The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-05-18
Enr the Antlersou MteNine,lccr.


ID. s.
MEssRs. EDITORS: In writing OH the above
subject, I feel very much like I imagine Gull
liver did in the old fable, when he was left
on the land inhabited by giants; or like
fee among the big dogs. Any way, while
I am talking about commercial fertilizers,
have walked out among the big folks, and
must watch how 1 growl, or I may be took
up and shook little.
In natural way I will commence OH the
outside view, that is, as we farmers general
ly look upon the use and manufacture of
fertilizers. The first guano ever saw, my
father brought home with him from wagon
trip to and from Augusta, Ga, about the
year 1853. remember having stood by and
saw him put it all, which was about pint,
under two hills of corn. He said it was
wonderful thing, and would make almost
any thing grow everywhere. I was then
tolerably large barefoot boy, and of course
was desirous of having some early whiskers,
and asked him if he thought it would make
whiskers grow. Now, some of us expect as
unreasonable things of guano to-day as we
did then. When we get bag of guano, our
conduct about it and with it would lead
stranger to it to think it q bag of salvation;
but it sometimes proves to be the reverse of
INSTRUMENTATION. Why this? 'Tis
from various causes. Failure comes oftcner
from not having knowledge of its use than
any other. Sometimes we are miserably
swindlcd. 1t is we'll authenticated fact
that some fertilizers sold in this country for
fifty dollars per ton do not contain ten dol
lars worth of commercial value to the farm
er, although the agent who sells this stuff
may be, and is very often, as badly duped in
it as the man who buys it for use. The
agent in selling it reads over to the farmer
or local agent who buys it his tags, or refers
him to the brand on his sacks, which reads
to some of US farmers about like the hand
writing on the wall before Bclshazzar did to
him, or some of those labels on the large
bottles in the drug store-all dog latin to us; (;
or the agent may hand you whole news
paper full of certificates about his guano
Now, in order to prove that some of it is
not worth more than ten dollars per ton, it
is not necessary to doubt any one of these
certificates For illustration, one dollars
worth of sulphate of lime, common plaster,
sown OH an acre of grass has been known
actually to double the yield. Sometimes it
may be one thing lacking sometimes anoth-
or, and sometimes it may be many, which
We will now try to more fully explain in the
inside view.
"Cut the coat according to the cloth" is
the illustration I will use at this place, for
nature always cuts her coat according to the
cloth. Suppose you were going to have a
coat made, and go buy u bolt of lining,
whole card or box of buttons, and a quanti-
ty of all sorts of thread, and but three yards
of the coat cloth, why the tailor sees at once
you havn't cloth enough for any kind of
coat but short one, and acts accordingly,
by making you short coat. Now, nature
understands her business in the same way
the tailor does his. Nature acts according
to the means in hand, and if any one of the
constituents necessary to grow the plants be
lacking, or in too small quantity to make a
full crop, of course full crop will not be
made, no matter what sort of seasons or
working the crop may get. We may spend
fifty dollars to get ten dollars worth of some
lacking material in the soil, as we did buy
largely of the lining and other materials,
and did not get enough cloth-the truth is,
we do not understand our business. Farm
ers, study your business make your occu-
patton profession. 1t is not necessary for
the farmer to consult the chemist or geolo-
gist and get him to analyze the soil in order
to see what it needs to grow certain plants.
The analysis of the soil is not every time
satisfactory; it tells you what is in the soil,
but it cannot say whether it is all in an
available form or not. The best way to find
out what is lacking is to gather up knowl-
edge of previous condition and treatment of
the land-learn what kind of manure has
been applied, if any, what crops have been
taken off the land, and whether they were
good ones or not; if the land did produce
good crop of any kind. and is now failing,
it is evident that you must return to the soil
some of those ingredients contained in the
plant taken off. Here is where agricultural
chemistry is of use to the farmer; it tellsyou
what is contained in all agricultural plants,
also what is contained in all manures, and
many other things of the highest impor
tance to the farmer.
If the land does not produce good crop
of any kind, it needs oil the ingredients
found In high grade fertilizer, probably
with the addition of humus, leaf mould or
something to hold moisture, and in sandy
soil we need carbon, or red clay, to retain
the fertilizer. On land that has been preyi-
ously highly manured with stable manure,
cotton seed, or any of the highly ammonia
ted manures, dissolved bone, l have found,
will do equally as well as the more costly
ammoniated fertilizers. Experiments on q
small scale are good way to learn, but
when practiced on a large scale, founditto to
be very costly Once lost about one hun
dred and fifty dollars in one effort to grow
crop of corn with commercial fertilizers
when, if I had spent few dollars i'll good
agricultural books, 1 might have saved the
money and learned the same thing, though
when we pay high for learning in this way,
we remember it better, this is the consola-
ton 1 have left. Space and time makes me
unwillingly leave these subjects unfinished.
We will now take an inside view of the
manufacturing of commercial fertilizers. I
have frequently heard men of note, who
ought to have known better, make the re-
mark that the highest grade fertilizers do
not cost the factory more than ten or twelve
dollars per ton. 'Tis left for me or some
one else to say that such gentlemen do not