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AGRICULTURAL.
DANIEL LEE, Id. D., Editor.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1859.
BONES, PHOSPHATES, SUPER-PHOSPHATES.
Neither man nor beast could walk or stand
without bones ; nor could either have bones unless
the earthy matter that imparts strength and bev
erage for muscles to the skeleton, existed in the
daily food of animals. As their food grows on,
or in the ground, we are able to trace the earth
of bones back from the seeds, stems and leaves
of cultivated and other plants, to the soil whence
it is derived. If God permitted wheat, corn,
rice, oats, peas, and common grass to grow with
out the presence of bone earth in their tissues
and seeds, no milk could possibly support a child,
colt, pig, calf, or lamb ; while all adult mamma
lia, being suddenly deprived of tho material ne
cessary to renew the constant waste of osseous
particles in their systems, would also perish.—
Hence, if there is anything in the ground which
a sensible person ought to study, it is that small
part of it which forms not only all human bones,
but the internal skeleton of every other animal,
from the back bone of a whale down to the spine
of a mouse or pin fish.
In his Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry, vol
ume first, page 289, Prof. Johnston says:—
“ Earth of Bones is a name given to the white
earthy skeleton that remains, when the bones of
an animal aro burned in an open tire until every
thing combustible has disappeared. This earthy
matter consists chiefly of a peculiar phosphate
of lime, composed of fifty-one and a half per
cent, of lime, and forty-eight and a half of phos
phoric acid."
We cite the above to fix the fact in the read
er's mind that the phosphate of lime as it exists
in bones and in a mineral form, has only one and
a half per cent, more lime than phosphoric acid.
In the same volume, page 292, in treating of
“ Acid or Bi-Phosphate of Lime," he says :
“ When burned bones are reduced to a powder,
and digested in sulphuric acid, diluted with once
or twice its weight of water, the acid combines
with a portion of the lime and forms sulphate of
lime (gypsum), while the remainder of tho lime,
and the whple of the phosphoric acid are dissolved.
The solution therefore contains an acid phosphate
of lime ; one in which tho phosphoric acid ex
ists in a much larger quantity than in the earth
of bones. The true bi-phosphato, when free
from water, consists of seventy-one and a half
phosphoric acid, and twenty-eight and a half
lime. It exists in the urino of most animals, and
is therefore an important constituent of liquid
manures of animal origin."
Let us now see what some of the best com
mercial superphosphates, or bi-phosphates, (for
these terms are used synonymously) contain :
Mr. Hoyt, in his primmer of testimonials, fur
nishes the analysis of Dr. Jackson, of Boston,
who found 25.2 per cent, of phosphoric acid, and
23.1 per cent, of lime in his superphosphate.—
Dr. Pigqot, of the Maryland Institute, found
23.15 per cent, of phosphoric acid, and 20.01 of
lime in the sample sent him for analysis. Take
the average of these two analysis, and they
show by tho facts furnished by Mr. Hoyt him
self, that his superphosphate is just one-half be
low the common so-called subphosphato of lime,
or simplo bone earth, which contains 48} per
cent, of phosphoric acid. Both figures and
words are valueless to readers unless their true
meaning is known. Dr. Jackson found within
two per cent, as much lime as phosphoric acid,
and two and a half per cent, of carbonate of
lime. Now, lime will not exist as a carbonate
in the presence of free phosphoric acid ; so that
one has only to add pulverised chalk or lime-rock
to a solution of superphosphate to reduce it to
to the condition of a simple insolublo phosphate
of lime. The analysis of Dr. Piggot does not
prove tho absence of all superphosphate, but
simply, that it was not present to the extent of
more than six or seven per cent. This places it
very far above Mr. Mapes’ superphosphate.
From what we had seen and heard in favor of
Hoyt's Superphosphate among farmers on Beach
we procured a barrel of Mr. Stovall for
experimental purposes. Sometimes it happens
that the samples of a commercial manure sent to
chemists for analysis aro much better than the
article sold by the ton to purchasers under the
same name ; and without being asked to do so
by any one, we have examined Mr. Hoyt's to
some extent in the labaratory with the following
results:
Two hundred grains dried at tho temperature
of boiling water, lost 24 grains in weight; show
ing the prcseuco of 12 per cent, of water, and
no more than we should find in a like quantity
of flour or wheat dried in the same mauner.
The 186 grains of dry superphosphate were
put into a glass flask with about five ounces of
distilled water, and boiled some 25 minutes. —
The water was then carefully poured off through
a filter, and five ounces more poured on the su
perphosphate and boiled as before. This was
passed through the filter; and another five
ounces of distilled water used to extract what
ever of gypsum, or soluble phosphoric acid, might
remain in the fertilizer. It takes about 480
parts of water to dissolve one of gypsum ; and
where much sulphuric acid is consumed in the
manufacture of the superphosphate of lime, a
good deal of water must be used to dissolve all
the sulphate of lime in the manure.
The water containing the soluble substances
extracted from the superphosphate, was evapora
ted until the gypsum begau to precipitate; when
as much alcohol was added as there was of the
filtrate (water holding salts in solution, and
passed through the filter) which after a time
threw down all the gypsum. This salt of lime
is insoluble in alcohol, even when diluted with
it 3 volume of water. Thrown upon a filter,
washed with alcohol, dried and weighed, we
found 11 grains of the sulphate of lime.
The filtrate from which the gypsum had been
separated, was evaporated to perfect dryness,
and weighed 21 grains ; from which 8 grains of
organic matters were separated ; leaving 19
grains of common salt, and phosphates soluble
m sircrxKJßßX sxs&o &n sxrssxss.
in water, in the 200 taken at the beginning.—
There is more salt present than is desirable in a
close and cheap analysis ; but there is not, prob
ably, as much (nearly 8 per cent.) as was found
by Dr. Piggot. If we call the salts 5 per cent., or
10 grains, it leaves 9 grains, or 4} per cent, of
superphosphates
While these operations were in progress, we
placed 200 other grains of the fertilizer in a cru
cible, and subjected it to a high heat for several
hours, until all the bone black or animal coal,
and ground bones as well as pulverized charcoal
and swamp muck, were burnt out. The loss in
weight was 12grains; of which 24 must be set
down as water, leaving 48 grains of organic and
combustible matter. Neither in burning the
aqueous extract, nor the manure directly, was
there a discharge of ammonia, or the smell of it,
beyond what the combustion of the gelatine in
the bone dust might furnish. The ash obtained
from the superphosphate was treated with near
ly an ounce of hydrochloric acid diluted with
water ; boiled, and allowed to stand 24 hours, to
dissolve all that was soluble. Warmed and thrown
upon double filters, we collected, heated to a
red heat, (after being well washed), 40 grains of
sand. This 20 per cent of sand is not very ex
traordinary, when it is remembered that small
bones in cities where they are collected, are
thrown about in the dirt, and not washed before
they are ground for manure.
On neutralizing the hydrochloric acid with
caustic ammonia, a copious precipitate of phos
phate of lime was obta : ned; showing that,
while boiling water would separate but little
phosphoric acid from this so-called soluble super
phosphate, boiling acid brought out an abundant
supply. We suspect that the oil of vitriol costs
too much in northern cities to justify its free use
in tho hundreds and thousands of tons of ma
nipulated guano, phosphates, green sand, marl
and fish manures, now thrown upon the market.
There must be imported from Sicily or else
where, more sulphur ; and more sulphuric acid
must be manufactured. This fast generation
cannot wait for its father’s bones to decay slow
ly in the earth before it sells them in com and
cotton. Science is invoked to drive rotation
with greater speed; and the progressive farm
ers demand stronger acids, and more caustic al
kalies. Once they had a horror of aqua fortis;
now Mr. Dickson and others purchase and plow
in over their broad cotton, corn and wheat fields,
nothing but the most concentrated chemical re
agents. If they are not good chemists,
they ought to be. Mankind are just beginning
to suspect (nothing more) that knowledge is bet
ter than ignorance.
When this idea is fairly developed in the pop
ular understanding, then Chemistry in its appli
cation to Agriculture will stand at the head of all
professions. A wise community may prosper
with but few lawyers, and fewer doctors ; while
the time will never come when it can dispense
with its grain, its bread, its meat, and its clothing.
Chemical laws are God’s laws. They never
change ; they despise all shams ; they will last
forever. They alone reveal the wonderful se
crets of fertility ; they show the true relations
that subsist between soils and plants, tillage
and crops, manure and abundant harvests.
Among tho numerous readers of The Field
and Fireside, wo want a class of real students
—persons who are willing to study agriculture
as a profession. The upshot of tho whole mat
ter to become a genuine agricultural student,
consists in a desire to see things as the Creator
has made them. An insight into nature and
her laws gives great pleasure and great power
to a sound and cultivated mind. Let the Bone
and Muscle of the land know what makes bone ,
and what makes muscle. Give the masses
this knowledge, and the improvement of hus
bandry will follow as certainly as the revolution
of the earth from west to east causes the sun to
rise in the east and set in the west. Tho Far
mer should labor in unison with Nature ; and
therefore he should know her laws first, and
then obey them.
— m -■
American Stock Journal. —Attention is di
rected to the announcement, in another column,
of the second volume of the American Stock
Journal , for 1860. Those interested would do
well to notice.
—
The Cause of Sandy Cotton. —The Journal
of Commerce ascribes this increasing annoyance
to the insufficiency of labor on the plantations.
Here is what it says:
The reason for the alarming increase of sand
in cotton is to be found in the high price, the
steadily increasing demand for consumption, and
the small amount of labor available for its pro
duction, compared with the total sent to market.
In former years there was no such pressure to
make a large crop as at present, and planters had
not only opportunity, but every inducement to
take great pains in picking and preparing their
cotton for market. The field hands on each plan
tation were sufficient to pick each boll as it
opened, and thus the cotton reached the gin in a
much cleaner state. With a slack demand
which enables the consumer to make nice selec
tions of favorite qualities, there was every in
ducement to be careful of appearances, and the
planters gave their product far more manipula
tion 'that it receives at present. So regardful
were they of appearances, that all who were
considered thrifty, or who took any pride in ob
taining full market rates for their crop, were ac
customed to spread it out in thin layers on plat
forms prepared for that purpose, to give it the
benefit of the dew, as that alone would turn it to
the clear brightness which was the favorite hue
with buyers. When the cotton was ginned, to
cleanse it from the seeds, the fibre was taken
from the teeth of the gin and blown into the
packing room, by a strong current of air through
a long flue or box with a grated bottom, which
separated all the loose dirt and heavy waste.—
As soon however, as the consumer began to
tread impatiently on the heels of the producer,
the latter became not only more careless in pre
paring his crop, but so eager to meet tho demand
by increasing hs producion. that his physical
force was entirely inadequate to keep up the old
system.
The Terrell Professorship of Agriculture.
—The Hon. Board of Trustees, at its recent
meeting, made some alterations affecting the
Terrell Professorship of Agriculture, which are
not undeserving of notice. Under the new or
ganization of Franklin College, the professorship
of chemistry is abolished, and the duty of teach
ing it is imposed on the professor of agriculture,
apparently on the ground that the great agricul
tural interest of Georgia is not of sufficient im
portance to justify the employment of the whole
time and study of one man for its improvement,
although his services are had without the cost of
a dollar to the State, or the College. We regret
this step backward, oecause its practical effect
may be to compel the professor of agriculture
either to vacate the agricultural chair in the State
University, or vacate his editorial chair in the
agricultural department of this paper.
The agricultural editor of The Field and Fire
side had been seven years editor of the South
ern Cultivator, when Dr. Terrell gave $20,000
to endow a chair of scientific agriculture in con
nection with Franklin College ; and that this ed
itorial association with the agricultural press
might be extended indefinitely, the Hon. Board
of Trustees passed the following, among other
resolutions offered by the Hon. Charles J. Jen
kins:
“ Resolved, That it shall be the duty of the
Terrell Professor of Agriculture to deliver every
year, in such place, and at such times as may
be designated by the Prudential Committee, with
in the College grounds, to the students of the
College, and such other persons as may choose
to attend, a course of lectures upon the subjects
enumerated by the donor, as herein before quot
ted; but said Prof essor shall not be subject to per
form police duty in the Institution; and shall re
ceive as a salary, the sum of twelve hundred
dollars per annum, or any larger sum that may
accrue as interest on said bonds, payable semi
annually, as the interest may be collected.
“Resolved , That in accordance with the sugges
tion of the donor, Dr. Daniel Lee, of the State
of New York, be, and he is hereby unanimous
ly appointed to till the Terrell Professorship
of Agriculture—to enter on his duties on the
15th of January-, 1855.
lit solved, That the communication of Dr. Ter
rell be entered on the minutes of the Board,
and filed in the Secretary’s office, and that a copy
of this report and the resolutions be transmit
ted to Dr. Terrell, and another to Dr. Daniel
Lee.”
We learn from Senator Toombs, who was pres
ent and participated in the action of the Board,
from Mr. Dougherty and other members, that
the subject of police duty on the part of the
Terrell professor was not discussed; and this
fact gives us reason to hope that the Board will
not deny the Agricultural professor a fair hear
ing in the matter. Nothing would give him more
pleasure than to have the Chemical Laboratory
of the State University placed under his charge,
with the privilege to build up a School of Ana
lytical Chemistry in its application, not only to
agriculture, but to the Mining and Manufactu
ring interests of the South. It has not one in
dustrial interest which applied chemistry can
not promote. And while the Terrell professor
is willing to undertake to study and teach both
its principles and its practice, he prays that the
Hon. Board will not wholly repudiate its own
solemn act, “ transmitted ” to him while a citi
zen of another State, to the effect that, if he
would accept the chair of agriculture, he might
rely on being exempt from police duty in the
college. This exemption is important, and was
secured by Dr. Terrell for a good and suffi
cient reason. No one pretends that the College
has suffered from the want of the police servi
ces of the agricultural professor during the last
five, or fifty years; nor can his services in that
lino be more important hereafter.
Wise and good men who make laws, will not
break them for trivial purposes.
Keeping Farm Accounts. —A correspondent
of the Farmer and Gardener, a new and valu
able agricultural journal recently started at
Philadelphia, thinks that if every farmer kept a
systematic account of everything seen and done
on the farm, the agricultural papers would be
come two fold more valuable than they now are,
as the notes of such observations as might be
made could be more readily telied upon and com
municated, than if made from memory ; and
farmers who now never think of writing for the
papers, would take a pleasure in so doing.
—
Vintage of Ohio. —Mr. Longworth, of Cin
cinnati. thinks the vintage of Ohio will be lar
ger this season than for several years. The av
erage yield will be about 400 gallons to the acre.
Within twenty miles around Cincinnati, it is es
timated the crop will amount to 800,000 gallons;
so that the wine crop of Ohio the present year
may bo safely estimated at over one million of
dollars in value.
——•■m ■
Corn Meal Pudding.— Boil a quart of water,
put in a little salt, stir in corn meal while boiling
till quite stiff. Take it off the fire and stir in
cold new milk till thin enough to level itself.—
Beat up three eggs and stir them in the batter.
Butter a pudding dish, put in the mixture, and
let it bake an hour and a half. Serve with
good, rich sweet cream and sugar.
-
Cholera-Infantum, Ac. —The National Intel
ligencer, at the request of a correspondent, pub
lishes the following simple cure for cholera-in
fantum, cholera, diarrhoea, colic, and all diseases
of the ahmentary organs generated in the sum
mer season, by the use of fruit or otherwise.
He says: “ I am as much opposed as any allo
pathic or homirpathie physician can be to any
species of quackery or empiricism. This is the
result of many years of positive personal expe
rience in my own family—with myself, with my
children, with my neighbors, and with my
friends and acquaintances. It ought to be every
where known. How many children’s lives it
will save, if adopted! It is simply this—one
fourth of an ouuce of pulverized cloves—one
fourth of an ounce of pulverized cinnaqjon—
one-fourth of an ounce of gum guaiacum;
mixed with one pint of old and pure whiskey.'
‘To be well shaken before taken.’ Dose for
an adult, one-half of a wine-glass, or a large
teblespoonful, filled up with water; for a child,
proportionably.
It never fails. One single dose at the incep
tion of any such disease, if not complicated
with other maladies, will always, withiu an
hour, cure. If such disease be chronic, or has
run on for some time, then hourly or daily
three or four times.”
AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT.
Oxford, Ga., Nov. 26, 1859.
Mr. Editor: —l am not in the habit of writing
on agricultural subjects, but when I see such a
vast quantity of land in my native State that
needs improving, I am induced to give you my
experiment with L. S. Hoyt’s superphosphate of
lime the present year. I purchased from Messrs.
Thos. P. Stovall A Co., Augusta, Ga., last spring
one ton of Hoyt’s superphosphate of lime, and
used it for cotton at the rate of 200 lbs. per
acre on very thin gray and red stiff laud, that
was nearly exhausted from long cropping. In
order to satisfy myself with regard to its paying
at the price I gave for it, which was fifty dollars
per ton, I left a few rows unmanured through
the field, on that portion which was gray or
sandy and red stiff land.
The result was far beyond my expectation.—
The unmanured portion was cultivated the same
as the manured portion, and yielded about three
hundred pounds seed cotton per acre—not more.
The manured portion, side by side with the un
manured, produced three times as much, and at
least nine hundred pounds of seed cotton per
acre.
I can safely say that for the fifty dollars I laid
out for the fertilizer, I have got back one hun
dred dollars in cotton, besides leaving the land
much improved.
When a planter can loan his money out at one
hundred per ceut. interest upon his own farm,
and at the same time improve his land, he is do
ing a first rate business. This fertilizer, accord
ing to chemical analysis, is rich in phosphoric
acid, lime and potash—three very important ele
ments necessary to briDg cotton to a high state
of perfection; and if the land has been exhausted
of those elements from long cropping, they must
be replaced in order to make a good crop.
It may be well for me to give my mode of ap
plying the fertilizer, as a different mode of ap
plication might produce a different result. I
opened a wide deep furrow, drilled the fertilizer
like drilling cotton seed, at the rate of about 200
lbs. per acre, running a deep scooter furrow
through to the fertilizer to mix it with the soil,
and bedding on it, which remained so until I
was ready to plant.
We had a few weeks drouth, and my neigh
bors’ cotton seemed to fade from the drouth ;
my cotton remained of a dark green color. I
made an experiment with oats also, and the re
sult was about the same it is for cotton.
It is finely pulverized, does not require seiv
ing nor mixing with dirt to apply it; is not of
fensive to handle, easily taken up by plants, and
a hand can drill it as fast as a horse and hand
can lay off the rows.
If it is applied every other year, I have no
doubt but the land would finally become rich, as
it contains a large amount of inorganic or
earthy food for plants, more than is taken up by
two years’ cropping.
Yours, truly, David Dickson.
Mr. Dickson has our best thanks for his inter
esting and instructive communication. It came
to hand after our editorial on Bones and Phos
phates was in type, and it serves to confirm the
opinion expressed some six or seven weeks, since
in this journal, to the effect, that phosphoric acid
will prove to be an exceedingly valuable manure
for cotton. If the article used by our corres
pondent was the same as that examined by us,
he is entirely right in believing that its inorganic
food of plants will not all be taken up by two
years’ cropping; for some three-fourths or more
of this indispensable acid is in an insoluble
state. Time and the elements, however, slowly
dissolve it. The general use of soluble bones
in England, in place of insolublo bones, com
menced in this wise: Sixteen bushels of ground
bones were applied to one acre, and two bushels
of bones, dissolved by oil of vitriol, were put
on an adjoining acre. Tillage, soil and crops
were alike. The result was in favor of the dis
solved and assimilable bones, although only one
eighth of the others.
Os course the sixteen bushels of ground bones
would in ten years render a far greater service
than the two bushels treated with acid. We be
lieve it practicable to export, in perpetuity, a
bale of 400 lbs. of cotton from an acre every
year, and apply only 100 lbs. of manure a year
to the land. The manure, however, must not be
sand, nor swamp mud, nor charcoal, but precise
ly those things consumed in forming the seeds
of this plant; and all the seed must be saved
and restored to the soil that produced them.—
In 400 lbs. of cotton sent to market, there are
not six pounds of earthy matter and nitrogen,
if both were separated and carefully weighed.
Over 98 per cent, of cotton is carbon and the el
ements of water. Hence, a very little manure
of the right kind will make 900 lbs. for Mr.
Dickson or any body else on an acre. His cot
ton plants did not obtain 50 lbs. of anything
whatever from his 200 lbs. of manure.
Four-fifths of the matter in cotton seed is
nearly worthless for manure. Read carefully
our “philosophy of improving soils.”
—
The Antiquity of Agriculture. —Tho anti
quity of the husbandman’s art is certainly not
to be contested by any other. The threo first
men in the world were a gardener, a plough
man, and a grazier; and if any man object, that
the second of these was a murderer, I desire he
would consider, that as soon as he was so, he
quitted our profession and turned builder. It is
for this reason, I suppose, that Ecclesiasticus
forbids us to hate husbandry; because (he said)
the Most High God has created it. We were all
bora to this art, and taught by nature to nour
ish our bodies by tho same earth out of which
they were made, and to which they must return,
and pay at last for their sustenance.
Behold the original and primitive nobility of
all those great persons who are too proud now
not only to till the ground, but almost to tread
upon it. We may say what we please of cities,
and lions rampant, and spread eagles in fields
d'or d'argent; but if heradlry were guided by
reason, a plough in a field arable, would be the
most noble and ancient arms.
All these considerations make me fall into the
wonder and complaint of Columella how it
should come to pass that all arts and sciences,
metaphysics, physic, morality, mathematics,
logic, rhetoric, Ac., which are all, I grant good
and useful faculties, (except only metaphysics,
which I do not know whether it be anything or
no,) but even vaulting, fencing, dancing, flirting,
cookery, carving and such like vanities, shall all
have public schools and masters; and yet that
w T e should never see or hear of any man who
took upon him the profession of teaching this so
so pleasant, so virtuous, so profitable, so honor
able, so necessary art.
THE STUDY OF SOILS.-CHAPTEB V.
The Philosophy of Improving Soils.
BY THE EDITOR.
It is a grave mistake to suppose that all soils
can be improved with equal facility and profit.
The best way to impart a high degree of fertili
ty to any given area of earth, is a problem often
very complex and difficult of solution. In some
cases a little gypsum scattered broadcast over
a clover or pea field, operates like magic to in
crease the crop; in others, this fertilizer produces
no effect whatever. The same is true of bone
dust, common salt, lime and potash. More com
pound fertilizers, like the dung of sea-birds, call
ed guano , and stable manure, seldom, if ever,
fail to improve the productiveness of land for
one or more crops. Why this difference in fa
vor of the latter ?
While lime adds to the soil only one element,
the excrements of domestic animals applied to it
contain not only lime, but some twelve or four
teen other ingredients equally necessary to form
cultivated plants. Now, unless a part of a thing
is equal to the whole, the excrements of ani
mals, no matter whether of birds, swine, sheep,
neat cattle, or of the human species, must ever
be more reliablo to augment the productiveness
of the earth than any one, two, or three simple
elementary bodies, consumed in the formation of
any crop. When a part of the necessary ingre
dients are present in the soil in an available con
dition, then the addition of the lacking ingredi
ents, whether few or many, will effect the de
sired purposo. While this statement is strictly
true, it does not militate in the least against the
use of lime, bones, gypsum, salt, marl, greensand
and other popular fertilizers, whenever it can be
done at a profit. In the very nature of the case,
experiment or personal experience must decide
this question for the farmer. Science can do no
more for him than to establish general and cor
rect principles to guide his practice and re
searches. But the agriculturist should weigh
carefully all the facts that science and the large
experience of thousands of other cultivators of
the soil have recorded for his instruction and
benefit.
In an able and interesting address before the
Maryland State Agricultural Society, delivered
at its third anniversary exhibition in October,
1850, the Hon. Willoughby Newton, of Virginia,
gave the following as the results of his experi
ence in the use of guano:
“In the effect of guano, especially the Peruvi
an, I have nevor been disappointed. I have
used it now for four years with entire satisfac
tion, having each year been induced to enlarge
my expenditure, until last year it reached $800;
and for the crop of wheat this fal 1 it exceeds
SI,OOO. I have observed with astonishment its
effects in numerous instances on the poor ‘ for
est land,’ alluded to in a former part of this ad
dress. What the turnip and sheep husbandry
have done for the light lands of Great Britain,
the general use of guano promises to do for ours.
Lands a few years ago deemed entirely incapable
of producing wheat, now produce the most luxu
riant crops. From 15 to 20 bushels for one
so wn, is the ordinary product on our poorest lands
from the application of 200 pounds of Peruvian
guano. I may remark, that it is not usual in
eastern Virginia to sow more than a bushel of
wheat to the acre; and that I deem amply suf
ficient.”
Wo regret that Mr. Newton does not state
what quantity of wheat this “ poorest land ” in
eastern Virginia would yield without guano or
manure of any kind. In the absence of such in
formation, it is probably safe to assume that 5
bushels are about the average; if so, the gain is
from 10 to 15 bushels by the use of 200 pounds
of Peruvian guano. It is a philosophical ques
tion of great practical importance in farm econo
my to solve, In what way does nature operate to
make 200 pounds of manure produce 15 bushels
of wheat, including, of course, the plants that
bear this amount of seed ?
Science, associated with practice, enablee us
to answer this question in a clear and satisfac
tory manner. Assuming the highest gain, or 15
bushels, the weight of that amount, at GO pounds
per bushel, is 900 pounds. From this 12 per
cent, must be subtracted for water in merchant
able wheat, which reduces the quantity to 792
pounds. Os this, 95 per cent, in round numbers,
is water or its elements oxygen and hydrogen,
and carbon or coal. The other 5 per cent, is
organized nitrogen and incombustible matter,
called ash. This 5 per cent, is nearly 40 pounds
in weight, and similar in every respect to the
elements contained in the guano applied to tho
soil. If we may safely assume that growing
wheat plants can obtain most of their carbon
from the carbonic acid in tho utmosphere, and
water from tho same source, there is no difficul
ty in understanding how 200 pounds of a highly
concentrated manure should supply 40 pounds
of raw material for making this grain, and have
160 left for the benefit of the straw. To yield
900 pounds of wheat, requires from 1,200 to 1,-
800 of straw and chaff. As guanoed wheat
usually contains less straw in proportion to the
grain than wheat grown on ordinary rich land,
probably 1,500 pounds of straw and chaff are a
fair estimate to 900 of seed. Os tho combusti
ble partof this straw and chaff, over 99 parts in
100 are carbon and the elements of water. The
amount of nitrogen in straw is about one-third
of one per cent. Guano supplies nearly all the
wants of the stems of wheat-plants in minerals,
except soluble silica or flint. Potash is
sometimes lacking in this fertilizer to a degreo
that impairs its value for growing wheat. As a
crop of wheat is not taken year after year from
the light sandy soils in Virginia and Mary
land, soluble silica has an opportunity to accu
mulate to some extent between the large de
mands on the soil for this element. The power
of wheat, corn, oats, and other cereal grasses, to
extract carbon from the atmosphere, is one of
the most pregnant facts in practieal agriculture.
If the essential elements of grain can be so much
concentrated that 200 pounds of manure will
produce 900 of wheat, the fact is of inestimable
importance to the human family, and especially
to all owners of arable land, no matter how ste
rile it is by nature or poor by excessive cropping.
Anxious to encourage investigations in this di
rection, we copy a few additional remarks from
Mr. Newton’s address:
“ I applied last fall $350 worth of guano,
partly Peruvian and partly Patagonian, on a
poor farm in ‘the forest,’ which cost a few years
ago $4 an acre, and reaped 1,089 bushels from
78 sown. Forty-six were sown on a fallow,
(both guano and wheat put in with a cultivator,
followed by a heavy harrow,) and yielded 790
bushels, or over 17J per acre for one of seed.
A considerable part of this was dressed with
Patagonian guano, and was much inferior to tho
other portion. A lot on which fifteen bushels
was sown, and dressed with Peruvian guano,
was thrashed separately, and yielded 301 bush
els, or over 20 for one. The cost of the farm
was $1,520, and I have good reason to expect
with a favorable season, from the crop now
sown and dressed with guano, a bushel of wheat