Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-02-06
For the VERMONT FARMER.
THE sUPERPHoSPHATE QUES-
TION. s

ttON.
notice in your last weeks issue Mr.. ALI
ems communication with regard to his exper-
ience with the Wilson's and Bradleys super
phospbates; and it differs 80 widely from
mine, that am induced to reply to il.
Allow me in the FIRST place to endorse all
that Mr.. A. has said with regard to the ad-
vantages that might be gained by thorough
experimenting on the farm, and reporting
the same through the papers, and to say
that for myself have practiced for several
years the former TO some extent, although |
have done but little at the latter. ''
| prepared piece for corn tabout one
acre) very much as Mr.. A. did his last year,
and planted with Bradley's superphosphate,
excepting twelve rows across the middle Of
the piece. In this l put three rows Pad
dock, Dean & Co.'S superphosphate, three
rows preparation Of bone and ashes that l
prepared myself, three rows of Fales super
phosphate, and three rows with nothing. l
did not measure the corn separately, so as to
give you the exact result, but it was as fol-
lows On all the piece planted where Brad
leys phosphate was used, a very heavy crop
of corn for this place-a hill farm; where
P. d. Il Co.'s was used we called it half a
crop; where my own was used the same as
P. d. & Co.'s, one could see no difference,
and like them, concluded to 60 out Of the
business; where there was nothing put
in the bill there was no corn, and like Mr..
A. went strongly for Bradley's superphos-
phate. At that time would have recon-
mended no other that knew Of. used
Bradley's on India wheat aud oats, and got
good results. In 1872 again purchased
Bradley's, but upon opening cask in the
field preparatory to planting corn, my first
exclamation was, " 1 am cheated in my phos-
phate. My men laughed at me, but told
them to wait and they would sec, and they
did my phosphate was poor, and my corr
was poor, and yet had selected an excel
lent piece Of ground, and taken unusual pain:
in preparing it. ....
! | wished to use some on India wheat, and
purchased cask of Russell Goes, and
sowed one hundred pounds on an acre with
out manure, on piece of run out hill lanC
that had lately purchased and broken thu
year before, and harvested a little over fortJ
bushels to the acre. was quite well salts
fed with Goes superphosphate. But | ha'
come to the conclusion that considering tn,
cost, s6O--per ton, it hardly paid to use su
perphosphate Of any kind.
Last season / heard that Mr.. KinuersoI
was selling Wilson's at auction at price
ranging about $50 per ton. at once gav'
my opinion that it was good for nothing, bu
upon referring to Professor Golfers repor
for 1872, l found the following statistics
Out of six different samples Of Bradley's h
found it to be worth on an average S42, ,93
per ton, the sample ranging from s35.S4
S47.32. noticed that the samples take
from Caledonia county we're of better qua
ity than those taken from other locations
and in view of the fact that in 1870 Brad
ley was killing out P. d. 4 Co., solve
the problem in my own mind of the differ
ence l found in the different years.
According to Collier found Goes super
phosphate worth s46.79, and Wilson's s44
57,-instead of $30--as claimed by Mr.. A
and the auction price that Mr.. X. was sci
ing at. Accordingly ordered half a ton {
Wilson's, paid freight from Barnet to We'
Burke, making the 1000 pounds cost me a
Burke $3.50, and used it asI had used th
other. The result was in every way sati
factory. had never raised so heavy Gro
of India wheat with superphosphate. l g
forty.fve bushels on just such land as
raised forty bushels on last year with Coe'
put the contents of one sack on piece {
oats, without manure, and am satisfied thr
got twenty-five bushels more grain than
should have got without 1t. planted b
little corn this season, it being cold in Il
spring, but was well pleased with the pho
phats as far as l used it on corn.
/, induced neighbor, s, Davis, ESD,
purchase half ton Of Wilson's phosphat
and am informed by him that although
bought it second hand at a cost of $40 p
ton, he was we'll pleased with it and inteu
using the same this season, indeed he al
myself have agreed to purchase together.
Now, Mr.. Allen, let US try this over aga
next summer. shall use Wilson's prinC
ply, but will use enough Of Bradleys
" Goes for experimenting on every pie
where | psc superphosphate at all, and W
report through the FARMER. viii others 9
pertinent and report also2
n Sheffield, Jan. 6.