The Hope pioneer., 1895-12-20

cent of matter that burned off; then
magnesia, iron, chlorin, potash. soda
and lime. The professor thought the
soil rich except in lime. This l knew,
by previous examination, was under
meath and would come up. I selected
six acres of the worst-cropping piece
on the whole quarter, plowed 1t in
May, narrowed fine, and drilled in one
bushel Of the best flax seed could get
to the acre. The yield was 1874 BUSH
els Of clean seed fax. My friends said
"you will spoil your land" then ma
nured six acres alongside Of the flax
piece, plowed the whole lot in the fall
and seeded with wheat in the spring.
The crop on this twelve acres soon
looked better than other parts Of the
field, and at threshing gave thirty
bushels Of wheat to the acre. the bal
ance of the field little less than
twenty bushels. Since then the quar-
ter has given three crops Of flax, and
the parts in wheat and oats the past
season gave crops equal to any in the
vicinity that had never raised a crop
Of flax. Since making this change,
with one-third at least of the crop
flax. there has been a crop Of every
kind of grain sown, that has given
some profit, in spite of the low prices.
And those who at first said the land
would become useless are now i'm
proving it and their fortunes in this
way.
I know hut little of the richness un-
derncath the surface here, but to YER
ify a test made. sent a sample of the
s,lhsoil takcn four feet beneath the
surface) to Prof. Snider. U. of NJ. Ex-
cts IL
29.1G per cont: ma"ncSia, 1868 per
cent; iron and alumnia. 2.S7 per cent;
phOsnhoric acid. .6-t per cent The
balance water and sand Is. I. O. E.)
the silica being fine enough to ascend
the plant stem without further chemi-
cal reduction. Knowing the analysis
would with the exception of per cent
of phosphoric acid come near to that
of the commercial fertilizers in use
and selling for 500 to $40 per ton. l
asked the professor to give his opin-
ion as to it's use. He advised it's use
as top-drcssing at the rate of 300
pounds to the acre. One need not
stretch his imagination to see why the
flax roots go down into the Sllbsoil and
bring up lime and potash enough to
give better crop than the preceding,
and will continue to do so while the
supply lasts. And in parts. I have ex-
amlnec, even in Fargo streets. a thou
sand years could not exhaust the sup
ply. In the past two years I have
used some of this mari on different
crops. in small patches. and from re-
suits. intend to use it as Il fertilizer
when it is not near enough to the sur
face to come up by natural processes.
Others l can name have taken part
in the experiments. and to verify the
foregoing I enclose a bar Of mari, the
same as analvZen. for your own and
friends experiment, during the win
ter
DR.. Q. r. Andrews filled two flower
pots with ordinary top black soil.
planted about the same number of
oats in each. Pot. No. 1 was watered
with clean water; No. 2 in water in
which two teaspoon uls of mari was
dissolved land kept for use) The
grain came up and for the first week
looked much the same Then No. 2
commenced to get ahead. and in six
weeks showed over so per cent ad-
vance. This was last winter and can
he reneated in any window. MY own
experiment with wheat was the same.
I used it on garden crop. also, and
shall continue to do 30. While this
material is better in some sections,
and in some sections is overlaid by a
layer of clay with little plant food,
this is the wealth we have to draw on
and compete in the worlds market
Worn-out lands are impossible with
such resource underneath or near by.
John Goss.