The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-09-07
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.

pends upon many conditions:
If fowls are furnished with plenty
of range, with half the amount of feed
necessary to keep them, and the balance
to be provided by themselves, they will
do better than under any other circum-
stances in which they may be placed,
for the simple reason that this oonsti-
tutes the best possible natural conditions
in which to carry out and develope all
the functions of their peculiar nature.
When confined in an unnatural, and OF
course what is to them, an arbitrary
mode of keeping, an entirely different
course of treatment must be pursued in
order to make them remunerative or
profitable to the owner and this is not
all-the fowls thus kept should be dis
posed OF at the expiration OF one year at
the furthest limit of time in which to
Keep them, as the fowls being in this un-
natural restraint will hardly pay for
one-half of their keeping, if an effort is
made to make them productive in laying
eggs after the first year besides this is
not the only difficulty that will have to
be encountered, for the restricted or cir
cumscribel limits in which the fowls
are situated is fruitful source of a
variety of diseases, in which occurs the
loss OF many of them.
When more fowls are purchased to
supply those disposed of, much care
should be taken 10 get such as have not
been bred in anu in, and from those,
also, where the mother of the chickens
provided generally for them, and then
OF course good and profitable lot of
fowls as desideratum yielding exceed
ingly well for the amount of outlay of
money and is sure source of profit.
GEO. P. WILCOX.
ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL EXPERT
MENTs.-A recent number of the A0ri-
cultural Gazette (London) contains an
interesting account of the celebrated ex-
periments at Rothamsted, which have
been carried on for many years (some of
them since 1S43), by Mr.. j. B. Lawes.
These experiments have been conducted
by MIR. Lawes in person, and entirely at
his own cost, and they have developed
many results of the greatest value not
only to English agriculture, but to that
OF the whole world; they constitute also
q most important contribution to the
cause of science. Indeed, Rothamsted,
under the absolute control of single
individual, and supported from his pri-
vate fortune, vies with the most care
fully managed and most extensive ex-
perimental stations conducted at gov
ernment expense on the continent.
Some idea of the extent of these expert
ments may be formed from the fact
that the tabulated reports OF the results
OF twenty years experiments in growing
wheat on twenty-five different plots
comprising in all fourteen acres), each
with different manuring-occupy over
forty closely printed (octavo) pages of
the Journal of the Royal Agricultural So
ciety. And these fourteen acres are only
fourth part of the land devoted to the
experiments, which included every i'm
portant crop of English agriculture.
1t is not easy to deduce correct con-
clusions from such experiments, for
there are many varying circumstances
whose influence on growth, and on the
operation of manure we as yet know too
little fully to understand; but some
things seems to be so far determined as
to be of practical use to farmers, and as
we come to know more the value of the
whole series will be gradually developed.
They must always remain a most fruit
full subject for scientific investigation,
and fruitful source of practical know
ledge.
To refer more in detail to the expert
ments: Eighteen half-acre plots of grass
have been manured each with the same
manure for sixteen years. The unma-
nured land has averaged over twenty
five hundred pounds of hay per acre
superphosphate of lime did very little
good unless used with ammonia and
ammonia salts and nitrate of soda did
much the best. Ammonia, however, was
bad for clover, and gave an undue
Ammonia salts produced an average of
6,T2O pounds of hay per acre. 1t has
been deduced from the grass-feld expert
ments (probably correctly, that nitrate
of soda is valuable agent in enabling
crop to Withstand drought, the as
sumption being that when more is ap-
piled than is used by the crop, the sur
plus is washed down into the soil, 80
that repeated annual doses enrich the
ground to such depth as to induce
roots to go down far enough to find the
necessary moisture. This deduction is
apparently confirmed by the fact that
last year when the drought in England
was most severe), the plot that had been
manured with this salt produced at
nearly the full rate, while the other ma
nures had comparatively slight effect.
Mr.. Lawes describes the soil as a some
what heavy loan with q suhsoil of ra yv
yellowish red clay, but resting in its
turn upon chalk, which provides good
atural drainage" In the barley ex-
periments, the unmanured land averaged
(l6 years. 209 bushels per acre; some of
the manured land as high as fifty bush
els. For this crop it seems to be proved
that superphosphate is not Of much ben
etit; that ammonia salts Quantity not
stated) 1000 pounds of rape cake, or 275
pounds nitrate of soda per acre, are each
OF great utility, the cheapest improve
ment coming from the use of nitrate.
In the wheat experiments, the unma-
nured land averaged 143 bushels per
acre that manured with alkalies, l55
bushels; that with superphosphate, 17s
bushels; and that with both of these
manures and with nitrate of soda or
ammonia salts, 96A bushels. Neither
the nitrate nor the ammonia did so well
without the superphosphate or alkalies
as when psed with them.
The experiments with oats are not
materially different from those with
wheat. Peas, beans and clover could
not be made to grow for series of years
nv anv manuraa that wara tried uDoD