Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-02-23


Chemical Farming.
Massachusetts, farmers are considerably
excited over the results of a series Of exper-
iments, by Prof. Stockbridge, Of the Amherst
Agricultural College, in which he, and others
elsewhere, under his instruction, have been
growing field crops Of grain and roots with
chemical fertilizers alone. 1t is said that at
least Ave thousand acres will be planted I'M
der this system in Massachusetts, the com
ing spring. The farmers have been stimu-
lated to this extensive experimentation by
reports of large cropsof corn, grown in this
way, at cost Of from twenty to thirty cents
buskel.
Chemical fertilization is nothing new
For a quarter of century Lawes of Roth
ampstead England, has been farming upon
this plan. Vile, of France, and ifnumera-
bic experimenters in Germany, have been at
work upon II for years. In America more
or less of it has been done, the most con
spicuous example in New England being per-
haps the farming Of DR.. Nichols at llaver
hill, Massachusetts,. We have ourscf been
mainly chemical farmer for the past
nine years.
The only novelty about Prof. Stockbridges
experiments (and here we feel obliged to
say that the Professor has discredited both
himself and his college by patenting his
discovery is that in his fegtilizing with
chemicals he pays no attention to the natural
fertility Of the soil, or its presumed resources
in plant food, but prepares his fertilizer for
a crop as though the land to which it is to
be applied were utterly barren That is, for
a crop of corn, for instance taking the re-
corded analysis of the agricultural chemists
as basis, he prepares mixture Of potash,
nitrogen and phosphoric acid, or rather Of
chemicals which contain them, making the
quantity and proportion Of each to accord
with what analysis shows to be contained in
the stalks and grain of good crop, upon
an area equal to that he proposes to plant.
Thus, his formula for corn fertilizer, per
acre, is as follows
Sulphate of ammonia .............. i0l pounds
Muriate Of potash. .............. 151 pounds
Sulphate Of potash. ..,........ .... 40 pounds
superphosphate Of lime ........... 100 pounds.
This, according to analysis, would be all
of these substances required by crop of
about sixty-fve bushels of corn, the potash
being little in excess, and the ammonia
(nitrogen) little short. The idea is, to de
pend upon the land to supply none of these
substances, but only snch other materials Of
the plant ash as all arabic soils furnish in in
exhaustible abundance. In the naturally
unfertile and wel-won soils of Massachu-
sets, where the supply of potash, nitrogen
and phosphoric acid Tor of one or more of
them) is often equal only to the production
of ten or twelve bushels of corn per acre,
this may be good practical economy, and
worthy teaching to proceed from a school of
agriculture. But even then we doubt it,
since Professor Storer, of Massachusetts,
other agricultural college (the Bussey Inst-
tution), announces the probability, as the re-
suit of his own experiments, that potash
alone is needed, at present. on most of the
light soils everything the drift gravel, in order
to enable them to produce maximum crops.
Professor Stockbridge's plan must undergo
the test and trials OF time, before its wisdom
or its economy can be considered as estab-
lished Our own advice, based upon longer
experience in this sort of farming, probably,
than that of any other farmer in Vermont,
would be to touch it lightly, for the follow
ing reasons First, the supply of these
chemicals in the markets of the world is lin
tied, and any great rush for them would re-
suit in large advance in price, with the at
tendant frauds and adulteration sure to ensue.
Second, experience has shown US that con
tinued and exclusive chemical fertilization
upon the same soil gradually ceases to pro
duce the expected results something more
being required by crops than merely a sup
ply Of food in a concentrated form.
Ihird-Not one farmer in twenty has ex-
perience enough TO use chemical fertilizers
to good advantage, upon the mere prescrip-
ton of chemist We shall therefore not
be surprised, within three or four years, to
hear Prof. Stockbridge and his plan de-
nounced on all Sides as fraud and hum
bug. Yet his system is founded upon laws
and principles which are perfectly correct
and sound, and which, in the right hands
rightly understood and worked, will always
give true results.
In our view, however, this patented plan
is, Notwithstanding the Wanted profits OBJ
tanned under it, essentially both uneconomi-
cal and unwise. 1t is wanting in economy,
because it applies to the soil large quantities
OF costly material which there is no evidence
to show, in any particular case, is needed
This is the very sort Of blind "rule of
thumb" work which science ought to toach
us how to avoid, and not lead us into.
The lack of wisdom is shown, as appears
to us, in the obvious effect to be expected
from popular Juror for chemical manuring
viz, neglect of home resources No
good farmer ought TO make his main de-
pendence for the fertilization of his land
upon purchased manures. Only in the case
Of exhausted lands, and then but Temporal.
rily, should any farmer 60 outside his own
resources for MANURE There is no farm
worth tilling at all, that cannot be brought
to, and kept in, high state of fertility by
judieious management, without the purchase
Of chemical fertilizers. 1t is true that this
requires knowledge and practical skill, but
it is for the importation of such knowledge
that our agricultural schools were instituted,
and not for the production of nostrums, pa
tented TO their professors.
As we have said, our own farming has
been conducted in great measure by means
of chemical manures. Yet our whole effort
has been to emancipate ourself from the ne
cessity Of using them. Had we been SO sit
uated as TO have been able to keep the neces-
sary live stock, we never should have made
chemicals our main reliance. And now,
with longer experience and more careful
study Of the subject, we should not again
expend one quarter the money on such fer
tilizers that we have paid out annually for
the past nine years.
The crops must be fed, aud well fed, in
order TO pay They must not be stinted, es-
aaall III.