Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-04-16

Farmers make this fertilizer and find
it equal to a commercial article
which costs SIS to $50 a ton.
Several farmers in other counties
unite and purchase a strong iron mill
for crushing bones, which may be still
further reduced by grinding between
heavy miD-stones. Coproltes and
other mineral phosphates ike those
found near Charleston, S. O., may be
made fine and mixed in a hot, ferment-
ing dung heap, which acts chemically
on the compound when thus pulverized
and renders it slowly soluble IN rain
water, very much as pulverizing the
earth by blowing, narrowing and hoe
ing the soil increases the solution Of all
sorts Of mineral and organized sub
stances to feed ones crops. A lump
of salt or sugar as large as a walnut
dissolves slow in comparison with the
same substance crushed to a fine
powder. All oomposts should be made
fine to dissolve readily and nourish
plants.
1t is easy to see that a tobacco seed
is in itself a small affair, but let the
skillful farmer make its conditions Just
rightin the bed, and In the field when
transplanted, and the vital force IN
this very small seed viii display a
power Of development, which, properly
utilized in many seeds, will make in
return the planter a itch man. The
tobacco plant is a gross feeder, and is
a good crop for the application of
really scientific fertilizers. Land that
produces In a state Of nature a large
growth of walnut, hickory, poplar, oak,
sugar tree or beech generally has the
elements required to form paying crops
Of tobacco. The ashes of these forest
trees and those obtained from burning
tobacco and corn plants are very much
alike. Some of these ash ingredients
our poor soils may possess in full sup
ply.
1t is the missing elements that COM
posts should furnish to the needy crop
which is trying hard to grow to our
great advantage, but, unfortunately,
lacks one or two substances which form
less than one per cent Of the organ
lied matter in the harvest. If wheat
and corn formed their seeds with the
bone material left out because it failed
in the soil, where would young and
growing children get the substances
required to make their bones, when
their daily bread had nothing of the
kind? Such boneless bread, wheat and
corn would be a mockery, as would be
homeless grass to form milk for babes,
colts, pigs, lambs and calves. There is
unseen Providence behind all life
and all composts who fOrbids errors of
this sort.
Farmers are constantly making the
mistake of assuming that nature IN
farming their ordinary crops, does not
appreciate Indifference Of having 80
per cent Of what is her due and 100 per
cent. This mistake spoils many a har-
vest, and may bankrupt the earnest,
and honest ~cUltivator of the soil. All
the problems in agriculture are essen
TALLY MATHEMATICAL in their nature, at
least as much so IS problems relating
to stars, planets andastronomy. Hence, !
no farmer can say IN his practice of
andshusbandry there is no diff 1
ference between 999 and 1000 with i'm
No phenomenon in the wide
universe is more a mystery than the
common phenomenon showing that one
seed of corn has power to produce a
thousand seeds in a few weeks, equal
in all respects 70 itself. Composts are
useful aids in this kind Of farm work.
What the soil lacks the compost should
supply in an assimilable condition.