The Osceola times., 1879-03-29
THE NEW AGRICULTURE.
Dr. J. n. Nichols Tells us In Whaf u
sgafs

celebrated "Barn Lecture" delivered
In a barn) has had wide circulation,
and has stirred,up ideas that were new
TO many farmers. At recent meeting
of the Massachusetts State Board Of Ag-
riculture he delivered q lecture on "The
New Agriculture" We take some ex-
tracts from report in the New England
Farmer:
In opening, the lecturer paid Just
tribute to the memory and labors of Lie
big, the irst successful practical sgricul>
tural chemist, and the first to discover
that carbon comes to plants from the
air, and who, also, cleared up the mys-
terry of the absorption of nitrogen. He
next gave a condensed history of the
progress OF agriculture in this city, quot
ing some amusing paragraphs from the
writings of Jared Elliott, who taught
that the best rules for governing the op
erations If the farm were 10 be found in
the Bible, and that ashes are complete
fertilizer, but that the misery of it is
that they are too few for the farmers
wants.
The New Agriculture" could count
but little more thsn thirty years, and
bears an even date with the new chemis
try. At present, agriculture can hardly
Re called science, but rather an indus
try. Therejis yet too much in dispute,
but with our present light it Is time that
some things should be settled 10 that
they shall stay settled. Successful agri-
culture, like every other successful occu-
patton of man, requires brains and the
one who uses his brains best will have
the best and largest crops, and will reap
the largest profits.
The special mission of the New Agri.
culture" is TO teach farmers the best way
to gain the best results. The cultured
farmer will make good butter and raise
COED apples, both of which will find a
ready market at paying prices, while the
same crops grown, harvested and mar
keted in careless manner, will bring
the ignorant and indolent farmer little
or no profit on his labor. 1t is the best
fruit, the best butter, the best corn, the
best vinegar, all put up in the best style,
which bring the highest prices. People,
As they become intelligent, find out that
coed food is worth paying for.
The follower of the New Agricul>
ture" finds that dirty boots in the milk
room are out of place, that mixing poor
hay or poor apples in lots designed for
market, injures the sale OF the good pro.
duets more than the value of the poor.
A barrel of apples worth two dollars may
be deprecated forty or fifty per cent. by
putting in peck of inferior fruit. Even
The metuod of putting up has much to
do with the prices obtained for iarm
products. Apples packed nicely will
bring fifty cents per barrel more than
those which are tumbled in any way.
The old agriculture did not know the
exact comparative value of food, either
for animal or man. Chemistry had not
determined food values as it has now
determined them. We have found out
finally that the heat of the animal comes
from the combustion of the food we
give, and that it is poor economy to
keep our cattle out in the cold winds in
winter. He had kept his own COWS very
clese during trial Of ten years, and
found that it paid, both in flesh and
milk, to keep them under cover. Even
production a quart a day by standing
short time in q lake of cold water. Ice
cold water to drink in winter, will cause
a like falling of in the yield.
Much has been learned concer ming the
value OF animal msnures, that was not
known under the old agriculture. We
have learned now that the value OF
manure varies that manure made from
good hay is worth more than that made
rom the coarse grasses OF our bog
swamps, and that all manure is better il
kept undar cover than il lett exposed to
the iufuences OF the weather. Chemis-
try also teaches that there is a feeding
value in corn cobs equal to that of cons
mon straw, but they must be ground
fine, or their value is not retained by the
animal before they pass beyond the diges-
tive organs. The cobs contain large
per cent. of potash, and should not be
wasted or carried away from the farm
The potash taken up by the cobs OF one
years corn crop in the United States
can not amount to less than lis, 900, 900
pounds. IL will be seen, therefore, that
1t is poor economy to raise corn with a
large percentage of cob, when variety
with smaller cob would yield Just as
much com. Chemistry has ais taught
that plant food is very abundant in
nature, outside OF animal dung. 1t also
teaches that the same food led TO differ
ent animals will not return equal values
in the animal wastes, because the waste
is less in certain classes of animals than
in Others. Mich cows take more out OF
their food than do idle, lat cattle.
The speaker had had large expert.
eDce in the use of chemical fertilizers,
and deemed word as TO their use not
out OF place. All concentrated msnures
must be sqresd very evenly, as one would
SOW grass seed. They should also be
applied, especially the nitrstes, in the
spring, just as the plant begins 10 use up
fertility, while the more slowly acting
barn msnure should be applied the fall
previous, that its plant food may have
lime to become developed. Nitrate OF
soda, he thought, ought never to be ap-
piled alone, but in connection with
phosphstes Just why, he could not
tell, further than that practice seemed
to warrant such an application. The
reason that soil analyses had been of 40
little value to the farmer Is because the
chemist cannot determine in what con-
ditions certain elements exist in the soil
1t il not enough to simply know that