The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1881-04-12 00:00:00

BLANDFORD FAILVER.S CLUB.

THS VSI OF PHOSPHATSK

A meeting of the nutillbers of the Illandhord Farmers'
Club was held at the Crown Hotel, Illandord,ol2 Satur-
day last, when Mr. G. 8. Fowler, the president of the
..htb, occupied the) chair, and among the metnbers
present were—Messrs. IL Fookes, IL Itarratt, IL Rogers,
IL Lewis, C. 11. Fowlt.r, thdpin, .1. Taylor, C. Cox,
Bartlett, 8. Aubrey, C. Croves, C. Midtown, E. J.
Burnett, J. W. Itrake, 11. Senior, 11. 11. Thurston, .1.
Keynes, and li. C. IVatts. A very interesting paper on
Phosphate... Soluble and I wool übloas affecting Agrkull-
tun." was mill by Mr. W. C. Spooner, of Eling,
Soutluuniden.

Mr. lipooNint emrunentrd by observing that the
diffusion of phoaphate of lime throughout tlio world was
a matter of etansialt•rahlt• inaporta nee, both to the animal
and vegaitabli• kingdoms, it being tie, chief medium from
which they. derive their tiru,iieuo. anal .tability. Ile then
ritorred to i•xperiments nssailly made in Scotland at
Aberdeen, anal isanniunientisl l.y Mr..lionieson, n hich,
said, hall alt, guitar upset Ile. hitherto reeoguised belit•l
that the inaoluble pleaphates f lin coprolitos aud
other niini•nela were valueless. It had been proved by
these experiments that mineral plonaphates finely divided
wenitt etatisiddrabli• %slaw in the rilltilipition id turnips.
Mr. Spooner. however, was disposed to think that with
referent, to this quest it was • than likely a
mistake might Isi made lay fanners going to the other
extnoile. and attaching too mueli importance to tlw use
of undissolved rat phospludes, they might lose eight
of the fart that probably a large proportion of the
result,' is duo to the seaisas, lb• noted it as a curious
fail that the earliest experiments reeonled of the employ-
ment of auperpliosphate of limo wen, made in Scotland in
1813, by the Moray Fanners' t lub. Rude() 111111 l titivated to
the IL A.s. by the Into Duke of Itielunituiland it was thi•n
shown that in one instants, 2 bushel"( bones dissolved in
acid had proved themselves equal tos times the quantity
of undissolv.l bones. tio that really Scotland had now
entirely contradiettsl a theory that sonic 38 years ago it
had promulgated. Ile, however, was of opinion that
these contradictory results Were explainable by the
different ciniunstances attending m'at'h experiment. In
1811 ho himself made oxperimenta, whieh showod two
bushels of lames dissolved to be equal to 16 bushels in
a dry state. Professor Liebig, on that other hand, viewed
solubility as an evil. The re-milts of furtlarr peri men t s
weut to show that bones alone wave inadequate for the
manufacture of material, and then hone ash and minend
phosolnati, from various c tries were eon., in to
t.naply its' w ma. agrii•ulturists. i•ffect of
oviT-val g the diasolved and under-t•stimating the
undissolved plaisphates, were to lrillUCeillaillUfa•Ctllrrra tat
employ an exceas of acid to satisfy the chemist rather
than the farmer, anal, as a consequence, there was an
excess of arid in the manure, which was valutilt•ss.
Twinity-tive years ago at a meeting of that very club
hi, I self called attention to this fact, and he asked the
club whether the experience of a, quarter of a century
hail not showu that he was right. In a prize essay on
lbsit Crops, which be wrote for the Bath and West of
England Society in 18753, he spoke strongly in favour of
uso of cantatas guanos ilefieient in ammonia, but
rich in the phosphates, as au addition tit superphosphate*
for roots. Referring to the wretched crops of turnip'
then, were in the years 18514-6-7-8, Mr. Spooner said
he than stat,•,l in an esaialy his belief that the failure was
to be ascribed ti, natural mile:ea—the dry seasons, and
tlie neglect on ninny soils of chalking and liming. This
view, however. ilbl not meet with the approval of the
Bath and West id England Satiety. who land offered a
Kira. for at pal wr Salami. the subject ; but he coulenaled
all experience shire had show' that he was right. The
:average rainfall of the four months, which rule the
growth of roots—June to September—was 86 inches;
' but during the four years, 18.il to 1858, it was only 5.83
~r 2.78 under the average, which meant that 278
toso4 tolls of water fell upon each acre of laud than usual.
Now. all sere from at good rrop tal swath's would weigh,
with the tops. game 23 tolls, which would consist id 2.
tons 4al dry inatti•r and UpWarda of 22 tons of water. I
therefore, there was a deficiency uuf tttttttttttt hi tie.
extent of 278 tons, air 2 780 gallons, could they then,-
font be surprised at the failure of the rout erops. In thi•
year 1860 tinido experiments, which he detailed as
followa in certain fr:WtiOlltt Id an sere one cwt. Ot
Miller Was lase.i in colipitadiOn in olle Mae with 4 cwt.
tlnely-grounil coprolite, and in another with 3 cwt. of
Slnuibrol, phiasphate—the material from which phosphor-
ous is made- and in a third ease 3 ,'wt. of super was
employ eiL The result in all three IWKOS was a rrop of
nearly 20 tons per :wre, varying only a few ewts. rom
that lime to this. said Mr. Slimmer. 1.1 lance never
divest.' my self of the impression that undissolv.l
nil phosphate is capable of being alolorbed by
plants, particularly if a start is given." 'rho lecturer
then procci,led to a rgui• t lint really, after all, oxperimeuts
will t a due reg•aril to the surroundiug circumaitances
eiml,ll not Is• i•onsidered eonclusive, and 11,, quote,' a
moldier if instauts•s where, when made under similar
eirt• tallaOs as bar as the use of artificial uuiagans Wett,
do. results had been totally differi•nt. thinly, lei said
in conelusi tttt this fact ought to have boon aufficient to
have prevent.' the chemind fiat going forth—that
twills:waled phosphate WU no better than 140 much mind,
or that imitable phospluate Wala of four times the value of
the' so-called insoluble. Like in a groat many other
circunistanees. lie t bought, in considering t he n•lat ive value
lal these manures, psaple bad jumped to conclusious that
were extreme, and that than real truth would be found to
beitte..ll two.

Mr. iilekllAN thought Mr. Spooner's paper might be
nini,iui,l up in the a(l% ire, that it was nettle r wise to
use all soluble or all insoluble phespluttos, but the hest
.smn..e was to use a mixture ur th. two. Ho was,
howm.er, decidedly of opinion that the soil itself was a
vital element in the matter, at ifelhury and Oompton
Abbas for instanee they grew remarkable crops of
earrets awl parsuips without the use of much phosphate,
and therefore it seemed to hint that really what the
English farmer required to learn was the constituents of
his soil; having done that, he would be in a bettor
position to apply judiciously artifkial manure.
Mr. UALPIN quite agreed with Mr. Spoonar's observa-
tions relative to the care with which they should receive
deductions drawn from experiments. In his opinion
the basis of all experiments ought to be exhawat soils.
At one time the fanner was told by chemists awl
professbanal men that he could not attach too much value
to soluble phosphates, awl at another time he might be
totally independent of them. so that really it Was hard
for him to tell what to do. For his own part, he belluved
is mixture of superphosphate, wyt 4orno material
providing a good supply cf nitrogott, was in reality the
best mann!, ti,,y could have for a turnip crop. For
that he advoCated an inaoluble phosphate derived from
bone, but, at the 1.1111110 time, he believed they could not
do better than to go on in the way which had proved
best hitherto. and not to attempt to alter tried customs
upon the strength of the success or nor success of an
experiment.
Mr. RICILARDe WU also of opinion that thin bettor
I.lan was to use both soluble 1111.1 insoluble phcspitatoas.
11., agreed with Mr. Rickman that the first Wing fur
fanners to do was to stmly the 'requirements of theilr
a it. 'More, he thought, was to be learnt from praothm
thin chemist teaelaings. From his owu xperience, on
his farm in Hampshire, be considered mineral phosphates
were quite equal to bone, awl he bad stuck to them,
then being the additional advantage they cost LI is ton
less. The soil, upon which he had experimented, was a
chalky land. and he had got good crops of turnips.
Mr. R. !Awls did not agree with Mr. Spooner, that
two bushels of dissolved bones were equal to 16 of dry.
his experience land shown him it was uetvasary to Itavo
a proportion lif both.
A vote of thanks to Mr. Spooner for 14 paper was
then proposed by the presidert, :,..„..irordtally agreed to.