Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-07-11

chemist tells the dairyman with thirty cows
that more phosphoric acid Ito say nothing
of other fertilizing ingredients) is lost from
his constable every week than is contained
in barrel of superphosphate which costs him
as much as barrel of -four, he just does not
believe it. You cannot make him believe IT,.
A certain preacher once said to his congre-
cation that if they believed in hell as they
believed in the fire that then burned in the
furnace which was warming the church,
they would no more disregard a known law
Of God than they would thrust hand into
that furnace And we know that if our
farmers really believed they were losing
thirty cents a week per COW by the waste of
phosphates and nitrates in the urine, some
thing would be done about it, aud that
quickly.
| But few do believe, and act on that be-
lief and their crops soon furnish ample
confirmation of their faith. There are few
farms in Vermont that cannot be made visi-
bly, to gain in fertility from year to year
where all the manure that is made on the
farm is applied TO the farm, with skill and
judgment. We do not say that it never
will pay for a farmer to buy artificial fer
tilizers. But we do say that farmer knows
too little of his trade when he takes the
money that ought to be used to fix his
stables so as to save all the manure, and
| spends it for phosphate at the stores. Be
lieve it or not, there is much more phos-
phoric acid and amonia in the urine of a
COW for one winter than was ever in any
barrel of superphosphate sold in America.
We say ain America" and we might
| truly say "in the world" yet American
superphosphates are far inferior in quality,
and higher in prices, than those made in
Europe, where the landowners are educated
in science, and are able to insist on having a
first-class article at fair price.
DIR. Crozier, of Boston, writing in the
Country Gentleman, states the facts when he
says that the (American) commercial super
phosphates contain only fifteen per cent. on
the average of soluble, insolube and re-
duced phosphoric acid, while the chemi-
cally pure bi-phosphate of lime contains a
little over sixty per cent of wholly soluble
phosphoric acid" And this pure phosphate
is now prepared for farmers use in England
by process so cheap that it is actually sold
for less by the ton or barrel, than the much
inferior American superphospha Besides
this, as one barrel contains the strength of
four of the American, the freight is only
one-fourth for the same quality. This pure
superphosphate is as handsome and free
from odor as ground plaster. But the very
fact that it does not stink would prevent its
sale with many, who believe that the virtue
both of manures and medicines is in pro-
portion to their nastiuess. Yet even if we
could get such good and cheap superphos-
pilates as this, no one could afford to buy
them until the waste Of the stables is
stopped. Not farmer in Vermont is rich
enough to afford to waste dollar per COW
yearly in this way. Let him save ten dol
lars a year in manures, spend it for good
agricultural reading, and apply what he
learns with judgment, and we will guarantee
him better than compound interest on the
saving. But it is sad fact that our " far
mers' colleges" the common schools, are so
defective in their instruction that most
farmers cannot make head nor tail of the
plainest matters of science; and this is
probably one reason why they spend so little
money for books and papers that treat OF
the science of their own art.
Besides the economy of stable manure,
both liquid and solid, there is considerable
source of phosphate manure, almost entirely
neglected, in the bones which might be col
lected and saved in every neighborhood.
The chief, if not the entire value of an eight
dollar barrel OF superphosphate lies in the
one hundred and twenty-five pounds of bone
it contains, or ought to contain. Now for
eight dollars we can get the boys to pick up
from eight to twelve hundred pounds of
bones. They will find out where the dead
horses were buried, dig them up, and make
a dollar by an hours labor. They will
CLEAN the fields and rob the dogs and will
pile up ton of bones in week in any
farmers yard who will encourage them to
do so. Take this pile of bones, with little
waste wood, and you can burn them till
they are so brittle that they can be powdered
with the back of shovel This powder is
almost pure phosphate of lime, and ton of
it-made by burning two tons of raw bones
heed not cost over forty dollars, while it
contains more phosphoric acid than four
tons of any superphosphate ever sold in Yer.
mont. Scatter it over your manure, peck
at time, and a ton of it so used will double
the phosphate value of all the manure for
winter from herd of fifteen cows
Another cheap way to increase the phos-
phoric acid of our manure, as well as the
nitrogen, is the feeding of bran, or shorts
A ton of bran is worth fifteen dollars for
the fertilizing material it contains. 1t is
also worth what it usually costs for feed
alone, so that fifteen dollars may be made on
every ton purchased. After doing these
things you will not feel the need of buying
phosphates, except, perhaps, for application
to some pastures upon which it is difficult
TO draw manure.