The daily gazette., 1878-10-08
The Best Fertilizer.

How to make q formula for fertilizer
Tor any particular crop OF soil, which
shall produce satisfactory results, and at
the same time be most economical of
notwithstanding nothing, and using
only so much as the special case requires
lis a most difficult question for any one
to answer. unless he be the best of agri-
cultural chemists, and is thoroughly ia
Iniliar from long experience with the
land under treatment. Yet just such in
formation as this is what the farmers In
various sections are continuously writing
to US for. The first part of the problem
Is comparatively easy. e., to make q
81 ts-but aohat to leave Owt is a difficult
point to settle. Indeed we may say, that
this is poiut which never can be settled
exactly, so great difference is there be-
tween adjacent farms and fields, and
parts of the same field even, or further
still, in the composition of the same spot
of ground at different periods. But won
dertul progress has been made In the So
luton OF this problem-which involves
so much of success or failure in agricul-
ture-within past few years. Here is a
letter from -. w. L." of Lancaster
county, Pa:
"Wlllyou please give me what you
consider the best formula for making
phosphate for wheat, also tobacco aod
corn, to be used on limestone soil. Fat
| mers in this county have generally been
making their own, and are using more
| every year with good effect 1t is made
according to the following formula, viz ::
For one ton take
600 lbs. bone, 200 lbs. oil of vitroI, 14O
lbs. sulphate OF soda, 80 lbs. salt, 800 lbs.
plaster, bus. sand or ashes.
In this case the same fertilizer is used
for three crops of quite different require
| ments, yet, apparently with like ''good
effects" on each. Tobacco is great pot
| ash feeder, containing about twenty-sev
| en- pounds in one hundred of ash; while
corn contains thirty pounds, and wheat
| thirty-four pounds, yet this fertilizer
contains only what potash is in the seven
bushels OF ashes-p0t over twenty
pounds. But the Lancaster county aver
age tobacco crop of $4,000 pounds per
| acre requires eighty pounds; and as only
| 400 pounds of the fertilizer are applied
per acre. it only gets four pounds, and
not always that, since the ashes are con-
sihered ofso little importance as to some
!times be replaced by sand. Yes, the
sand is even named first. The same Is
true Of wheat and corn as respects pot.
ash, though to q less extent. Ii this fer
tilizer produces satisfactory harvests
year after year for each q these crops,
1t is quite evident that the Soil where ii
gives such results, do not need potash,
| for the present at least. Yet almost any
farm in New England, Or elsewhere, on
which the same sandy loan soil prevails,
would show a different result, as potash
thereon is one of the essentials. And
we are inclined to doubt whether the
same showing would be made for many
years in Lancaster county. AS to the
composition OF the fertilizer, we see
nothing essential except the bone and oil
| OF vitrol (sulphnric acid). Since the min.
| eral portion of the bone is composed al
most entirely of lime compounds, when
it and the acid are put together, chemi
cal action takes place, which forms q
large amount of sulphate of lime (plas.
ter). Why, then, add more plaster
The plaster thus formed In the fertilizer
would have a similar effect to the sui
phate of soda, and could well take its
of soda as to be OF no moment whatever,
though hundred pounds would doubt
less have a materially beneficial effect
Even the acid Toll of vitroD could well
be dispensed with, provided the bone be
reduced by somposting with stable ma
nure for three to six months. Such a
compost, kept heaing by occasional wet.
ng (best with liquid manure), and pro.
tected from loss OF the ammonia by a
light covering of earth, will fit the bone
for use as well as by using the costly
acid.
Thus it will be seen that there is great
waste in such homemade fertilizer even
though they produce good results. We
have pointed out one or two points OF
Terror; but we have not considered the
nitrogen or phosphoric acid, either as a
whole or in relation to various crops;nor
touched upon the amount OF the fertilizer
required in each case; the first will have
further consideration; the second must
be determined by individual experience
from year to year on the farm.-American
Ayriculturalist.