Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-07-07


b ignorance, deception, or williul fraud prac
) tiscd uron us in throwing the log or bl
hanging out false light, that we are in con
tiuual uncertainty as b. or course.
If we gather from the best consideration
of the evidence at our hands, that field
needs potash, or nitrogen, or phosphoric acid
we find plenty OF parties willing TO sell Us
these things, but we also find that We can
not depend upon getting the worth OF our
money. Our markets are full Of "superphos
phates." "poudrcttcs, tohacco-growers,
bone dust" " bone flour" ground bone. -
Of bone meal" "purc," q" best" finest,
celebrated" "rotted," and dissolved" of
"meat scraps" blood and bone fertilizers, ~
"anmal dust, etc, etc, some good some bad,
and, in many cases, the good appearing 10
be ON the way 10 the bad. Many of our
farmers have laid out their money for some OF
these things, and know that they were
cheated, by not getting what was promised,
and what they supposed they were securing.
Some have been bitten so badly that they pur-
chase nothing, unless it is ashes, plaster,
bone, fish scrap, or something which they
can judge Of by its looks. Some again have
purchased these very fertilizers whose value
they believed they could estimate by inspec-
ton, only TO learn, when too late, that they
had been ingeniously deceived, and that the
supposed =" bone contained twenty 10 fifty
per cent. Of water oyster shells, plaster or
nitre cake, which had no value for their
farming.
The German farmers have had the same
experience It's just about twenty-five years
since in Germany, as here, the trade ia SUI
perphosphates, guano, and similar CONNER
cial fertilizers began. The same stipend
fru.Ia lao HfsI tltIfaffftft
good things, were practiced there as they
have been, and We have great reason 10 fear.
still are carried on, here. But the expert
ment station has perfectly cured and rooted
out these evils in all the districts where it
has been established and appreciated. Tho
experiment station there Is prepared To fur
nish the farmer at a small cost, with an
analysis Of any fertilizer he proposes to buy.
The farmers avail themselves of this aid.
They will buy no fertilizer without an exact
statement OF its composition, and they buy
with the understanding that any Deficiencies
in the stipulated amount of fertilizing mat
ters shall be made good, or deducted from
the payment Undersuch circumstances man
ufaoturers can sell nothing that is not sub
stantially what it claims to be. A further
result of this system is that low-grade lertil-
izers are little sought, and those makers who
can supply the best article, Of uniform
quality, and mt the lowest rates, have the
business. With large sales the dealers pros
per, while the consumers are satisfied with
their purchases, and instead of trying to see
how they can get along with small use OF
purchased fertilizers, they are studying how
to use the greatest quantities to advantage.
The fertilizer market Of Saxony and Prussia,
where the experiment station has the mi-
versal sanction and confidence of the far
mers, is just a. settled and satisfactory as
any branch of trade, and the farmers there
buy superphospha guano potash salts etc,
with as much security of fair dealing as we
can foel in the purchase Of sugar or nails.
In the second place, the vast interests repre-
sented in the feeding Of cattle and other live
stock have received an equal share of atten-
ton, and although the questions involved
are, in the highest degree, complicated and
abstruse, an encouraging measure of success
in approaching their solution has been
attained.
In our agricultural meetings and puhlica-
tons we are discussing the same old ques-
tons as TO the value and economy Of the
various kinds of cattle food, and the methods
of raising them, that have been discussed
ever since there have been two ways open to
the farmer for keeping his animals
So long as we do not understand what
hay, com-fodder, corn meal, oil-cake, bran,
shorts, brewers grain, etc. are in their dis
tinct parts, and how their separate ingredi-
ents individually stand related to the wants
of the living, growing, laboring, milk-giving,
or fattening ANIMAL so long we shall remain
in fog of discussion so long We shall OPP
pose each other in argument, in belief, aud
| IN Ill.
a forest, we shall travel in a circle, and tire
ourselves out without making progress
| forward
In the tables which have alluded to- in
which vast amount of the work of the cx-
pertinent stations has been condensed to its
results, in compact numerical statement, we
find given the average quantities Of water
albumnoids, carbohydrates, fat and cclulose
that are contained in one thousand parts OF
each of some two hundred kinds Of forage
and feeding stuff Chemical analysis en-.
counters extraordinary difficulties in its at
tempt to set forth the separate elements OF
food. Many of these difficulties are as YET
but partially overcome, and many Of our re
suits are in some measure merely tentatiy,
aud provisional but vast advance has beer
surely accomplished.
We can compare together hay and corn
stalks, oats and corn-meal, peas and oil-cake
potatoes and tumips, by a comparison o.
their water, their albuminoids, their carlo
hydrates, their fat, and their fibre. We car
also connect the preponderance of one or an
other class of ingredients with their observed
use in cattle feeding.
The experiment stations have carried on
large number of feeding trials on oxen
cows, calves, horses, sheep, swine, and goats
taking account Of the accurately weighe,
and analysed food, not merely as so mucl
hay, beets etc, but also as so much water
fat, starch, gluten, etc. aud have thus giyei
n new, more definite and more general ex
preston TO the results which practice has
obtained.
As in the construction OF house, thu
builder must know not only the materials t,
be provided, but also the due proportions o
them to be employed, so in the raising of
calf, in the fattening Of an OK, in the supper
of draught horse or of a mlch cow thu
farmer should know not merely that water
oil, albuminoids, etc, are absolutely required
but also that they are demanded in such an,
such proportions. The nails and pins tina
are put into house, beyond what ar
needed for binding the structure, are no
only waste of material in Themselves bu
may httbhit utAiiDlell 10 Tue bhlilllH
So the want Of due proportion among Tia
elements of cattle food may be, aud unques
tionably Is, in fact, an immense waste an,
damage TO our agriculture.
In the experiment stations great number
of practical trials have been carried out 70
the purpose of ascertaining the best quaint
ties and proportions of the food-elements T.
use for the various purposes of the stool
keeper, and the results that are now &C
cepted as the best approximation TO truth
are given in tables Of so-called Norma
Rations"
These Normal Rations are confessed
approximate and imperfect; but they ar
based upon experiment, and they have a.
undeniable value. BY their help the farme
can calculate the probably best combination
of any sorts of cattle food that are al an
time accessible to him. lie can determn
what 10 buy and what TO sell TO the best nd
vantage of his cattle, his manure heap, an,
his cash on hand. And although the ex
perimental foundation of these tables is no
yet broad enough TO support all the deduc
tons that may be made from them, the
have been useful in practice, and are inyalua
BILE as a safe basis for further inquiries.
The builder, in making his estimates o
the materials needful 10 construct house
allows in case of lumber, large percentag
for loss by deie,ts and unavoidable wastes il
cutting. lie also provides for small vast
of nails, while most of the other hardware