Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-02-14

piled. According to some Of the expert
ments made within the past two years with
the Stockbridge fertilizers, a field subjected
to four-years' course, as above, would still
be good for a three-years' course of cropping
without any additional fertilizer being APP
piled. Although it is said that figures do
not lie, yet sometimes they get terribly
snarled up, making it not little difficult to
see just where the truth is which they are
expected to tell.
"Now that the fertilizer business is sup
posed to have come down on to a solid foun-
dalton, so that we can know just how much
value of fertiizing material we must apply
for desired crop, it would seem that we
are very near to a practical solution of the
question What is the value of the manure
from given animal
"Taking the statement of our correspond
ent that his COW will fertilize an acre suf-
ficently for four-years' cropping-once in
grain, once in roots, and two years in grass,
we still have no means of judging of the ma
tive fertility of his soil, nor of the amount
of crops expected or realized. Nor would it
be fair to say that, if COW can fertilize an
acre for four years, she can fertilize four
acres for a single crop. Automatically we
might, practically we cannot, because all
the value of dressing of stable manure
cannot, ordinarily, be converted by the crop
,,,o n,,t, xsfin laava tho en- IN.
ject with our readers, who will find sugges-
lions enough in the above to keep them think
| ing or writing the remainder of the winter. u
These remarks are little Massacbusettsy
as might be expected. The ideal of fertil
ization in that state is to deposit in the soil
every year, in the form of a fertilizer, all the
potash, phosphoric acid and ammonia that
the expected crop will require. We don't
allow to do that in Vermont, nor does oul
land require it. We expect something from
the natural fertility of the soil. Conse
quently we do not ask that the manure ap
piled for a four-course rotation shall furnish
as much plant food as the four years crops
take off. All we demand is that the lane
1
shall be at least as rich, at the end of the
rotation, as it was at the beginning, before
the manure was applied. In our own cast
it is always richer. As a matter of fact
manuring an acre with the fertilizing mat
ter from one COW, or four Cotswold sheep
for one year, we should expect, first, from
sixty to eighty bushels of shelled corn-next
two hundred and fifty bushels of potatoes
or the equivalent in beets or turnips-next
two tons of hay each year for two years
and with good seasons for Mree-and then
with the same quantity Of manure we SHOULD
expect to be able to do the same thing owe
again, ad infnaum.
1t is quite true, as brother Cheever re
marks, that manure sufficient for one acr
for four years is not sufficient for four acre
for one year-that is, if the land has no ma
tural fertility, or is badly out of condition
But with fertile land in good condition thi
fertility and condition act as a sort of bal
ance wheel, or perhaps as a bank, upol
which the crop can draw for food, to be re
placed by that made available from the un
used portion of the manure in succeeding
seasons. In soil which relies wholly on tn
applied manure to produce a crop this can
not be realized.