The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1876-04-11

The principle is briefly this: Growing |
plants take from the soil certain ele-
ments of their growth. The most inn
portant, and II seems the only ones |
which nature does not sufficiently sup |
ply, are nitrogen. potash and phos-
phoric acid These must he supplied |
to the soil If they do not already exist |
in it in sufficient proportions to feed
the crop. For instance: fifty bushels
of corn remove from the soil sixty-four
pounds of nitrogen, seventy seven
pounds of potash and thirty-one pounds
of phosphoric acid Now, "to produce
| fifty bushels of shelled corn to the acre
without any manure and its natural
proportion of slower more than the nat |
ural yield of the land apply sixty-four
pounds of nitrogen, seventyseven
pounds actual potash and thirty-one
pounds soluble phosphoric acid" If
the natural yield would be fifty BUSH
els, the yield with the fertilizers should
be one hundred bushels; and this is
what by his own statements and those
printed by his only agents, the pro-
fessor claims is the fair result of his |
theory, or, as we would say, his n.y.
pothesis. In the college report, in |
which twenty-three pages are occupied |
by Prof, Stockbridge in his account of
his Experience in Feeding Plants"
this hypothesis is fully avowed, and it
is sail that the experiments SHOW |
that the soil is left in better condition
than it was before being cropped by |
this method
Let us examine the matter carefully : |
We put on the land the elements of
/ fifty bushels of corn. and no more. We
take off of the land the elements of one
hundred bushels, and yet "leaye the |
land in better condition than it was be-
fore !" Where did the elements of the
come from? Certainly out of the soil.
as its natural YIELD" that is to say,
what 1t would yield without fertilizers.
1t is exactly like this: We have a two
gallon bucket half full of water. It's
natural yield is what there is in it-one
gallon. We put into it another gallon
and fill it, Then we pour out two gal
Ions, and by this hypothesis it should
be half full and rather more
BY singular oversight, it would
seem. ii is assumed that because the
land did last year with no manure yield
fifty bushels it will do the same for
ever, which certainly is not true Of any
land in New England, and is not ac-
cording to the hypothesis of the profess
sor, whose corner stone is the PROPOSE
ton that the crop takes from the soil
all the nitrogen, potash and phosphoric
acid which the crop contains.
To maintain the fertility of the soil
we must apply the ell lments of as much
corn as we remove, il would seem,
which is just double what the profess
sor applies, as shown by his formulas.
That we cannot take off crops with
out applying some sort of fertilizer, is
no recent discovery. Leibig and
others, a generation ago, taught that
the crops take from the soil potash,
phosphorie acid and other elements,
which must be restored to maintain its
fertility. George Vile, in pamphlet
printed in Boston in 1866, entitled
High Farming without Manure" to
which we referred on February 20,
states essentially the same, and vari-
GUS experiments made on the expert
mental farm at Vincennes, in France.
He says there are four regulating
agents par excellence, in the production
of vegetables, to wit; phosporic acid,
potash, nitrogen and lime. The lime
is omitted by Prof. Stockbridge, and
Vile used only one hundred and thir- }
ty-two pounds of quicklime to the acre,
which would cost little, and certainly
would do no harm the other three
elements are the same, and applied on
the same principle as in the professors
formulas.
Says Vile, ITO preserve to the earth {
its fertility we must supply it period
ically with these four substances in |
quantities equal to those removed by
the crops" He did not fall into the
blunder of supposing we could remove
twice as much as we supply and leave
the land in better condition than be.
fore the crop was taken off.
In fact, if we look at the quantities
applied by Vile, we find lie used just
about twice as much nitrogen phos-
phoric acid and potash as Prof. Stock
bridge recommends that is to say, he
applied as much Of each element as he
removed instead of half as much. Geo.
Ville's experiments were repeated in
| Massachusetts and found to be success
full, the only objection being the finan-
cial one. If We apply as much as NJ.
Vile found necessary the fertilizers
cost more than the ordinary crop was
worth. And this is the rock on which
Stockbridge splits. He applies half
what he removes and either fails in his
crop, or cheats his soil out of half the
crop. If he apply enough to return to
the soil as much as his crop removes,
his fertilizer costs $50 an acre. instead
of sos. and nobody can afford to use it
for field crops.-[ Boston Cultivator.