The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-06-01
THE PRESS.
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Testing Fertilizers.


Every farmer who raises crops and keeps
animals on his premises to consume them,
necessarily finds himself in possession Of one
of the most valuable manures. From carly
life he has seen it used with success, and per-
haps has grown up with no experimental
knowledge of single substitute; it is there
fore quite natural that he should regard it as
indispensable, and should look upon all other
kinds with dissrust. Should he, however, be
induced to make trial of some new fertilizer.
from the fact that it has received general
commentator, he is very likely to make
large investment in it and to use it somewhat
Unfortunately. If his experiment proves
to be failure, his dissatisfaction is generally
in proportion to his loss, and henceforward
all the untried candidates for public favor,
whether of the animal, vegetable or mineral
kingdom, are Jumped together and laid aside
with his former folly, and he warns others TO
profit by his example.
While the general attitude of farmers in
their loyal and steadfast adherence to the
value of barnyard manure is to be COM
mended, We are inclined to condemn the
narrow view which limits all benefits to that
source, and looks upon all else as fraud.
Much of the prevailing hostility to the use of
chemical or commercial fertilizers arises from
ignorance of their value, or unacquaintance
with their use. Edge-tools as we we'll know
are needed TO perform variety of mechani-
cal operations, and without them in some
,ornl,, IL
sklful hands they may not only accomplish
worthless results, but infict possible injury
upon those who handle them, In the selec-
ton and application Of fertilizers, the princi-
pie of adaptation is always to be recognized.
Different individuals require the food suited 10
their constitutions. or their peculiar condi-
tons; and so without the use of scientific
terms we can'simpiy from analogy assert that
every soil requires the addition of that which
it lacks, and we need to know the precise
kind OF plant food required, before we can
supply it with any degree Of discretion or in
tellgence.
We find that on some soils even ashes,
lime and plaster, with whose use all farmers
are so familiar, fail to produce remunerative
resUlts-not only the labor of the application
but the cost of the material are practically
lost. In the use Of costlier compounds, under
similar want of information, or from some
misrepresentation. the same result may be ex-
pected; and the injurious effects that follow
are to be measured not sosmuch by the mag
ntude of the loss, as by the amount of evil
which is connected with general distrust of
all fertilizers.
The researches and experiments of such
eminent scientists and practical men as
Lawes and Gilbert, have proyed-what should
not have previously been doubted-that the
different results obtained in the use of modern
fertilizers, are to be attributed in part to the
diversity in the soils to be enriched, and in
part to the crops which are to be cultivated
therein. On his own farm with its founda-
ton of chalk, and containing an abundance
of phosphates, Mr.. Lawes found that he de-
rived the most benefit from the application of
ammonia. Other intelligent and skillful Gull
tivators, whose soil was largely composed of
muck and vegetable matter, which contained
an abundance of ammonia in its elementary
forms, ascertained by experiment that ammo
meal manures did no good, and therefore
they confined themselves entirely to the use
OF superphosphates. Gardeners and market
men who sell crops that have not reached
maturity, but are fresh and green, find it adj
vantageous to apply some forms of ammonia;
but for the general productiveness and lasting
benefit of the soil, the phosphates are to be
preferred.
Our object in calling attention to this SUBJ
ject is to suggest that every farmer and gar
.dener, after the pressure of planting is over,
plow up a small patch of his land containing
fair average of the component parts of his
soil, and make it place for testing the rela-
tive value Of fertilizers. By thus applying
the superphosphates, guano, both the import
ed and rectified article, bone dust, and the
Stockbridge manures to alternate sections of
grain, vegetables and the ordinary field crops,
he can more satisfactorily ascertain what ad-
ditions he should make to the soil, than by
transmitting samples for analysis to the elab-
OratOry of the chemist,