46¾ bushels @ $1.25 $58.43 2,715 lbs. straw @ $4. per ton 5.43 ------ $63.86 Putting in the crop and harvesting $11.00 Threshing 46¾ bushels @ 6 c 2.80 275 lbs. nitrate of soda @ 4 c 11.00 392 lbs. superphosphate @ 2 c 7.84 ------ $32.64 ------ Rent and profit $31.22 In ordinary farm practice, I feel sure we can do better than this. Growing barley year after year on the same land, is not the most economical way of getting the full value of the manure. There is much nitrogen and phosphoric acid left in the land, which barley or even wheat does not seem capable of taking up, but which would probably be of great benefit to the clover. MANURE AND ROTATION OF CROPS. The old notion that there is any real chemical necessity for a rotation of crops is unfounded. Wheat can be grown after wheat, and barley after barley, and corn after corn, provided we use the necessary manures and get the soil clean and in the right mechanical condition. “What, then, do we gain by a rotation?” asked the Deacon. Much every way. A good rotation enables us to clean the land. We can put in different crops at different seasons. “So we could,” broke in the Deacon, “if we sowed wheat after wheat, barley after barley, and corn after corn.” True, but if we sowed winter-wheat after winter-wheat, there would not be time enough to clean the land. “Just as much as when we sow wheat after oats, or peas, or barley.” “True again, Deacon,” I replied, “but we are supposed to have cleaned the land while it was in corn the previous year. I say supposed, because in point of fact, many of our farmers do not half clean their land while it is in corn. It is the weak spot in our agriculture. If our land was as clean as it should be to start with, there is no rotation so convenient in this section, as corn the first year, barley, peas, or oats the second year, followed by winter-wheat seeded down. But to carry out this rotation to the best advantage we need artificial manures.” “But will they pay?” asks the Deacon. “They will pay well, provided we can get them at a fair price and get fair prices for our produce. If we could get a good superphosphate made from Charleston phosphates for 1½ cent per lb., and nitrate of soda for 3½ or 4 cents per lb., and the German potash-salts for ¾ cent per lb., and could get on the average $1.25 per bushel for barley, and $1.75 for good white wheat, we could use these manures to great advantage.” “Nothing like barn-yard manure,” says the Deacon.