Yorkville Enquirer

SHADE AS A FERTILIZER.—That shade is a fertilizer is a fact which has long been noticed, and much has been written to explain it. A few words will be sufficient for that purpose. Shade operates simply by preserving the ammonia which is in the soil and which is continually furnished by rain and snow water, and also by manures, and which is rapidly driven off from a naked surface of the soil by a scorching sun. To preserve the ammonia, the skillful farmer plows his manure shortly after it is spread upon the soil; and spreads his manures upon his meadows late in the fall, or in the winter or early spring, so that the ammonia may be washed out of it into the soil and prevent its evaporation by the sun. Ammonia is either food or a condiment for most plants, which is necessary to their rapid growth. It has been ascertained by repeated experiments in England that the largest crops of wheat can be raised by imparting to the soil an extra quantity of ammonia, either by directly spreading of salts of ammonia or by guano. Hence the greatest fertility of the soil will be more surely preserved by an alternation of crops rather than naked fallow, from which a scorching sun drives off the ammonia rapidly. We should ever bear in mind the eloquent words of an English writer that "mighty Nature renews her strength, not by indolent repose, but in alterations in energy."—H. J. C. in Tribune and Farmer.