Talks on Manures Part 42

Whether it will pay us to use artificial manures on oats depends on the price we are likely to get for the oats. When the price of oats _per lb._ and oat-straw is as high as barley and barley-straw _per lb._, then it will pay a _little better_ to use manure on oats than on barley. As a rule in this country, however, good barley is worth more per lb. than good oats; and it will usually pay better to use artificial manures on barley than on oats.

Some years ago Mr. Bath, of Virginia, made some experiments on oats with the following results: Bushels of oats per acre.

No. 1--200 lbs. Superphosphate 22 No. 2--200 lbs. Peruvian guano 48 No. 3--100 lbs. Peruvian guano 32

The oats were sown March 13, and the crop harvested July 4.

In 1860, I made some experiments with gypsum, superphosphate, and sulphate of ammonia as a top-dressing on oats.

The land was a clover-sod, plowed about the middle of May, and the oats sown May 20. On the 26th of May, just as the oats were coming up, the manures were sown broadcast. The oats were sown too late to obtain the best results. On another field, where the oats were sown two weeks earlier, the crop was decidedly better. The oats were cut August 28.

The following is the result:

Experiments on Oats at Moreton Farm, Rochester, N.Y.

------+----------------------------------+--------+-------+-------- Bushels Weight/ Straw Plots. Manures per Acre. of Oats/ Bushel per acre acre. in lbs. in lbs.

------+----------------------------------+--------+-------+-------- No. 1 No manure 36 22 1,958 2 600 lbs. Gypsum (Sulphate of Lime) 47 26 2,475 3 300 lbs. Superphosphate of Lime 50 21 2,475 4 300 lbs. Sulphate of Ammonia 50 22 2,730 5 300 lbs. Superphosphate of Lime, and 300 lbs. Sulphate of Ammonia 51 22 2,575 ------+----------------------------------+--------+-------+--------

These experiments were made when my land was not as clean as it is now.

I presume the weeds got more benefit from the ammonia than the oats. To top-dress foul land with expensive artificial manures is money thrown away. If the land had been plowed in the autumn, and the seed and manures could have been put in early in the spring, I presume we should have had more favorable results.

"Are you not ashamed to acknowledge," said the Deacon, "that you have ever raised oats weighing only 22 lbs. per bushel."

No. I have raised even worse crops than this--and so has the Deacon. But I made up my mind that such farming did not pay, and I have been trying hard since then to clean my land and get it into better condition. And until this is done, it is useless to talk much of artificial manures.

The most striking result is the effect of the gypsum. It not only gave an increased yield of 11 bushels per acre, but the oats were of decidedly better quality, and there was nearly half a ton more straw per acre than on the plot alongside, where no manure was used.

The superphosphate was a good article, similar to that used in Mr.

Lawes' experiments.

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

MANURES FOR POTATOES.

Some time ago, a farmer in Pennsylvania wrote me that he wanted "to raise a first-rate crop of potatoes." I answered him as follows through the _American Agriculturist_:

"There are many ways of doing this. But as you only enter on the farm this spring, you will work to disadvantage. To obtain the best results, it is necessary to prepare for the crop two or three years beforehand.

All that you can do this year is to select the best land on the farm, put on 400 lbs. of Peruvian guano, cultivate thoroughly, and suffer not a weed to grow. A two or three-year-old clover-sod, on warm, rich, sandy loam, gives a good chance for potatoes. Do not plow until you are ready to plant. Sow the guano broadcast after plowing, and harrow it in, or apply a tablespoonful in each hill, and mix it with the soil. Mark out the rows, both ways, three feet apart, and drop a fair-sized potato in each hill. Start the cultivator as soon as the rows can be distinguished, and repeat every week or ten days until there is danger of disturbing the roots. We usually hill up a little, making a broad, flat hill. A tablespoonful of plaster, dusted on the young plants soon after they come up, will usually do good. We recommend guano, because in our experience it does not increase the rot. But it is only fair to add, that we have not found even barn-yard manure, if thoroughly rotted and well mixed with the soil the fall previous, half so injurious as some people would have us suppose. If any one will put 25 loads per acre on our potato land, we will agree to plant and run the risk of the rot. But we would use some guano as well. The truth is, that it is useless to expect a large crop of potatoes, say 350 bushels per acre, without plenty of manure."

This was written before the potato-beetle made its appearance. But I think I should say the same thing now--only put it a little stronger.

The truth is, it will not pay to "fight the bugs" on a poor crop of potatoes. We must select the best land we have and make it as rich as possible.

"But why do you recommend Peruvian guano," asked the Doctor, "rather than superphosphate or ashes? Potatoes contain a large amount of potash, and one would expect considerable benefit from an application of ashes."

"Ashes, plaster, and hen-dung," said the Judge, "will at any rate pay well on potatoes. I have tried this mixture again and again, and always with good effect."

"I believe in the hen-dung," said I, "and possibly in the plaster, but on my land, ashes do not seem to be specially beneficial on potatoes, while I have rarely used Peruvian guano without good effect; and sometimes it has proved wonderfully profitable, owing to the high price of potatoes."

Sometime ago, I had a visit from one of the most enterprising and successful farmers in Western New York.

"What I want to learn," he said, "is how to make manure enough to keep my land in good condition. I sell nothing but beans, potatoes, wheat, and apples. I feed out all my corn, oats, stalks, straw, and hay on the farm, and draw into the barn-yard the potato-vines and everything else that will rot into manure. I make a big pile of it. But the point with me is to find out what is the best stock to feed this straw, stalks, hay, oats, and corn to, so as to make the best manure and return the largest profit. Last year I bought a lot of steers to feed in winter, and lost money. This fall I bought 68 head of cows to winter, intending to sell them in the spring."

"What did they cost you?"

"I went into Wyoming and Cattaraugus Counties, and picked them up among the dairy farmers, and selected a very fair lot of cows at an average of $22 per head. I expect to sell them as new milch cows in the spring.

Such cows last spring would have been worth $60 to $70 each."

"That will pay. But it is not often the grain-grower gets such a chance to feed out his straw, stalks, and other fodder to advantage. It cannot be adopted as a permanent system. It is bad for the dairyman, and no real help to the grain-grower. The manure is not rich enough. Straw and stalks alone can not be fed to advantage. And when you winter cows to sell again in the spring, it will not pay to feed grain. If you were going to keep the cows it would pay well. The fat and flesh you put on in the winter would be returned in the form of b.u.t.ter and cheese next summer."

"Why is not the manure good? I am careful to save everything, and expect seven or eight hundred loads of manure in the spring."

"You had 60 acres of wheat that yielded 25 bushels per acre, and have probably about 50 tons of wheat straw. You had also 30 acres oats, that yielded 50 bushels per acre, say 35 tons of straw. Your 20 acres of corn produced 40 bushels of sh.e.l.led corn per acre; say the stalks weigh 30 tons. And you have 60 tons of hay, half clover and half timothy. Let us see what your manure from this amount of grain and fodder is worth.

Manures from 50 tons wheat-straw, @ $2.68 $ 134.00 35 tons oat-straw, @ $2.90 101.50 30 tons corn-stalks, @ $3.58 107.40 30 tons timothy-hay, @ $6.43 192.90 30 tons clover-hay, @ $9.64 289.20 14 tons oats (1,500 bush.), @ $7.70 107.80 24 tons corn (800 bushels), @ $6.65 159.60 --------- Total 213 tons $1,092.40

"This is the value of the manure _on the land_. a.s.suming that there are 600 loads, and that the labor of cleaning out the stables, piling, carting, and spreading the manure is worth 30 cents per load, or $180, we have $912.40 as the net value of the manure.

"Now, your 250-acre farm _might_ be so managed that this amount of manure annually applied would soon greatly increase its fertility. But you do not think you can afford to summer-fallow, and you want to raise thirty or forty acres of potatoes every year."

"I propose to do so," he replied. "Situated as I am, close to a good s.h.i.+pping station, no crop pays me better. My potatoes this year have averaged me over $100 per acre."

"Very good. But it is perfectly clear to my mind that sooner or later, you must either farm slower or feed higher. And in your case, situated close to a village where you can get plenty of help, and with a good s.h.i.+pping station near by, you had better adopt the latter plan. You must feed higher, and make richer manure. You now feed out 213 tons of stuff, and make 600 loads of manure, worth $912.40. By feeding out _one third_, or 71 tons more, you can _more than double_ the value of the manure.

50 tons of bran or mill-feed would give manure worth $ 729.50 21 tons decorticated cotton-seed cake 585.06 --------- $1,314.56

"Buy and feed out this amount of bran and cake, and you would have 800 loads of manure, worth _on the land_ $2,226.96, or, estimating as before that it cost 30 cents a load to handle it, its net value would be $1,986.96."

I am well aware that comparatively few farmers in this section can afford to adopt this plan of enriching their land. We want better stock.

I do not know where I could buy a lot of steers that it would pay to fatten in the winter. Those farmers who raise good grade Shorthorn or Devon cattle are not the men to sell them half-fat at low rates. They can fatten them as well as I can. For some time to come, the farmer who proposes to feed liberally, will have to raise his own stock. He can rarely buy well-bred animals to fatten. A good farmer must be a good farmer throughout. He can not be good in spots. His land must be drained, well-worked, and free from weeds. If he crops heavily he must manure heavily, and to do this he must feed liberally--and he can not afford to feed liberally unless he has good stock.

"I have, myself, no doubt but you are right on this point," said the Doctor, "but all this _takes time_. Suppose a farmer becomes satisfied that the manure he makes is not rich enough. To tell him, when he is anxious to raise a good crop of potatoes next year, that he must go to work and improve his stock of cattle, sheep, and swine, and then buy bran and oil-cake to make richer manure, is somewhat tantalizing."

This is true, and in such a case, instead of adding nitrogen and phosphoric acid to his manure in the shape of bran, oil-cake, etc., he can buy nitrogen and phosphoric acid in guano or in nitrate of soda and superphosphate. This gives him richer manure; which is precisely what he wants for his potatoes. His poor manure is not so much deficient in potash as in nitrogen and phosphoric acid, and consequently it is nitrogen and phosphoric acid that he will probably need to make his soil capable of producing a large crop of potatoes.

I have seen Peruvian guano extensively used on potatoes, and almost always with good effect. My first experience with it in this country, was in 1852. Four acres of potatoes were planted on a two-year-old clover-sod, plowed in the spring. On two acres, Peruvian guano was sown broadcast at the rate of 300 lbs. per acre and harrowed in. The potatoes were planted May 10. On the other two acres no manure of any kind was used, though treated exactly alike in every other respect. The result was as follows:

No manure 119 bushels per acre.

300 lbs. Peruvian guano 205 " "

The guano cost, here, about 3 cents a lb., and consequently nine dollars' worth of guano gave 84 bushels of potatoes. The potatoes were all sound and good, but where the guano was used, they were larger, with scarcely a small one amongst them.

In 1857, I made the following experiments on potatoes, in the same field on which the preceding experiment was made in 1852.