The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-11-01
Chemistry Applied to Farming.

WE boil down the following from an
address by Mr.. William Fullerton be-
fore the Piedmont Agricultural Society:
With the aid of chemistry the farmer
can know with certainty what quanti-
ties of the different materials necessary
to the fertility of the soil have been ex
tracted from it by his crops. For ex-
ample, fifty bushels of corn to the acre
extracts from each acre sixty-four
pounds of nitrogen, seventy-seven
pounds of potash and thirty-one pounds
of phosphoric acid. Barnyard manure
is valuable only as it contains more or
less of these ingredients. 1t follows, if
the farmer sells his crop of corn, then
for every fifty bushels that leaves the
farm there is taken just the amount of
nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid l
have named. If, on the other hand, he
feeds his corn upon the farm by fatten-
ing animals, then much of these ma
terials is retained on it and returned to
the soil. That only is carried off which
goes in the carcases of the animals sold.
We often hear complaints made that
the continued use of guano will in the
end exhaust land, and for that reason
it has been condemned by many. A
moments intelligent consideration re-
veals the cause of such a result. BY
constantly using guano in the cultiva-
ton of crop which takes from the soil
more of any one and less of the other
two materials named than the guano
supplies, you can see very plainly that
the ingredient SO disproportionately
drawn upon will in the end be INSULT
Gent for the crop, when there would be
a surplus of the others. Soil in this
condition is unproductive for the lack
of only one of the elements of plant
food, and by the application of that one
can be restored to productiveness. A
knowledge of this simple fact leads to
economy in farming. If land needs
potash it is waste of time and money
to apply bones or nitrogen.
This is very frequently the condition
of land, and it is the reason why we so
often hear complaints that superphos-
plate or bone meal had no effect. The
material in such cases is pronounced
spurious, and the vender condemned in
unmeasured terms. Bones contain no
potash and superphosphate, no nitro
gen, and by adding either or both of
these to land which is deficient only in
fer corn to well-fed horse when he is
dying for water.
About the first resort of the farmer
heretofore, in order to supply de-
ficiency in the soil, has been the pur-
chase of Peruvian guano. When pure
this is most excellent festilizer but it
cannot be relied on through a series of
years for crops requiring q greater
amount of plant food than that
which exists in guano itself. The
same ingredients, if purchased sep
arately, can be mixed to suit the
crop to be cultivated. Bones will
furnish phosphate, nitrate of soda
the nitrogen and stassfurt salts the
potash, and by an intelligent compo-
sition of these the wants Of each crop
can be met. No single manure will
meet the demands of all crops. 1t is
waste of time, money and energy to
farm on poor land. Large crops with
in small area should be the farmers
aim. If he has not sufficient manure
for twenty acres let him put what he
has upon ten. At all events, whatever
space he cultivates let him enrich it
and raise maximum crop. Mr.. Full
lerton advises a rigid system of rota-
ton of crops and mixed farming, the
cultivation of the grasses and less of |
the cereals, and feeding upon the farm
most of its products; also the raising
of clover and turning under the green
crops to enrich the land. Clover does
for the land what no! other plant can.
Nitrogen in the form of nitric acid, one
one of the most important and expen-
sive elements which enter into the
growth of our crops, descends by the
action of rains so far into the soil as to
be beyond the reach of ordinary plants.
The roots of the clover plant are SO
many messengers to bring it back to
the surface again. That system Of
farming is most desirable which en-
ables the farmer to produce the largest
amount in value at the least expense,
at the same time keeping up the fertil-
ity of the soil. The cultivation Of
grass and feeding cattle for the market
will best accomplish this. It does away
to great extent with the use of the
pillow. Too much cannot be said in
praise Of clover, and just in proper
lion as the farmer cultivates this plant
will he be relieved from the necessity
Of purchasing commercial fertilizers
l. - u. = i