The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1876-10-05
FARM AMI FIRESIDE.

by excessive cropping are exhausted of
their three leading elements, nitrogen,
potash and phosphoric acid, while the
other constituents are so well supplied
by amajority of soils, and some of them
SO little required by the crop that we
need not concern ourselves about them.
But the fallacy of this ides is evident on
a moments reflection, and the attempt
to establish a general system of f~ertiliz-
ing crops on a foundation SO questionable
is surprising.
There are not less than three essential
points which are overlooked in assuming
thisposition.
In the first place, admitting that the
other and less important elements of
plant food are abundantly present in a
majority of soils, it does not follow that
their condition is such as to give them
any present value to the crops; and if
they are not available for the crop they
might as well be absent.
Secondly, it matters not how small
quantity may be of any given element
needed by the intended crop, that guam
tity whether it be one pound per acre or
one hundred pounds, must be present in
the soil and must be in a soluble condi-
ton.
Thirdly, the quantity of each element
that must be found in the soil is not to
be limited to the exact amount required
by the growing plant, but should be
much larger. A crop, for example, may
not require more than one pound of
soda per acre; yet to make sure that it
will get one pound, it is very clear that
the acre must contain much more than
that quantity.
1t is therefore a great mistake to say
to the farmer that for every crop he
plants he needs only to concern himself
about the manurial elements. Suppose
that animal dung was deprived of all its
plant-food excepting these same three
elements. Does any practical farmerbe-
lieve that its value would not be i'm
paired?
In every view of the subject it is
easy to see that no formula forfertilizing
an acre of land is either sound or trust
worthy that omits such elements as soda,
lime and magnesia, to say nothing of the
others.
The wheat crop, for example, requires
for a yield of twenty-five bushels per
acre not less than ten and a half pounds
of magnesia, while for Indian corn, a
product of thirty-eight bushels per acre
requires over twelve pounds of the same
element. Now let us suppose the case
of two farms lying in the same township,
one of which happens to be supplied
with magnesia in the right condition for
the crop, while in the soil of the other
this constituent is either entirely want,
ing or is chemically locked UP in a form
that makes it useless. In the case Of
the first farm the Professors method
might succeed if applied for either
: wheat or corn, provided the other
conditions were all right; but in the case
of the second farm the formula would
be, in any event, worthless.
CATS IN ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Swiss
helm gives a chapter in the Pittsburg
/, Commercial on "Cats," that entomolo
/, gists will not be slow to appropriate tc
their use in arguing the bird-insect ques
ton. She says: If our agriculture,
societies could offer premiums for the
, scalps of these domestic tigers just a
counties used to do for those of theil
more harmless first cousins, wolves, WI
would in a few years be done not only
with green worms, but the green grass
hoppers, which come up like a CLOUD
and spread wei the land, because thu
t millions of birds that should be on hanG
| to eat them as they come out of the
, ground have been destroyed by our pc
, tigers.
No one who has not paid attention tt
t the subject can have any idea of thu
| number of birds and birds nests de
| stroyed in one year by one cat, and tt
, nae it is a wonder that there are any
birds left in the United States. To b.
t sure, there are very few. 1 have hearG
| more bird songs here in Leipsic in the
seven weeks have been here than Ievel
!, did in seven years at home, and there
lived most of the time in the country
while here l am in the city. Our stree
, terminates abruptly on the confines of
garden, which must embrace twenty
t acres, and surrounded on three sides by
. high houses. Our block is the last OF
the street, and our rooms at the end mex
: to this garden, which is full of tall tree
and shrubbery and flowers and pleasan
walks, and 1 think there are more bird
in it than in Cherryhill Township, Indi
. ana County, Pennsylvania, in which GU
summer home was situated, and which
/ is a very large township, not less thai
1 twenty miles square.
Every family there but one keeps cat
to amuse the children and catch rats
: and as a cat never touches a rat while i
9 can get a bird, or a nest of birds or eggs
and as they can easily follow a bird t.
f its nest and cannot follow a rat to its
there are not many birds left when cat
fall to catching rats. Nobody raise
e fruit there except by accident. All tn
t trees were decorated with caterpillar
s nests, and the last year we were ther
d the worms attacked the elder bushes an,
blackberries, the main dependence @
# the people for fruit.
One might see Intelligent farmers
sitting caressing cats, while til
, worms were devouring their crop
and their faithful guardians wer
in pussy's NAV. 1 used to be SO trie
= that 1 should have been resigned to tn
:, dispensation of Providence if I ha
heard some morning that the cats wei
eating the men instead of the birds. ]
- would certainly be a great blessing t
- the country if they would just take