The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-09-29

an application of these substances as
manJres.A I mentioned in previous
part of my paper that quantity rather
than quality was the object to be attained
when hay was the crop grown; but
when animal products are produced
from grass the quality Of the grass is of
very great importance. 0-l5
Quality of pasture is dependent upon
the food in Che soil. IN land under
grass there is constant struggle going
on between the various plants which
constitute what We call pasture. Upon
my experimental ground the pasture
contained about fifty different species
OF plants when the experiments were
commenced, and upon the unmanured
ground these have been subject to but
little change; but it is far otherwise
upon the variously manured portions.
If the food is abundant and good, the
good grasses drive away all the weeds
and bad grasses, and the ultimate re-
suit is very simple herbage, consist
ing of not moro than from fifteen to
eighteen of the best species. The con-
slant moving, although It enables us
to establish great deal of valuable IL
formation respecting growth, is, at the
same time, most destructive to the finer
sorts of herbage; it cannot be expected.
for instance, that much white clover
will be found among grasses standing
three. feet high and yielding 1000
pounds of hay to the acre; with liberal
manuring, therefore, there must be
close feeding, and the coarse but highly
nutritious cocksfoot and foxtail must
not be allowed to smother the clover
and trefoil. r.s..
Having once started permanent
pasture by means of iudicious mixture
of artificial manures the question arises
whether it is more economical to keep
up the fertility by fresh application
OF artificial manures or by the manure
obtained by feeding stock upon the
land with food grown in other local..
ties. 1t is not easy to decide this point.
L am myself inclined to think that the
latter process is the most economi-
cal, and in the conversion of arabic
into pasture land-upon which opera
tion have been engaged for ten years
L Lave trusted to the fert1lizing prop.
critics of the manure from cotton cake
to enable me to accumulate the stock of
fertility which, being exhausted by
ages of arabic culture, had to be re-
placed before the land could again be-
come a pasture. When hay, which is
the produce of arabic land, is grown for
sale, it is by no means certain that the
increase, obtained by the application of
artificial manures, would repay the cost
of the operation.
Nitrate of soda at the rate of 100
pounds per acre, applied in the spring
about month before the crop began to
grow actively, would probably give
considerable increase to crop of tim
othy, but l cannot venture to give an
opinion as to what would be the pe
cuniary result of the transaction. Sun
light is cheaper than all artificial
sources of light, and natural fertility
is cheaper than any artificial compound.
In the absence Of sunlight we have re-
course to purchased light, and as the
natural fertility is exhausted from our
soils we are driven to use fertility de-
rived from other sources. 1t is the OBJ
Ject OF science to investigate and explain
the laws which regulate the growth of
plants rather than to enter upon the
question of economy. In the present
paper have endeavored to unite to a
certain extent science with practice, in
the hope that the farmers of the United
States who take the trouble to read
what l have said may add something
to their present stock of knowledge.