefits which have been de¬ 
rived by the application of a special ^manure ; that is, a manure consist¬ 
ing either of two or a very few of the different materials required by 
plants, as the nitrates of potash and soda, common salt, gypsum, and 
various compounds of ammonia, all of which have been extensively 
experimented with. But the application of a manure containing such 
a limited number of the substances essential to plants, is hap-hazard 
work unless the composition of the soil is known ; and they ought never 
to be extensively applied by practical farmers before first making a 
small comparative experiment, counting the cost and carefully observing 
the results produced. I apprehend, however, that there is not much 
need to fear that many farmers, in a new State like this, are likely to lose 
any serious amount of capital in the purchase of special or other ma¬ 
nures; the probability rather is,, that sufficient time and labor will not 
be expended with a view to economize, increase the amount, and add 
to the value of the manure which may be made on the farm. This, 
however, is a most important matter, and will sooner or later force itself 
on the attention of every one who settles down on a piece of land with 
a view to make it his home, and to live by farming. We know the 
results produced in the older Eastern States by the skinning system, as 
it is not inaptly called, and ought to be warned in time that we must feed 
our plants as we would our animals, if we wish them to grow in a 
healthy, vigorous, and profitable condition. No man of ordinary obser¬ 
vation, acquainted with the subject, can travel through the country 
without seeing on all hands that a vast amount of manure is annually 
wasted ; spread abroad in yards exposed to the weather, much of the 
soluble and most valuable of its fertilizing substances are wasted away, 
and others lost by evaporation. The liquid which drained from heaps 
of cows’ dung exposed to rain, has been analyzed in the laboratory of 
the Agricultural Chemistry Association of Scotland, and a statement of 
the results obtained may serve to show how much valuable matter, 
required by plants, is thus lost. A gallon of these drainings, when 
