The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-03-27
THE NEW AGRICULTURE.
DIR, j. II. Nichols Tells Us in What !
Coz sistS.

DIR. J r. Nichols, editor OF the Boston
Journal of Chemistry, is an authority
not only in the scientific but in the
practical department of agriculture. His
celebrated Barn Lecture" delivered
in baru) has had a wide circulation,
and has stirred,up idess that were new
TO many farmers. At a recent meeting
of TIE Massachusetts, State Board Of Ag>
riculture ne delivered lecture on ''The
New Agriculture. We take some ex-
tracts from a report in the New England
Farmer:
In opening, the lecturer paid just
tribute to the memory and labors Of Lie
big, the FIRST successful practical sgricul>
tural chemist, and the first to discover
that carbon comes to plants from the
sir, and who, also, cleared up the mys-
terry of the absorption of nitrogen. He
next gave 8 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 OPP
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 a little more thsn thirty years, and
bears an even date with the new chemis
try. At present, agriculture can hardly
be called s science, but rather an indus
try. There is yet too much in dispute,
but with our present light it is time that
some things should be settled SO 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 viii reap
tie 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 a careless manner, will bring
the ignorant and INDECENT farmer little
or no profis 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
good 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, Injuries the sale of the good pro-
ducts 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 method of putting up has much to
do with the prices obtained for farm
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 SIS 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 ont in the cold winds in
winter. He had kept his own COWS very
close during a trial of ten years, and
found that it paid, both in flesh and
milk, to keep them under cover. Even
in summer COWS shrink in their milk
production q quart day by standing a
short time in a lake of cold water. Ice
cold water to drink in winter, will cause
like falling of in the yield.
Much has been learned concerning the
value of animal manures, 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 aii manure is better II
kept under cover than il left exposed to
the influences OF the weather. Chemis-
try also teaches that there is a feeding
value in corn cobs equal to that of COM
mon straw, but they must be ground
fine; or their value is not retained by the
animal before they pass beyond the Chges'
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 State;
can not amount to less than lis, 900, 600
pounds. IL will be seen, therefore, that
it is poor economy to raise corn with 8
large percentage of cob, when a variety
with smaller cob would yield just as
much corn. Chemistry has also taught
that plant food is very abundant in
nature, outside of animal dung. IL 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, tat cattle.
The speaker had had large expert
ence in the use of chemical fertilizers
and deemed word as TO their use not
out of place. All concentrated manures
must be spread very evenly, as one would
SOW grass seed. They should also be
applied, especially the nitrates, in the
spring, Just as the plant begins to use W
fertility, while the more slowly acting
barn manure should be applied the fall
previous, that its plant food may have
time to become developed. Nitrate o
soda, he thought, ought never to be ap'
piled alone, but in connection with
phosphates. Just why, he could moi
tell, further than thst practice seemed
to warrant such an application. Tit
reason that soil analyses had been of 81
little value to the farmer is because tht
chemist cannot determine in what con
ditions certain elements exist In the soil