Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1857-05-21
Agritntnral.
The Cost of Fertilizing.

uS SOSG VI CA NADHsi6f
The price of Peruvian guano has risen
since il was first introduced and extensively
used in this country from about 5 As to about
$40 a tun, and now the farmers cry out,
"What shall wo dove can't afford to use
it,"
That settles the question. No farmer
shoulJ do what he cannot afford to do But
we should ike to inquire whether he can
afford 10 do without something to fertilize
his lard, no matter what the cost.
We are aw re that the price Of guano has
risen almost beyond the reach of all but
those living near cities, who derive large
profits by forcing specific crops, to feed those
who are willing, whether able or not, TO
psy high prices for their daily supply oil
vegetable food.
We are aware, too, that outrageous frauds
have been practiced upon farmers by the
edulterarion of various kinds oil stuif-stun
IL is-eold to farmers as gueno, su2erphos-
pilates, poudrette, bone dnst, or some other
name for concentration of fertility, to be
miraeulously instiled into barren soil by
homeopathic doses OF quackery and knavery's
specific.
We are aware that, avoiding all the tribe
OF swindlers, and getting an honest Penny's
worth for bis money, the owner OF q poor
soil must expend-a considerable sum OF
money for fertilizers of some kind, or else be
will fail to get remunerative crop from
aEy soil that has been long titled in all the
Atlantic States; and any advice upon the
subject as to what he shall use is important
Upon all worn-Our, sandy or losmy soil,
the cult;ystor can afford to use No. guano
OF $40 .un, at the rate of 200 poun ds per
scre, well worked into the soil with sma-l !
grain, if with that grain he will SOW clover
seed, 80 that the:growth of that will lake up
all. that the grain does not of the fertilizng
power OF the guano, and in its turn serve for
rich dressing of manure to the land, re-
novating it so as TO produce other grain or
root ierops without futher application of
expensive fertilizers.
Upon many crops the farmer ca afford to
uIe guano al $40 as well as he could seven
or eight-yesrs ago at $50 the tun; because
there is more than that increase in the value
Of tho products obtained now and then
And upon all crops that will not pay with
out artificial fertilization, and will pay with,
he can afford to use guano at the present,
high price, if he cannot get anything ches-
per; and that, IN many instances, he can do
For special purposes, superPhosPhates, If
honestly prepared, are preferable to guano,
at the same cost per :un; and as general
thing they do not cost near as much.
poudretts is deodorized human excremen.,
and is, of course, powerful fertilizer, and
where required for giving vegetation rapid,
early start, is preferable to any oihsr article
ever used. The article sold under the above
described. Instead of being deodorizel
excrement, it is odorized swamp muck, and
q cart-loaG is Of tie same value to the farmer
that cart load OF muck would be if dug out
of his own swamp and slightly odorized
with shovelfui of stuff from his own privy.
it is charged that vast quantities OF sugar.
house scum, spoiled fish, dried blood, yellow
earth and other worthless stuff, are sold at
two or three cents pound 10 farmers under
the name ofguano, superphnsphases, or some
other name, every year in this city, and that
is one reason why farmers are afraid to ven-
ture purchase, even where they would get
genuiae article.
Perhaps the least adulterated and most
valuable Compared with its cost concen-
trated ferti izer that farmer living near
navigable water can bny is New-Jersey
greensand mari. There is no mistake in
the valuable results everywhere obtained
from tne use of this article Lime, salt,
potash, inter, plaster. Can always be obtained
pure, and no farmer can afford to do with
out Them, because he can convert them into
gold at double their first cost by judicious
application of them to his land.
Lime, Stacked with water satura ted with
sea salt, will enable farmer to reduce the
most obGurate subs tsnce of the compost heap
or swamp muck to inely conminuted
powder; and plaster, or charcoal. or swamp
muck, reduced 10 powder by lime and salt,
will enable former to prevent the escape
of ammonir or other po atile substance from
his manure-hill. or other parts of his pre-
mises where the escaping gases are not only
unpleasant, but nuxions to the he alth of the
family.
The application of inter to grass, and
potash to woody plants, has shown that both,
in their place, are oil almost inconceivable
yslu to farmers.
Few would hesitate to buy pound of
Glauber's salt Tor q sick horse, yet nearly
ali would think it was throwing monev
away TO buy such dose for sick soil;
yet many barren spot might be cured by
such simple means.
Most mel know that sulphuric acid (oil
ofvitriol) would kill every growing thing it
touched. All men do not know that il is
most valuable fertilizer. Let them buy .
carboy oft, and dilute it with four or FIVE
times its weight OF water, in an old kettle
or large earthen jar. and throy into it every
bone about their own premises OF tina, they
can pick up abroad. and when dissolved, as
the bones will be apply the mixture Oi bones
and acid to their crops. in small quantities,
and see if, they don't find that they have got
a cheap fertilizer. See if sulphuric acid
will destroy the growing plants when thus
applied.
First of all, however, before the farmer
goes broad 10 buy fertilizers for his crops.
he should look for a mine of them at home.
IL he carefully examines his soil, if loamy
or clsyey one, from ten to twenty inches
delow the surface he will find something
almost as valuable as a guauo island, and as
full of fertilizers as superphosphate man.
ufactory; or barreling shop of swamp-muc k
(Poudretie); ora bagging room of yellow
earth and hens bones and feathers ("pre-
Psred guano'o.
II is a tolerably well-founded theory of
some culiivstors of the earth that all that is
needed TO keep up an eternal fertility of
rich soil is deep tillage and fine pulveriza-
tion, and ratation OF crops, portion of which
ere TO be turned in green; anu it is contend