Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events

ber tabulated by Professor W. O. Atwater, by whom, as Director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, the experiments were suggested, are of no inconsiderable in

terest.

Experiments for testing the Needs of Soils.Of these experiments the larger number were performed by farmers as a means of learning what ingredients of plant-food were most needed by their soils and crops. The principle upon which they are based is briefly this: The chief office of fertilizers is to supply the plant-food that our crops need and soils fail to furnish. It is not good economy to pay high prices for materials which the soil may be made to yield in abundance or which may be supplied by the carefully husbanded manures of the farm, but it is good economy to supply the lacking ones in the cheapest way. The most important ingredients of our common commercial fertilizers are phosphoric acid, nitrogen, and potash, because of both their scarcity in the soil and their high cost. It is in furnishing these that guano, phosphates, bone-manures, potash salts, fertilizers for special crops, etc., are chiefly useful. The experiments provided the three ingredients named, each by itself, two by two, and all three together. Nitrogen was supplied in nitrate of soda, phosphoric acid in dissolved bone-black, and potash in the German muriate. Muriate of potash, at the rate of 150 pounds per acre, increased the yield of corn in some cases from scarcely enough to be worth husking to over sixty bushels of shelled corn with a rich growth of stalks, while in other places it was without marked effect, and alone it was not usually profitable. With superphosphate numerous experimenters compute their gain at $20 to $40 per acre, while others find large loss. With each of the other materials and mixtures the same is true to a greater or less degree. On the average the complete chemical fertilizer has brought larger, better, and surer crops than farm manures. The experiments show conclusively that:

1. Soils vary widely in their capacities for supplying crops with food, and consequently in their demand for fertilizers.

2. The right materials, in proper forms and in combinations suited to soil, crop, and surroundings, bring large profits.

3. The way, and the only way, to find what a soil wants is to study it by careful observation and experiments.

An outcome of these experiments has been the developing of a series of more complicated "special experiments," whose object is the study of certain important problems of fertilization and plant-growth.

The Feeding Capacities of Plants: the Nitrogen Supply.-A vast deal of experience in the laboratory and in the field bears concurrent testimony to the fact (though we are still deplorably in the dark as to how or why it is so) that different kinds of plants have different

capacities for making use of the stores of food that soil and air contain. Of the ingredients of plant-food commonly lacking in our soils, the most important, because the most rare and costly, is nitrogen. Leguminous crops, like clover, do somehow or other gather a good supply of nitrogen where cereals, such as wheat, barley, etc., would half starve for lack of it, and this in the face of the fact that leguminous plants contain a great deal of nitrogen and cereals relatively little. Hence a heavy nitrogenous manuring may be profitable for wheat and be in large part lost on clover. To get some more definite information as to the relation of our more common cultivated plants to the nitrogen supply, a "special nitrogen experiment" was devised, in which were compared the effects of mineral fertilizers (superphosphate and potash salt) alone and the same with nitrogen in different amounts and forms. The nitrogen was supplied as nitric acid in nitrate of soda, as ammonia in sulphate of ammonia, as organic nitrogen in dried blood, and the three forms combined.

Experiments with Corn.-The relation of corn to the nitrogen supply has been widely discussed. The main question is whether it is, like wheat, an "exhausting," or like clover, a renovating, crop. Botanically it is closely allied to wheat, and the most eminent authorities have attributed to it a similar relation as regards its demand for nitrogenous manures. Indeed, "corn manures" with large and very costly quantities of nitrogen have been widely recommended and largely used. So eminent an authority as Dr. Lawes, the famous English experimenter, recommends as "the best possible manure for cereals," including maize, “a mixture of nitrate of soda and superphosphate, while Professors Ville, of France, and Stockbridge, of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, whose formulas are widely known and used, have advised the following formulas for

Fortunately, we have a considerable number of experiments bearing upon this point. The results of the trials of 1881 have not yet been published in detail; the general outcome, how- number. ever, is similar to that of those of previous years, which are summarized by Professor Atwater as follows. The "general" experiments are those of the former class (soil-tests), and the "special" of the latter class named above:

Estimating a bushel of corn, with its cobs and stalks, to contain 1 pound of nitrogen, and to be worth 80 cents, the effects of the nitrogenous fertilizers in the special and in the general experiments may be summarized as follows, remembering that the superphosphate and potash salt, "mixed minerals," supplied the amounts of phosphoric acid and potash in a crop of not far from 55 or 60 bushels, which would also contain about the 72 pounds of nitrogen:

"The experiments are numerous and decisive enough to warrant the inference that, as corn is commonly grown, nitrogenous fertilizers in any considerable quantity would be rarely profitable. They imply that corn has somehow or other the power to gather a great deal of nitrogen from soil or air, or both; they imply that in this respect it comes closer to the legumes than the cereals-that, in short, corn may be classed with the renovating crops."

Practical Applications.-Among the general conclusions derived from these experiments are the following:

1. The "Complete Chemical Fertilizer," the mixture of 300 pounds superphosphate, 150 to 200 pounds BUSHELS OF CORN AND POUNDS OF NITROGEN IN CROP, potash salt, and 150 pounds nitrate of soda, costing

PER ACRE.

"In the general experiments the mixture of 300 pounds superphosphate and 200 pounds muriate of potash brought, on the average of fifty-three experiments, about 43 bushels of shelled corn per acre. The special experiments, however, seem to me a fairer test of what the fertilizers may do, because, while

made in all sorts of weather and on worn-out soils, they were nearly all on soils and in latitudes fit for corn, as many of the general experiments were not. In these the mixture of 300 pounds superphosphate and 150 pounds of potash salt, which can be bought for $8.25, brought on the average 45 bushels of shelled corn per acre.

"The experiments of these seasons bear unanimous testimony to two things: The corn was helped but little by nitrogen in the fertilizers; and it gathered a good deal from natural sources. The increase of crop and of nitrogen in the crop will appear more clearly if we look

at it another way."

In number of

WITH NITROGEN.

Amount per

асте.

Contained in crop of

The average increase of corn was

The increase of nitrogen in

the crop

was---

trials.

24 lbs.

$15.38 per acre (including $5 per acre for freight), brought the largest crops, excelling even the farm manures with all the crops on which the number of experiments is large enough for a fair comparison, and bringing surer returns even in cold, wet, and drought. Doubtless a mixture with less potash and more phosphoric acid would have proved still more efficient.

2. The mixture of 300 pounds of superphosphate and 150 pounds of salt, costing $8.25 per acre, brought a trifle less corn and decidedly more potatoes than farm manures.

3. The mixture of nitrate of soda and superphosphate, which corresponds closest of all to the ordinary ammoniated superphosphates, fish-manures, and guano, though costing more than the mixture of superphosphate and potash salt, brought less increase of corn, potatoes, turnips, sweet-potatoes, and indeed of every crop but oats. The number of experiments with oats, however, is too small for any general conclusions. It is very probable that oats and the cereals generally would be more helped by nitrogen, and less by potash, than the other crops. But it is a question whether manufacturers of ammoniated phosphates would not do better to substitute potash salts for the nitrogenous materials in compounding their fertilizers, at least for some crops.

4. The mixture of nitrate of soda and potash salt was the least useful in all the cases where it was tried. 5. As to the efficiency of the materials separately, the nitrate of soda was rarely profitable, the sulphate of lime frequently, the muriate of potash very often, and the superphosphate generally so. Doubtless, considerable of the effect of the superphosphate was due, in many cases, to the sulphuric acid and lime. 6. As to the effect of ashes, the results are variable, though generally they were efficacious.

7. Not only did the "Complete Chemical Fertilizer" bring a larger average increase than farm maphosphate and potash salt nearly as large average nures as actually used, and the mixture of superincrease, but the quality of the crop was generally better with the chemicals than with the farm manures. Potatoes, especially, were finer in quality and less disposed to rot with the artificial fertilizers than with the farm manures.

8. The most profitable material in a given case is that which is best fitted to its needs. The chief factors of the problem are: 1. Soil; 2. Season; 3. Feeding-capacity of the crop, its power to gather its food from soil and air; 4. Form of combination of the Or, estimating the result in dollars and ingredients of the fertilizers; 5. The indirect action of

cents

the fertilizer.

Soils vary in respect to the plant-food they supply

in available forms. Phosphoric acid is most often insufficient; next come potash and nitrogen; then, lime and sulphuric acid, and rarely magnesia.

having become a partner in the house soon after reaching his majority. Meantime he had acquired an enviable social position, and at the age of eighteen had been invited to deliver the anniversary poem before the Mercantile Library Association of Boston-Edward Everett be"Commerce" was the sub

But the infertility of soils is due to physical causes perhaps nearly as often as to chemical. Soils often do not have the proper texture, they are too compact or too loose, or they lack absorptive power, they can not retain the plant-food until plants use it, but suffer it to be leached away by drainage-water; or the moist-ing the orator. ure-supply is bad-they are too wet or too dry. These defects are as bad as lack of plant-food. Many soils nced first amendment and then manure. Drainage, irrigation, tillage, use of lime or muck, are often the cheapest if not the only means for bringing up poor soils. Season counts for much, often for everything,

in the action of manure.

ject of the poem. In 1847 he visited Europe, passed several months in England, Scotland, and Germany, and formed intimacies with some of the most distinguished literary people of the day; among whom were Talfourd, Dickens, Moore, Landor, and Wordsworth, at whose 9. As to the feeding capacities of the crops, the ex- home he became a guest. With Dickens he periments imply that the corn was somehow able to formed a very close friendship, and it was gather nitrogen from natural sources, provided it had through his influence that the famous novelist enough of the mineral ingredients at its disposal. They do not tell how much of the nitrogen came from made his second visit to this country in 1867, the roots of the preceding crops, how much from at which time Dickens was the guest of Mr. other nitrogen compounds in the soil, and how much Fields. While returning to America after his from the air. They imply that potatoes possess in far first tour, Mr. Fields narrowly escaped shipless degree than corn the power of gathering sufficient supply of either nitrogen or the other ingredients of wreck on the coast of Newfoundland, the ship its food from soil and air. They imply that turnips having struck the coast in a fog, sprung a leak, are generally unable to provide themselves with phos- and was with difficulty kept afloat and taken phoric acid from the soil, and are greatly helped by it into port. In 1848 Mr. Fields was again the in fertilizers, and that without its application they usually get but little good from other materials; that poet at the anniversary celebration of the Merwith it alone they can generally gather but a partial cantile Library Association, and on this occasupply of the other materials of their food; and that sion Daniel Webster was the orator. The subfor a full yield considerable quantities of all the soi! ject chosen by Mr. Fields was "The Post of ingredients of plant-food are needed close at hand Honor." Before the same association he deand in available forms. livered a lecture upon "Preparations for Travel," which was full of sensible advice, well seasoned with humor. Often called upon to deliver poems and lectures, Mr. Fields appeared as a poet or lecturer before the societies of Harvard University, and Dartmouth and other colleges. A volume of his poetical compositions was published in Boston in 1843, and in 1858 he privately printed a beautiful volume, entitled "A Few Verses for a Few Friends," of which the "North American Review" made the following comment:

10. Leaving differences of soils out of account, and considering the average results of the experiments, the best fertilizer to produce large crops of corn among the materials used would probably be a mixture of some nitrogenous material with superphosphate or bone, or both, and muriate of potash. The most profitable mixture would probably consist of muriate of potash with either superphosphate or fine ground bone, or both.

11. For potatoes, which responded well to all the materials, probably a mixture containing nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash. For either corn or potatoes, nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, dried blood, or better, a mixture of these, could be advantageously used to supply the nitrogen, and superphosphate or bone-dust, or a mixture of the two, for phosphoric acid. 12. The common impression among farmers that the best use of artificial fertilizers is to supplement farm manure is doubtless, in ordinary circumstances, correct. The right way is to make the most and best manure that is practicable upon the farm, and piece out with such commercial fertilizers as experiments and experience prove profitable.

FIELDS, JAMES THOMAS, born December 31, 1817, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; died April 26, 1881, in Boston. At the age of four years he lost his father, who was a ship-master. His education was acquired in his native town, and when only thirteen years of age be graduated at the high-school, having taken several prizes for Greek and Latin compositions. Before graduating he had attracted the attention of the late Chief-Justice Woodbury, who advised him to continue his studies and enter Harvard University; but this advice, for good reasons, was not followed, and in 1834 the lad went to Boston, where he obtained employment in the bookstore of Messrs. Carter & Hendee, this firm being succeeded by that of Allen & Ticknor, which in turn was succeeded by that of Ticknor & Fields in 1846, Mr. Fields

em.

This book itself, apart from its contents, is a pothe variable details of mechanical execution-it vindiIn paper, type, edging, and ornament-in all cates its title to be termed a work of high art. The poems it contains are gems well worthy the settinglambent fancy in natural measures and easy rhythmpure thought, genial feeling, tender remembrance, and such poems as always win a higher fame than they seek, and are best appreciated by those whose verdict is of the most significant import.

A second visit was made to Europe in 1851, and Mr. Fields was in Paris in December of 1851, when the coup d'état of Louis Napoleon took place. He witnessed the encounter between the troops and the populace upon the boulevards, and at the same time a house near him was shattered by a cannon-ball. During this trip he spent a winter in Italy-chiefly in Rome and while in England passed three months in London, where he was the honored guest in cultivated circles, and invited to membership in the leading clubs. Literary people paid him great attention, and rendered his visit profitable as well as pleasant. A visit to Edinburgh gave him the opportunity for enjoying an intimate acquaintance with Professor Wil

son and Thomas De Quincey. The latter welcomed him to his house, and accompanied him on several excursions in Scotland. One day they walked fourteen miles together on a visit to Roslin Castle, De Quincey beguiling the time, and cheating the miles of their weariness, with anecdotes of earlier days, when Coleridge, Southey, and Charles Lamb were his companions among the Westmoreland hills. In 1858 Mr. Fields collected, edited, and published the first complete edition of De Quincey's works, in twenty volumes. While contributing the productions of his busy brain to the literature of his time, and enjoying the pleasures of travel, Mr. Fields was energetically assisting in the business to which he had devoted himself in boyhood, and the firm of which he was a member held a leading position in the book-trade of America. From the time Mr. Fields entered it until his retirement from business on January 1, 1871, the firm, under its several changes of name, advanced steadily with the times, and for years the books bearing its imprint have been noted for their sterling character and for the beauty of their mechanical execution. Today two of the most prominent publishing firms in the world represent the firm of Fields, Osgood & Co., which was dissolved on the retirement of Mr. Fields-Houghton, Mifflin & Co. being the direct successors, while the firm of James R. Osgood & Co. is an offshoot. During the later portion of his career, Mr. Fields edited the "Atlantic Monthly," which was established in November, 1857, by Messrs. Phillips & Sampson, with Professor James Russell Lowell as editor. In January, 1860, this magazine passed into the hands of Ticknor & Fields, and largely owes its success in the world of periodical literature to the labors of the distinguished poet and publisher.

After withdrawing from active business, Mr. Fields occupied his leisure with such literary pursuits as were most congenial to him. In 1858 he received the honorary degree of A. M. from Harvard University, and in 1867 that of LL. D. from Dartmouth College, and to the last his private iife comported well with his public honors. Those saw him best who met him in his own home, environed by the books, the pictures, and the personal mementos dear to his heart. His large, strengthful frame, genial face, and massive head, covered with dark hair tinged with gray, appeared to their highest advantage in the spacious library where most of his time was spent, and from whose windows a fine view of the Charles River was presented. Here the grave discourse of the scholar was brightened by the sparkling wit and varied narrative of the traveled man of the world; nor did the silent presence of the ten thousand or more volumes that composed his library check the generous outflow of sympathy which is inseparable from opulent natures. In a small study adjoining his library Mr. Fields did most of his writing. Two tiers of book-shelves, forming an alcove by his desk,

held the books which he most frequently consulted; the walls were adorned with portraits and the choicest of his literary memorials and autographs-autograph copies of Tennyson's "Bugle-Song," and Mrs. Hemans's "The Breaking Waves dashed high," among them. Admittance to this room, and the sight of its treasures, were things to be remembered. In the fourth story of this house is a room known as "the Author's Chamber," which has been occupied by Hawthorne and Whittier, by Dickens, MacDonald, Thackeray, Kingsley, and many other distinguished men of letters. Adjoining it is a study well filled with books, and with furniture that is old and quaint. Mr. Fields's summerhouse was on Thunderbolt Hill, at Manchesterby-the-sea, with charming outlooks, land and seaward. Mrs. Fields, the author of "Under the Olives," had christened it Gambrel Cottage, and Mr. William Black, in his novel, "Green Pastures and Piccadilly," describes the view from its verandas. Mr. Fields contributed to the leading periodicals of the day, and his writings are distinguished for a clear and finished style and for their accuracy. His "Yesterdays with Authors" is a volume made up of a series of sketches first published in the "Atlantic Monthly," under the title of "The Whispering Gallery," and afterward considerably enlarged. It contains papers of anecdote, reminiscences, and criticisms relating to Thackeray, Hawthorne, Dickens, Wordsworth, Miss Milford, and " Barry Cornwall and some of his Friends." Several of these were afterward published as separate volumes in the "Vest-Pocket Series." Underbrush is a small volume in the "Little Classic" form, containing a number of essays on literary and social topics, among them one entitled " My Friend's Library," in which is given a pleasant account of some of his own literary treasures.

"The Family Library of British Poetry " is a stout volume of a thousand pages, containing selections from the best British poets from Chaucer to Tennyson, and edited by Mr. Fields and Mr. Whipple conjointly. Under such editorship the book could not fail to be a most valuable one. A companion volume, devoted to British prose, was projected by Mr. Fields. "Ballads and other Verses " is made up in part of poems that had been previously privately published, and in part of fresh material; these poems vary from grave to gay, and were accorded a very warm welcome. Some of Mr. Fields's most valuable literary labor was expended on lectures delivered before large and appreciative audiences in various parts of the country. Of these, the lectures upon "Charles Lamb and his Friends"; "Sydney Smith and his Work in Life"; "Christopher North, with Personal Recollections"; "Alfred Tennyson, the Man and the Poet"; "Fiction and its Eminent Authors"; "Literary and Artistic Society in London"; "Wordsworth, De Quincey, Keats, and Shelley"; "Longfellow, Campbell, and Hood"; "Cowper"; "Hawthorne";

"Rufus Choate"; "A Plea for Cheerfulness," etc., were enriched with reminiscence, and enlivened by humor that rendered them every where popular. Mr. Fields never abandoned his pen-work, and the latest issue of "The Congregationalist," dated April 26, 1881, has an article, "Letters from an Old TreasureBox," in which he writes of Bayard Taylor, and gives some interesting letters which he received from him in 1846-'54.

So active and useful a man must be a serious and much-lamented loss to any community. During a period covering half a century, Mr. Fields was identified with the interests of Boston, and filled a large sphere in its local life; his share in the development of its literary interests will fix his name high in the chronicles of its literary history. Nor will he be soon forgotten among the champions of philanthropy and religion, with whom he wrought as zealously as was possible, considering the various demands in other directions upon his time and energies.

Compared with the previous fiscal year, the receipts have increased as follows: In customs revenue, $11,637,611.42; in internal revenue, $11,255,011.59; in tax on circulation and deposits of national banks, $1,101,144.28; in miscellaneous, $5,359,133.81; making a total increase of revenue over previous year of $29,352,901.10. The expenditures show a net decrease over previous year of $6,930,070.19, the principal item of decrease being that of interest on the public debt, $13,248,833.93.

Of the amount of surplus revenues for the year, $14,637,023.93 remained in the Treasury at the close of the year. The remainder, $85,432,381.05, was applied to the purchase or redemption of obligations of the United States, all of which were interest-bearing, except the comparatively small amount of $109,001.08 of fractional notes.

This excess of revenue promises to continue. For the quarter ending September 30, 1881, the receipts have amounted to $108,181,043.09, against $97,889,239.92 for the same period in 1880; and the expenditures to $75,051,739.39, against $77,018,531.78 for same period in 1880. The accounts have not been closed to a later date, but the indications strongly point to an annual surplus largely in excess of that of last year, unprecedented as that was in amount.

The condition of the Treasury, however, is shown by statements published at the close of each month. As compared with January 1, 1881, the condition of the public Treasury, at the beginning of the present calendar year, may be stated as follows:

FINANCES OF THE UNITED STATES. Notwithstanding the moderate harvests in some portions of the country, there has been no apparent check during the year 1881 to the abundant prosperity which for several years the nation has enjoyed. In that portion of the great Northwest which geographers, a few years since, were pleased to distinguish as the Great American Desert, and which still later has been officially pronounced as an arid waste, immense sections of land, of surprising fertility, have been opened to settlers, and already the surplus grain of the country is mostly produced west of the Missouri River, thus adding to the growing wealth of the country the resources, as it were, of a new continent. To these newly developed regions have gone the surplus capital and labor of the East, for both of which remunerative employment has been found. The individual prosperity which has so generally Standard silver dollars. prevailed, has been reflected in the financial experience of the Government. Without additional imposition of taxes the revenues of the country have been largely increased over those of last year, while by judicious and economical management the expenses have been somewhat reduced in the same period.

The receipts of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1881, have been as follows: