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INTRODUCTION TO NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION.

Sir John Bennet Lawes kindly consented to write a Chapter for the new
edition of this work. The Deacon, the Doctor, the Squire, Charlie and
myself all felt flattered and somewhat bashful at finding ourselves in
such distinguished company. I need not say that this new Chapter from
the pen of the most eminent English agricultural investigator is worthy
of a very careful study. I have read it again and again, and each time
with great and renewed interest. I could wish there was more of it. But
to the intelligent and well-informed reader this Chapter will be valued
not merely for what it contains, but for what it omits. A man who knew
less would write more. Sir John goes straight to the mark, and we have
here his mature views on one of the most important questions in
agricultural science and practice.

Sir John describes a tract of poor land, and tells us that the cheapest
method of improving and enriching it is, to keep a large breeding flock
of sheep, and feed them American cotton-seed cake. We are pleased to
find that this is in accordance with the general teaching of our
"Talks," as given in this book several years ago.

When this work was first published, some of my friends expressed
surprise that I did not recommend the more extended use of artificial
manures. One thing is certain, since that time the use of superphosphate
has been greatly on the increase. And it seems clear that its use must
be profitable. Where I live, in Western New York, it is sown quite
generally on winter wheat, and also on barley and oats in the spring.
On corn and potatoes, its use is not so common. Whether this is because
its application to these crops is not so easy, or because it does not
produce so marked an increase in the yield per acre, I am unable to say.

Our winter wheat is sown here the first, second, or (rarely) the third
week in September. We sow from one and a half to two and a quarter
bushels per acre. It is almost invariably sown with a drill. The drill
has a fertilizer attachment that distributes the superphosphate at the
same time the wheat is sown. The superphosphate is not mixed with the
wheat, but it drops into the same tubes with the wheat, and is sown with
it in the same drill mark. In this way, the superphosphate is deposited
where the roots of the young plants can immediately find it. For barley
and oats the same method is adopted.