Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1877-03-16
Farmers department,
REpoRTED FOR THE SENTINEL.
AGRICULTURAL LECTURE.

AGRICULTURAL LECTURE.
The fifth lecture of the course upon Agri-
culture was delivered on Friday evening last
before The students and faculty of the Mary
land Agricultural College, by Professor j. D.
Warfeld
The lecturer treated the subject Of agricul-
ture under the novel divisions Of nature four
great elements-earth, air, water and fire.
He claimed that the earth, if kept as nature
gave II 10 u.s. furnished TO the farmers de-
mand ten mineral elements without which a
perfect crop can not be expected That these
elements constitute the entre rock of the
globe; that nearly the entire surface rock of
the earth is formed from fossil remains Of an
imals that have lived and died all along from
ihe creation of the EARTH that these beds Of
fnssil remains, many of which are several miles
thick, are not only in the depths Of the earth
but upon 1he tops of mountains, showing con-
clusively that these mountain tops must at
some time have been upheaved by the force of
central fire.
Speaking Of these fossil beds, he traced them
through Egypt and Persia even to the mighty
range of the lIimalayas. The city of Paris,
said he, stands upon a fossil he'd of she'll one
hundred and eighty miles long and ninety
miles wide, and further yet that the houses of
the city are built from stone formed from these
dead animals. Speaking OF the revelations of
the microscope, he noticed iD this connection
the astonishing fact that in one cubic inch Of
fossil rock forty-one thousand million distinct
structures had been found.
Thus said he not only arc we feeding upon
the rock which has been formed from the dead
animals Of the past, bnt we are even living in
houses bull, from the bones Of the dead
From these Illustrations Prof. Warlield very
successfully showed that nothing in nature was
ever lost; that there was ceaselcss change
but the same elements that existed at the ere
alton exist now that these bodies Of ours,
which we hold in such proud estimation are
nothing but remodeled skeletons of huge sea
serpents that have gone before in order that
we may follow after.
The elements of nature have been given us
in trust; they were our foreathers', they will
be our children's, therefore we must know
them ia order 10 keep them lie spoke of the
close relation of the mineral vegetable and
animal productions Of nature claiming that
the vegetable creation depended upon the min
eral, and the animal upon both the vegetable
and mineral. To every acre OF clover that we
raise, nature loaned one hundred pounds OF
phosphate Of lime. Every COW we turn upon
tina, clover takes sixty pounds of that loan.--
1t is our duty to pay the debts of our stock
or our credit must go to protest. Nature only
asks two hundred pounds Of mineral elements
for every ton Of clover she gives us. Eighteen
hundred pounds are a free gift from the at.
mosphere. Surely we ought not to expect
more than nine times the value of our outlay
There are three classes Of vegetable produc.
ton demanding three distinct leading essen
tials. Lime is FIRST in grasses, phosphoric acid
in grains aud potash in roots Combine the
three and we get what these leading crops de.
mand. There is no fertilizer that unites all
in better proportion than ashes but as ashes
are limited in supply the phosphate of lime
which constitutes one-half of bone, combined
with commercial potash will furnish the thre,
essentials Sulphuric acid comes to the aid
of the farmer in preparing crude bone for i'm.
mediate use. As The trne policy is to manur,
for the present, ana let the future take care {.
iteelf, sulphuric acid comes, as by Divine mis-
~.
gush forth
South America seems TO hold natures gift
in reserve for her northern sister. Hardly ha
the excitement of the far-famed Chincha il
land guano died out before we End vast bed
of nitrate of soda, which are destined 10 riva
the former in the manufacture of fertilizers -
In Scotland this nitrate of soda, as a speeia
manure, has produced, by an application @
six hundred pounds, FIVE tons of hay upo
land which not so dressed produced but tw
tons.
The lecturer then spoke briefly OF the re
manning elements, magnesia, oxide of iro
and Manganese, claiming that nature woul
take care Of those. In closing, he spoke
the many sciences which the study of agrcu
ture called into fequislion. In the midst {
one Of these, said he, (tbo science Of geology
we stand appalled,, as If in the presence of
crater. Down in the depths of mother earth
not only is the farmer seeking for truth, bu
be finds there the student OF theology, who
seeking for light TO open up the word Of God
Upon these pictured rocks are traeings Of
Divine hand--a writing upon the wall whic
makes atheists iremble and doub ters believe.
10 what place are two heads better thai
one2 In barrel.
Pray for the poor, and now and then throw
in loaf of bread, basket Of potatoes or bar
row of coal.