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Excerpt from Lectures on Plants, Fertilization, Insects, Forestry, Farm Homes, Etc From the foregoing remarks you have doubtless anticipated the fact that as plants require so little and so largely reduced solutions, that the tendency is to fertilize our land too much, or if not too much as a whole too much at a time, and not often enough. Upon this in my opinion rests the great secret of success in agriculture. Many a man supposes he cannot manure too heavily. But with the investigations I have made upon the rootlets of plants, I find if any fertilizer is too easily soluble or put on in excessive amounts, that while we may get better crops than we should without it, we could do much better by using less. All farmers know that a small amount of salt is beneficial on our Vermont soils, but all equally well know that a slight excess will injure the crop, and much will kill it. Now what is true of salt is just as true of all fertilizers. All farmers know that the water that leaches from a manure heap will kill grass if strong, and if as much was applied to the whole farm he knows it would destroy all crops. Now I have found that a crop may be injured with kindness and yet not destroyed. If the water in contact with the little mouths of the rootlets is too strongly impregnated even with food they are killed, and so much of the capability of nourishment of the plant is cut ofi. Hence if the fertilizer, let it be what it will, is in bunches in the soil, many plants are injured by it while others grow much better, because where the lumps or piles are, rain dissolves too much, and the rootlets there are destroyed, while others may be de prived of what they need. Hence you see how necessary it is to have your fertilizers and soil perfectly mixed. Again some materials may be put upon the soil that are not them selves plant food, yet their action may be very beneficial. They may by their effect release plant food already there, from the soil, or by forming new combinations, liberate the same; or they may simply like charcoal dust hold plant food by absorption, to be given up when the plant demands it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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