The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-03-15
Fertilizers.

Mr.. EDITOR.-The amount of unap-
propriated fertilizers to be e in
town, and farms in this vicinity, i'm
presses an observer with surprise, at the
indifference and apathy upon the part Of
farmers and gardeners. Can it be that
they are already making as much as they
wish? Or, would the use of them be
considered as a quasi acknowledgement
of poor land? If farmers in other local
tiles, even those who cultivate goOdland,
can make it pay them from twenty-five
to one hundredper cent, and often more,
by buying fertilizers and hauling them
twenty miles, it will certainly paytO ap-
ply those that accumulate without cost.
The application of heated cotton seed to
corn, at the rate of twenty bushels to the
acre, increases the yield from thirty
three to fifty per cent. and hastens the
maturity from ten to fourteen days,
therebyperhaps, savingitfrom adrought
which frequently occurs about that sea-
SOL. Fertilizers from the lot and barn
applied to cotton, often increases the
yield several hundred per cent, causing
an early and vigorous growth, and ma
turing from two to three weeks earlier.
This alone, Of seasons when the CATER
pillars make their appearance, may save
a third of a crop.
1t is true, the above does not apply
with the same force to gardens as farms
but when we remember that from eighty
to ninety per cent. Of plants are com
posed of moisture and gasses, and take
into consideration the qualities and eff
fects OF manures, we are prepared to adj
nit the Importance of fertilizers even in
a garden. They improve the texture of
the soil, correct its acidity, decOmposee
and prepare food from properties Of the
soil, otherwise rejected by the plants.
absorb the gasses and moisture from the
air, holding them in readiness for the
rOOtlets, thereby protecting against
drought, entering into the composition
of plants, increasing their properties fol
absorbing gasseS and moisture, protect
ing against the sudden changes of the
weather, adding properties to the sol
which are deficient, and that certain
crops long continued have almost ex-
hausted, and many others. The garden
OF the Retreat for the Insane, at Utica
New York, is an example Of what can be
done on good land by yearly manuring
as published by DR.. Bringlram. The
product from one and One-fourth acres
Hoo heads lettuce, large 400 heads O
cabbage, large; 700 punches raddishes
$50 punches asparagus; 300 punches rheu.
barb; Il bushels pods marrOwfat peas
40 bushels beans; sweet corn, three
paintings, 419 dozen; summer squash
rs dozen squash peppers, IS dozen GU
cumbers, 756 dozen; cucumbers picking
Z barrels; beets, 147 bushels; carrots, Is
bushels; parsnips, 36 bushels; onions
1870 bushels; turnips, so bushels; early
potatoes, 50 bushels; tomatoes, 40 bush.
els winter squash, wagon loads celery
500 heads all worth 1851 in the Uticf
market. The labor Of one man. This
is what can be done on good land By ma,
1u3Tng. And yet our stable-men canno
gre GCdy their mGnure. One house il
Columbus, Ga, sold last week eighty.
seven tons of fertilizers in one day, an,
other hOnse there has sold over FIVE hun,
dred tons this season. Those parties arr
not experimenting, but have been usins
for years. B.
Opelousas, La, March 9Th, 1873.