Year: 1878

mula for a liquid manure for flowers


The materials may be had at any black
smith shop:


"Put one bushel of the clippings from
horses hoofs into barrel, and fill il
up with water. Let it stand for week,
when it is ready for use. Apply it with
a watering pot. ALI bedding plants can


be watered with this liquid every other
day, if they are pot-bound; newly.re.
potted plants should be watered once O
week until they have plenty of working
roots to take up the manure. 1t will
also be found excellent for hard-wooded
plants if used once or twice a week.
Two or three weeks after the plants
have been watered with the manure, the
foliage generally changes from green to
q golden yellow, moving from the stem
down to the point of the leaf, which,
however, lasts only for few weeks.
when it changes to dark glossy green.
Plants under this watering grow very
strong; the flowers are very large and
bright in color. Plants thus treated can
be kept in very small pots for long
time without being transplanted. This
is especially advantageous to the mar
ket gardener, who can sell his plants in
three or four inch pots, while he would
have to shift them into five and six inch
If he used rich soil alone. Flowers wat
cred with this liquid manure will bring
twenty-five per cent. more than other
wise; besides, being in small pots, they
are lighter, can be packed closer, and
are easier to be handled. The fertilizer
is not stimulant, but plant food, and
plants that are watered with it, if plant
ed out, will continue growing and kept
in good growth, which cannot be said of
guano. 1t is as powerful as guano, as
quick in action, and more lasting.


1t will not do the slightest harm to
the foliage; most other liquid manures
spoil the foliage when they come in con-
tact with it. 1t forms no crust on the
pots or soil. 1t is cheaper than any
other good fertili zer which is used in
liquid form. The chips need be renewed
or replaced only twice year, while the
water can be withdrawn every day. I
filed barrel last October, using all the
water it holds every day, and shall not
find it necessary to renew the chips be-
fore May or June. When liquid guano
it used too strong, it will cause the
plants to drop all their leaves. This
liquid manure will not, even if used
once or twice day for short time"
Gather the Best for Seed.


Two very important but widely differ
ent theories are entertained by the farm.
ers of the United States in regard to the
influence of domestication or cultivation
of plants. One is that the natural result
of cultivation is degeneration, and those
who uphold it point to every failure
of an old variety as proof, never credit
ing poor, worn-out soils, or neglect in
cultivation, as having any influence be-
yond fastening the time when the sort
under consideration would never fail. A
much smaller number of agriculturists,
but probably more intelligent, hold that
universal progression is q natural law,
and that degeneration is but the result
of ignorance and neglect. We believe
that the latter is the more reasonable of
the two theories, as in accordance with
what is known of the origin and present
condition of the various fruits, grain,
and other cultivated plants. Therefore.
we advise the selection of the best of
everything for seed, not only because it
is important that the present standard
should be maintained, but that a still
further advance be made whenever and
wherever possible. The farmer who
desires to produce better wheat next
year than this, will not wait until all the
present crop is harvested and put in a
bin, good and bad together, before
selecting his seed for the next crop; but
he will pick out the best acre or more,
and preserve it separately for the pur-
pose named.


1t lie seldom that field of grain of
any considerable extent is uniformly
good. There will be good spots, and
very poor ones, and it is easy to gather
the best and keep it for seed, while the
poorest goes to the mill. The same
should be done with all kinds of grain,
as well as fruits and vegetables that are
raised from seed. By selection there is
possibility of further progression, and
not otherwise; and a man who once
begins to practice it will not only learn
to observe, but will eventually become
much better and more careful cultiyator.
In fact, he will soon become imbued
with progressive ideas, and learn that it
is Just as easy and more profitable to 20
ahead than to lag behind. d.-New York
Sun.


An English Experimental Farm.


The famous English experimental farm
of Rothamsted, one thousand fertile
acres in Hertfordshire, twenty-five miles
from London on the Midland Railway.
is described by Professor Silliman. who
has recently visited it. John Bennett
Lawes inherited the property in 1884,
fine old English estate, with it's park of
oaks and ancient mansion, and for nearly
half century, in company with DR.. j.
IL. Gilbert and large corps of assist
ants, Mr.. Lawes has devoted himself to
agricultural chemistry on large scale:
he has also set apart fund of G1OO 600
and a section of land for the continuance
of these Investigations after he is gone.
The purpose is to discover what crops
are best for different soils, what fertil-
izers will best assist their growth. and to
experiment on such scale, both as to
area and time. that the fundamental
principles of farming may be made as
plain and sure as those of any other
business. In 1856 Mr.. Lawes was pre-
sented with laboratory by public sub.
scriptlon, and there DIR. Gilbert and a
considerable staff of assistants have been
at work ever since, experimenting ex-
periments, making and applying ma.
nures, and analyzing soils and crops.
Thirteen acres of wheat have been undar |
experiment in plats for thirty-fve years,
and grass; oats, potatoes and other crops
nearly as long. The results of this long
and careful investigation have establish.
ed that barnyard manure can only carry
the production of hay to limit about
half the maximum that can be reached