“It cannot be for want of nitrogen,” said the Deacon.
“Yes it can,” said I. “The cabbage, especially the early kinds, must have in the soil a much larger quantity of available nitrogen than the plants can use.”
I do not mean by this that a large crop of cabbage could be raised, year after year, if furnished only with a large supply of available nitrogen. In such a case, the soil would soon lack the necessary inorganic ingredients. But, what I mean, is this: Where land has been heavily manured for some years, we could often raise a good crop of cabbage by a liberal dressing of available nitrogen, and still more frequently, if nitrogen and phosphoric acid were both used.
You may use what would be considered an excessive quantity of ordinary stable-manure, and grow a large crop of cabbage; but still, if you plant cabbage the next year, without manure of any kind, you will get a small crop; but dress it with a manure containing the necessary amount of nitrogen, and you will, so far as the supply of plant-food is concerned, be likely to get a good crop.
In such circumstances, I think an application of 800 lbs. of nitrate of soda per acre, costing, say $32, would be likely to afford a very handsome profit.
For lettuce, in addition to well prepared rich land, I should sow 3 lbs. of superphosphate to each square rod, scattered in the rows before drilling in the seed. It will favor the formation of fibrous roots and stimulate the growth of the young plants.
In raising onions from seed, we require an abundance of rich, well-rotted manure, clean land, and early sowing.
Onions are often raised year after year on the same land. That this entails a great waste of manure, is highly probable, but it is not an easy matter to get ordinary farm-land properly prepared for onions. It needs to be clean and free from stones and rubbish of all kinds, and when once it is in good condition, it is thought better to continue it in onions, even though it may entail more or less loss of fertility.
“What do you mean,” asked the Deacon, “by loss of manure?”