Lewiston Teller

HOW TO ANALYZE SOIL.

A soil analysis gives only what the soil contains at the moment of examination, and not the quantity in which constituents may be available to the plant in assimilable form, during the period of growth. If it is desired to know whether a soil is already provided with nitrogenous matter, it is sufficient to sow a handful of wheat upon a small square of ground, which has been manured with mineral substances only. Without the aid of nitrogenous matter the mineral matter has scarcely any effect upon wheat. Therefore if the small square of ground gives a rapid and healthy vegetation and a good crop, it shows that the earth had a sufficient supply of nitrogen, for the mineral manure contained no nitrogen.

On the other hand, to ascertain whether the soil contains a sufficiency of the mineral manure (phosphate of lime and potash), manure plots with nitrogenous substance only, planting one with corn, and another with potatoes. The great influence that phosphate of lime has on corn, sorghum and sugar cane, and potash on potatoes and tobacco, is well known; therefore if the corn flourishes, we may be sure the ground has enough phosphate of lime, and if the potatoes flourish, the land does not lack potash. Thus, two experiments, requiring but a small area of ground, and trying three different crops, are sufficient to obtain the indication necessary to a judicious system of culture.

The variable yield of these crops, compared with that obtained from land manured with the nitrogenous and mineral element combined, will measure the richness of the soil. There is no one subject in agriculture, which demands at the present day more care, continued the widely extended experiments, than the practice of manuring.-Farmer and Mechanic.