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.

In this case, as before, the land was a two-year-old clover-sod. It was
plowed about the first of M