The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1877-03-23
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MAKE YOUR OWN FERTILIZERS.
| see farmers hauling out common
dirt, mixed by some shrewd man
with few dollars worth of land plaS
ter, ammonia, potash, bone dust and
soda. Why thisG Why not buy
the above chemicals, which, for each
two thousand pounds of the common
fertilizers in use, would cost, by
wholesale, about 20 to 80 dollars;
but farmers are paying from 60 to
20 dollars, and often getting but lit
tie else but swamp muck or dirt. |
have in my possession some half
dozen or more receipts TO make fer
tilizers for various crops, and the
bests Of fertilizers may be made at
cost of twenty -five to thirty dollars
per ton. see again men hauling
out lime to put upon their stable ma
nure. sWhy thisY Lime in its crude
state is not food for crops, all the
good common carbonate Of lime can
do, is to convert leaves, straw and
other vegetable matter into soluble
fertilizers. Put plaster on your sta
bic manure, and that fixes the am
monia, 30 that it does not evaporate,
unless you 10. it remain in the rain
to leach out, as too many careless
farmers do. Or if you will throw a
strong solution of common sulphate
of iron (copperas) on tho manure as
you throw out of your stables, that
will fix the ammonia, or a solution
of sulphuric acid, which can be
bought at a few cents to the gallon
by wholesale, this will fix the am
monia. All stable manure should
be thus treated and kept under a
shelter to prevent the teaching out
of its most valuable fertilizing chem
icals, which are ammonia, soda, lin
the form of phosphatc) lime, in the
form of phosphate Of lime, and pot~
ash, in the same form, together with
decomposod vegetable matter. Sta
bic manure, we'll pulverized with
land plaster, or clean dirt, is one of
the best fertilizers that we have, and
suits almost all crops. | observe al
so some farmers using their ashes
with stable manure. Now this again
is a great waste. Ashes is potash
and potash sets free the ammonia as
soon as it touches it. Potash and
ammonia are too chemical salts that
cannot remain together, unless they
are in the form OF nitrates or muri-
ates. Ashes are in the form of car.
Donate Of potash, unrefned, and they
evaporatc ammonia as soon as the
two come in contact. But if the
farmer wants to improve his ashes as
fertilizer, let aim add the muriate
of soda Common salt, or waste salt,
which gives two fine articles food for
most plants, which is soda and pots
ash. The Advise Creator put these
elements into the forest, in the trees
and vegetables, to be returned again
to reform vegetable materials and
crops, if the farmer will only apply
them properly to bis land. There
should be nothing of a vegetable
material or animal matter wasted on
the farm, but returned to it to com
pensate for the crop taken off the
land. But to buy dirt, with some~
times nothing) with a few dollars
worth of ammonia, plaster, potash
and soda, and little bone dust, at a
cost of 60 or 20 dollars a ton, will
ruin any country in the world. We
must make our own fertilizers, and
if we cannot do it with our stock,
then let our farmers, by companies,
buy the chemicals by Wholesale,
which as | can show any man, will
cost from twenty to thirty dollars
per ton, just according to the amount
of the above chemicals are put to the
ton. When the farmer purchases
ton of commercial fertilizer, he gets
thirty dollars of his money in twen>
ty bushels of common muck or soil.
| have tested quite number of fer>
tilizers, and have seen the receipts
of several fertilizers, and they con
tain from fifteen to twenty bushels
Of muck or common soil, for which
the farmer pays from thirty to fifty
dollars. Now where is the man that
can afford to pay thirty or forty dol
lers for soil that is no better than
on his own land, or in his branch
swamps ! see the country grow,
ing poorer every year, and yet men
will still pledge their crop and try it
again. They put from two to three
dollars worth of manure on each
acre to make four dollars worth of
cotton. Where is the gain 7 Ans
wer, if you can.
l. J. NJ, GoSs, NJ. D.